Chapter 2 - THE DEVICE UNDER THE DASHBOARD
Bradley stopped breathing when Nora asked the question.
“Why are you so afraid of what’s inside those files?”
For several seconds, his face remained pressed against the hood beneath Elias Kensington’s controlled grip.
Then a siren sounded somewhere above them.
Not outside.
Inside the garage.
Growing louder.
Bradley’s expression changed.
The anger disappeared first.
Then the arrogance.
What remained was fear.
Real fear.
“You have no idea what you’re involved in,” he whispered.
Nora’s stomach tightened.
“That makes two of us.”
Elias kept Bradley’s arm pinned behind his back.
“Then educate us.”
Bradley laughed once.
“You think you own this?”
His cheek pressed harder against the cold metal.
Elias’s voice never rose.
“I own the building.”
“That isn’t what I meant.”
Before Elias could answer, two Chicago police cruisers entered the fourth underground level.
Red and blue lights washed across the concrete walls.
Bradley closed his eyes.
Nora realized something then.
He had been more frightened of the police arriving than he had been of Elias.
That mattered.
Two officers approached with weapons holstered but hands ready.
Elias released Bradley only when ordered and stepped back.
Bradley immediately started talking.
“This is a misunderstanding.”
Nora almost laughed.
One officer looked at her bruised arm.
Her spilled purse.
The open rear door.
Then at Elias.
“Sir?”
“I witnessed him attempting to force Ms. Higgins into that vehicle.”
Bradley turned.
“She came willingly.”
Nora stared.
“I bit you because I came willingly?”
The officer looked toward Bradley’s bleeding hand.
Bradley shut his mouth.
Within minutes, he was handcuffed.
The folded restraining order lay on the hood beside him.
One officer read it.
Then looked up.
“Five hundred feet?”
“Yes,” Nora said.
Bradley stared at the ground.
The officer shook his head.
“You picked an interesting place to violate it.”
He searched Bradley.
Wallet.
Keys.
Two phones.
One normal.
One cheap burner.
A small folding knife.
Three access cards.
Only one had Bradley’s name.
The other two appeared blank.
Then the officer reached into his coat pocket and removed a syringe sealed inside a plastic pharmacy sleeve.
Nora’s blood turned cold.
“What is that?”
Bradley’s head snapped up.
“It’s prescribed.”
“To whom?” the officer asked.
“My mother.”
Nora looked at him.
Bradley’s mother lived in Arizona.
Hadn’t visited Chicago in over a year.
The officer inspected the label.
“Lorazepam.”
Nora stopped breathing.
Bradley looked at her.
“It wasn’t for you.”
She stepped backward.
Elias moved slightly toward her without touching her.
The simple motion mattered more than Nora expected.
The officer said, “We’ll let a detective decide that.”
Then Elias pointed toward the sedan.
“There’s a device under the dashboard.”
The second officer called for a forensic team.
Bradley became visibly agitated.
“That isn’t mine.”
“You were driving the vehicle,” Elias said.
“It’s borrowed.”
“From whom?”
No answer.
Police secured the car.
The first technician arrived fifteen minutes later.
He slid beneath the steering column with a flashlight.
“What the hell?”
Nora’s pulse quickened.
“What?”
The technician emerged holding a black electronic module attached beneath the dash.
Small.
Professional.
Not something sold in an ordinary electronics store.
He turned it over.
Elias went completely still.
Nora noticed.
“You recognize it.”
His eyes remained on the device.
“Yes.”
“What is it?”
“A credential emulator.”
The technician looked at him.
Elias continued.
“Kensington Tower uses encrypted access badges.”
Nora glanced at the blank cards recovered from Bradley.
“That copies them?”
“Not exactly.”
He stepped closer.
“It can reproduce an authorized credential after capturing the signal.”
Bradley had entered a secured underground garage using a cloned credential.
The system had alerted Elias because someone had used a duplicated access code.
That was already terrifying.
Then the technician found something else.
A data cable ran from the emulator into a compact computer mounted behind the center console.
“What does that do?” Nora asked.
Elias’s jaw tightened.
“It records access transactions.”
“To the garage?”
“Potentially much more.”
The technician disconnected it carefully.
Bradley shouted from beside the police car.
“Don’t touch that!”
Everyone looked at him.
He realized too late.
The officer smiled without humor.
“You just got very interested.”
Bradley lowered his head.
Nora felt cold.
A detective arrived twenty minutes later.
Lena Alvarez.
Forty-something.
Dark coat.
Hair pulled back.
She took one look at Nora’s arm and said, “Hospital.”
“I’m fine.”
“No.”
Nora started to object.
Detective Alvarez raised an eyebrow.
“You audit financial fraud?”
“Yes.”
“Then you should appreciate independent verification.”
Elias’s mouth almost moved.
A smile?
Maybe.
Nora glared at both of them.
“Fine.”
Bradley was taken away.
As he passed Nora, he looked directly at her.
For one second, she saw the man she had once loved.
Or thought she loved.
Then he whispered:
“They’ll ruin you before they let you finish that audit.”
The officer pushed him forward.
Nora stood frozen.
Elias heard.
“Who are they?”
Bradley looked back.
Then laughed.
“You’ll find out.”
At Northwestern Memorial, Nora’s shoulder was bruised but not fractured.
Her upper arm had finger-shaped marks already darkening beneath the skin.
The doctor photographed everything.
The police took another statement.
By two in the morning, Nora was exhausted enough that even anger felt heavy.
She expected Elias to leave.
He didn’t.
He sat in the waiting area, black overcoat folded over one arm, phone in his hand, answering messages with short sentences.
No entourage.
No assistant.
No visible impatience.
Eventually Nora walked toward him.
“You don’t have to stay.”
He looked up.
“I know.”
“Then why are you?”
“Because someone used proprietary security technology from my building to abduct one of my tenants.”
“I work here. I don’t live here.”
“Tenant company.”
“Still.”
Elias stood.
“And because Midwest Meridian leases from a company I control.”
Nora studied him.
“What exactly is Midwest Meridian to Kensington Capital?”
“Small logistics holding. One of dozens.”
“How small?”
“Annual revenue around two hundred eighty million.”
Nora stared.
“That’s small?”
“For us.”
She almost rolled her eyes.
“Who approved the investment?”
Elias’s expression changed.
“Calvin Reece.”
The name meant something.
Nora had seen it.
Where?
Then she remembered.
One of the audit payment records.
A consulting authorization.
C. Reece.
Her stomach tightened.
“Your CFO?”
“Yes.”
Nora stared.
Calvin Reece had been with Kensington Capital fourteen years.
He appeared in business magazines beside Elias.
Sat on nonprofit boards.
Spoke at investor conferences.
His reputation was impeccable.
Nora said carefully, “One of the O’Hare payments contains the initials C.R.”
Elias became perfectly still.
“How much?”
“Four hundred and eighty thousand.”
“For?”
“Risk consulting.”
“To whom?”
“A shell company called Northgate Strategic.”
Something changed in his face.
“What?”
Nora asked.
Elias looked toward the dark hospital windows.
“Northgate is the name of Calvin’s family property in Wisconsin.”
Nora’s pulse began pounding.
“That can’t be coincidence.”
“No.”
His phone vibrated.
He checked it.
The color drained from his face.
“What happened?”
“The forensic team opened the computer from Bradley’s car.”
“And?”
“It contains copied Kensington access logs.”
Nora waited.
“Thousands of them.”
“How far back?”
“Eight months.”
Bradley had been stalking her for six.
Elias continued.
“It also contains photographs of employee badges.”
“Mine?”
He looked at her.
“Yes.”
Nora’s mouth went dry.
“And?”
“Your supervisor’s.”
“Daniel Cole?”
“Yes.”
“Anyone else?”
“Three people from your audit team.”
Nora sat slowly.
This was bigger than Bradley.
Much bigger.
Then Elias said the part that changed everything.
“There’s a folder labeled O’HARE.”
Nora looked at him.
“What’s inside?”
“It’s encrypted.”
“Can your people open it?”
“Eventually.”
Nora thought of Bradley’s demand.
Give me your login.
“They didn’t have what they needed.”
“No.”
“That’s why he came for me.”
“Yes.”
Her phone rang.
Daniel Cole.
Her managing partner.
Nora answered immediately.
“Daniel?”
His voice came fast.
“Where are you?”
“Hospital.”
“What happened?”
“I was attacked.”
Silence.
“What?”
Before Nora could explain, Daniel said:
“Don’t come into the office tomorrow.”
She frowned.
“Why?”
“Someone accessed the secure audit directory tonight.”
Nora stopped breathing.
“Using whose credentials?”
Daniel was silent.
Then:
“Yours.”
Elias heard.
Nora gripped the phone.
“That’s impossible.”
“I know.”
“What did they take?”
Another pause.
“The entire O’Hare working file.”
Nora closed her eyes.
May you like
Bradley had failed to get her password.
But somewhere else inside Kensington Tower, someone had already found another way in.
