James said nothing.
Keller continued.
“You're making a serious mistake.”
“Then explain the ledger.”
A pause.
“Some things are more complicated than they appear.”
James stared at the phone.
“Did you authorize the payment under my name?”
Keller's voice became colder.
“You need to stop.”
“Did you?”
“James, I'm trying to protect you.”
“From whom?”
Keller answered quietly.
“From the people who are about to make you disappear.”
The call ended.
CHAPTER 23 — THE LAST WARNING
That night, Marcus discovered that their secure communications had been accessed.
Someone had copied the team's location data.
The evidence was undeniable.
Their investigation was compromised.
James ordered everyone to separate.
Brooks would remain with his sister under federal protection.
Hayes would be transferred to a secure witness facility.
Mitchell would preserve the department's original records.
Marcus would take the ledger to an independent federal prosecutor.
James planned to meet an old contact who had once investigated corruption inside the Department of Justice.
Before leaving, he called Peter Lawson.
“Peter, I need you to tell me everything about Robert Keller.”
Lawson was silent.
Then he spoke.
“Keller didn't create the operation.”
“Who did?”
“The operation existed before Keller became director.”
“Who was in charge?”
Lawson took a shaky breath.
“I never saw his face.”
James frowned.
“But you knew his name?”
“Yes.”
“Tell me.”
Lawson whispered:
“Elias Voss.”
James searched his memory.
The name meant nothing.
“Who is Elias Voss?”
“He was the person who approved the original funding structure. He never appeared in the records. Never signed a document. Never attended a meeting.”
“Then how do you know he exists?”
Lawson's voice dropped.
“Because every time someone questioned the money, Rourke said he was waiting for instructions from Voss.”
James stood.
“Where is he now?”
“I don't know.”
“Peter, listen. We need to move you immediately.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because he's already here.”
James froze.
“What do you mean?”
A loud noise sounded through Lawson's phone.
Then the line went dead.
James immediately called Marcus.
“Where is Lawson?”
Marcus checked the protection team's location.
“His safe house. Why?”
“Get there now!”
“What's happening?”
“Someone has found him.”
James grabbed his coat and ran toward the exit.
But before he reached the elevator, his phone vibrated.
A new message appeared.
It contained a photograph.
Peter Lawson was standing outside his safe house.
Beside him was a tall man in a dark overcoat.
The man's face was partly hidden.
Under the photograph was a message:
YOU HAVE BEEN INVESTIGATING THE WRONG MAN, JAMES.
A second message followed.
ASK YOUR FATHER WHO ELIAS VOSS REALLY IS.
James stopped moving.
His father had been dead for twenty years.
Or so he had always believed.
He stared at the screen as another message appeared.
YOUR FAMILY WAS PART OF THE ORIGINAL AGREEMENT.
For the first time since the roadside incident, James Carter looked genuinely shaken.
The investigation had begun with a corrupt trooper, a missing ledger, and a young officer brave enough to speak.
Now it was reaching into a past James had never questioned.
And somewhere in the darkness, a man who had supposedly been dead for decades was waiting for him.
TO BE CONTINUED…