Chapter 5 - Whispers and the Midnight Sabotage
By late November, the temperature in Millfield plunged below freezing, but Carter's Diner was packed to capacity every day.
Yet dark currents were stirring.
Across town at the Millfield Country Club, Ronald Doyle sat across from a sharply dressed man with silver cufflinks bearing the monogram HV—Harrison Vance.
"If Grace Whitmore keeps digging through the 2008 archives, she's going to find the original ledger," Doyle warned.
Vance narrowed his predatory eyes.
"She won't find a single page," Vance replied.
"Because Carter's Diner is going to burn to the ground."
Two days later, Sheriff Higgins warned Marcus and Ethan that corporate complaints had been filed to revoke the diner's permits.
That evening, an unexpected visitor arrived at the Carter home.
A young woman named Chloe, the granddaughter of Nurse Evelyn Clark, arrived drenched in rain, holding a plastic-wrapped book.
"Two men broke into my grandmother's attic looking for this," Chloe cried.
"It's the original handwritten bedside log from 2008! Every baby Vance brokered is in here!"
Suddenly, high-beam headlights illuminated the porch.
Two black SUVs had pulled up outside.
One remained at the house while the other accelerated toward Main Street.
"They're going to burn the diner!" Ethan shouted.
Marcus and Ethan sprinted through the dark alleys of Millfield, cutting across town in the freezing rain.
They rounded the corner onto Main Street just as two masked men shattered the diner's rear window and poured gasoline across the wooden deck.
"Hey!" Ethan roared.
"Get away from that building!"
One saboteur lunged with a steel baton, but Marcus tackled him against the brick wall with bone-crushing force.
The second attacker swung an iron tire iron at Marcus's head.
Ethan charged forward, tackling the second man at the waist.
They crashed onto the wet asphalt.
The attacker struck Ethan across the cheekbone, splitting his lip, but Ethan refused to let go.
He twisted the man's wrist against the curb until the iron weapon slipped away, pinning the attacker to the ground.
Sirens wailed as Sheriff Higgins and four squad cars screeched into the alley, arresting both corporate saboteurs on the spot.
Marcus knelt beside Ethan, checking his bruised jaw.
"You've got quite a right hook, son," Higgins chuckled.
May you like
Marcus placed a proud hand on Ethan's shoulder.
"He got that from Emily."
