The Underground Alliance
Chapter 06 - The Underground Alliance
The rain had cleared by dawn, but the atmosphere inside the Harrington Manor remained as cold and sharp as cracked glass.
I sat in my private office on the second floor, watching the morning news cycle on my laptop. Every major network had the story pinned to their front page: Billionaire’s Wife Arrested for Attempted Murder & Terroristic Blackmail.
Despite Eleanor being behind bars in a high-security federal holding facility, a deep, unsettling intuition told me this nightmare was far from finished. Eleanor was facing a potential life sentence, but she wasn't a solitary predator. In the three years leading up to yesterday’s tragedy, she had built a web of powerful, dirty contacts across the city’s real estate and finance sectors.
A soft knock at the door interrupted my thoughts.
Detective Vance stepped into the room, holding a steam-emitting paper coffee cup and a thick, yellow evidence folder.
“Arthur,” Vance said, closing the door firmly behind him. “We ran the digital forensically recovered files from Eleanor’s seized laptop at the hangar.”
“Did you find the offshore accounts?” I asked, leaning forward on my mahogany desk.
“We found something worse,” Vance replied, tossing the folder onto my desk. “Eleanor wasn't working alone to bankrupt Harrington Enterprises. She had an insider—someone with higher level clearance than a stepmother would normally have.”
I opened the folder. Inside were signed bank transfers, legal power-of-attorney documents, and confidential board meeting transcripts.
At the bottom of every fraudulent authorization form was a signature I knew all too well: Chloe Harrington.
“Chloe?” I asked, my blood running cold. “Chloe is twenty-two! She spends her entire life in high-end shopping malls and private jets! She doesn't know the first thing about corporate asset liquidations!”
“She doesn't know how to run a company, Arthur, but she knows how to sign her name where her mother tells her to,” Vance explained, pulling out his smartphone. “And more importantly, Chloe isn't at the precinct anymore. The judge set her bail at two hundred thousand dollars early this morning on a reduced misdemeanor charge. An anonymous corporate entity paid it in cash ten minutes after it was set.”
I stood up instantly. “Who paid her bail?”
“A shell company registered in Delaware,” Vance said grimly. “And three minutes after Chloe walked out of the police station, her cell phone pinged near the downtown docks. She’s meeting someone, Arthur.”
I picked up my leather jacket and checked the holster tucked under my left arm. “I’m going after her.”
“Arthur, let my officers handle it—”
“Your officers didn't almost lose their son down a marble staircase yesterday, Detective,” I interrupted, my voice dropping into an icy, unyielding register. “Chloe knows where the rest of Eleanor’s hidden money is. If she connects with Eleanor’s underground network, they will use those funds to pay off someone inside the federal prison system to silence Eleanor—or worse, come back for Leo.”
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Vance stared at me for a long moment, seeing the fierce, unwavering determination in my eyes. He let out a heavy sigh and tossed me a small black tracking fob.
“That’s synced to Chloe’s court-ordered ankle monitor,” Vance said. “You have two hours before the federal task force officially steps in. Don't make me regret this.”
