Chapter 2 - Return to the Estate
The Ashcroft mansion on Beacon Hill loomed against the midnight sky like a fortress of dark stone and frosted glass. When we walked through the grand mahogany front doors, the house was dark, silent, and steeped in the rich scent of pine, old wax, and polished silver.
Killian led me past the grand staircase into his private study on the ground floor, ignoring the festive holiday decorations entirely. He poured two glasses of scotch, handed one to me with his left hand while keeping his right hand steady, and locked the heavy oak study door behind us.
"Sit," he instructed, pointing to a leather armchair by the fireplace.
I sat down, wincing slightly as my bruised wrist brushed the armrest.
"Now," Ashcroft said, pacing slowly across the Persian rug. "Explain to me what happened when you were leaving the estate tonight."
"I finished closing up the west wing around 8:00 p.m.," I explained, my voice steadying in the warmth of the fire. "I drove my old Civic down toward Fort Point to pick up some specialized baking supplies for tomorrow's breakfast service. Two unmarked sedans forced me into the curb near the old sugar refinery. Two men in ski masks pulled me out. They didn't want money. They searched my glove compartment, tore my coat, and specifically demanded the master ledger."
"They called it the master ledger," Ashcroft mused, stopping his pacing.
"Yes. Not my household notebook. They called it by a name I’ve never used."
Ashcroft walked over to his antique walnut desk, unlocked a hidden wall panel with a small brass key, and pulled out a leather-bound book identical in size, color, and wear to the one I kept in the pantry.
My breath caught. "You have it?"
"I have the decoy," Ashcroft said grimly, flipping open the pages to reveal columns of fabricated shipping codes, fictitious bank routing numbers, and fake offshore accounts. "For six months, I’ve known someone within my inner circle has been leaking corporate manifests to federal investigators and rival syndicates. I created this decoy ledger to trap the rat."
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"And the real ledger?" I asked.
"The real ledger contains the actual financial records of every union payoff, political donation, and property acquisition my family has managed for thirty years," Ashcroft said quietly. "And it was locked in the pantry safe. A safe that only three people in this entire estate have the combination to: myself, my head of security... and my chief of operations, Julian Vance."
