I stepped into the room.
“Put it down, sir.”
Alicia shook her head slightly, warning me.
Sloane noticed.
His smile faded.
“You don’t understand what that is.”
“Then explain it.”
He looked toward the hallway.
Footsteps echoed below, still distant.
He had seconds.
So did I.
Sloane held up the envelope.
“This is not evidence. It is bait.”
“From who?”
His eyes darkened.
“From a dead man.”
The words landed strangely.
Daniel Mercer.
My throat tightened.
“What’s inside?”
Sloane’s expression flickered.
“Something that should have stayed buried.”
Then he did something I did not expect.
He tossed the envelope to me.
I caught it.
Alicia gasped.
Sloane stepped closer.
“Listen carefully. Clay Knox didn’t come back to hide the Mercer file.”
“Then why?”
“To confirm whether Daniel’s recording still existed.”
I froze.
“Recording?”
Sloane nodded.
“Daniel knew what they were doing. He recorded them before he died. Everyone thought it was destroyed.”
I looked at the envelope in my hand.
“And this?”
“Maybe a copy. Maybe a key. Maybe nothing.”
“Why take it?”
“Because if Clay finds it first, people die.”
His voice cracked on the last word.
That crack confused me.
It sounded real.
Footsteps grew louder.
Sloane glanced toward the door.
Then he looked back at me.
“Your father was wrong about one thing.”
“What?”
Sloane’s eyes filled with something like regret.
