No unnecessary force.”
“And what did Leon tell you?”
Mick swallowed.
“He said the order changed.”
Leon surged against the restraints.
“Watch yourself.”
Mick stepped away from him.
“He told us you wanted the drive recovered and both Bennetts silenced.”
Sadie closed her eye.
Victor did not move, but the muscles in his jaw hardened.
“Both?”
Mick nodded.
“He said Arthur had become a liability.
He said you didn’t want witnesses.”
Victor looked at Teeth.
The younger man stared at the floor.
“Is that true?”
Teeth whispered, “Yes.”
Leon laughed too loudly.
“They’re scared.
They’ll say anything.”
Victor walked behind him.
Leon tried to turn his head, but Victor placed one hand on the chair back and held it still.
“You told them to kill Arthur using my name.”
“I told them to find him.”
“And Sadie?”
“She had the drive.”
“That was not my question.”
Leon said nothing.
The countdown passed three minutes and thirty seconds.
A soft tone sounded from the laptop.
The encrypted window changed.
A single audio file appeared, set to play automatically.
Victor touched the trackpad.
Arthur Bennett’s frightened voice filled the warehouse.
“If this recording is playing, somebody connected the drive.
Sadie, if you’re hearing me, I’m sorry.”
Sadie’s fingers tightened around the handkerchief.
Arthur continued.
“I stole two hundred and eighty thousand dollars from Victor Hale.
No one forced me to do that.
I was afraid, and I wanted enough money to disappear with my sister.
I know what that makes me.”
Victor’s expression did not change.
Sadie’s did.
She had known Arthur stole, but not how much.
She had spent three days defending him in her own mind, imagining some misunderstanding that might still be explained.
The recording removed that comfort.
Arthur took a shaking breath through the speakers.
“But the money I took is not why Leon Briggs wants this drive destroyed.
For four years, Leon has been routing company payments through fake freight vendors.
The records show more than eight million dollars missing.
I processed some of those transfers because he threatened Sadie.
When I realized he planned to blame the entire scheme on me, I copied everything.”
Leon kicked the desk.
The laptop jumped.
