Chapter 24 - The Ghost of Victor Hale
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Six months after my mother passed away in the prison hospital, a strange package arrived at my private post office box in Phoenix.
It contained no return address, only a single newspaper clipping from the Mexico City Times and a digital thumb drive.
The newspaper headline read: FORMER ASSOCIATE OF HALE CARTEL FOUND DEAD IN GUADALAJARA.
I plugged the thumb drive into a secure laptop in my study while Irene put Grace to bed upstairs.
A single video file opened.
The screen showed a dark, dimly lit office somewhere overseas. A man sat behind a heavy oak desk, his face obscured by the shadows, holding an old leather ledger identical to the ones we had seized from Box 408.
A deep, smooth voice spoke from the laptop speakers:
"Marcus Sterling. You destroyed Victor Hale's network in Arizona, but Victor was merely a regional manager for our syndicate. The ninety million dollars in offshore accounts you froze in Zurich belonged to our board."
My blood ran cold as I stared at the dark screen.
"We know where you live," the voice continued calmly. "We know about the house with the lemon tree. We know about your daughter, Grace."
I leaned forward, my knuckles white against the desk.
May you like
"We are not interested in revenge, Marcus. We are interested in recovering our ledger. You have thirty days to return the master drive your father hid in Box 408, or we will collect the debt in blood."
The video cut to black.
