Chapter 39 The Document
POV: Callum Brennan
Location: The Rookeries
Time: Two Weeks After Release
The package arrives at Derek's flophouse addressed to me. No return address. No indication of who sent it.
Derek hands it over. "Package for you. Came by courier. Paid delivery."
I take the package to a corner and open it carefully. In the Rookeries, unexpected packages are either opportunities or traps. You never know which until you look.
Inside is a manila folder stuffed with documents. The first page is a handwritten note.
"From someone who keeps records. Use wisely."
I flip through the documents. What I'm seeing makes my heart stop.
Bank records. Real bank records. Showing transactions from Cormac's personal accounts to offshore accounts. Payments to Mrs. Blackwood, the vampire accountant. Payments to witnesses. Payments to guards. Every transaction documented with dates and amounts.
The embezzlement trail wasn't mine. It was Cormac's. He paid Mrs. Blackwood to create false records and plant them in my name. These documents prove it.
Next section: witness statements. The wolves who testified against me at trial. Each one has a signed confession stating they were paid to lie. Amounts listed. Dates of payment. Signatures notarized.
Derek saw me near the crime scene because Cormac paid him five thousand pounds to say so. The accountant who discovered the embezzlement received ten thousand. The guard who found the bloody shirt in my room got seven thousand.
Every witness was bought. Every piece of testimony was fabricated. And someone documented all of it.
Third section: photographs. Cormac meeting with David Chen, the murder victim. Multiple photos showing them together at various locations over several weeks. The final photo is dated two days before the murder.
Cormac knew the victim. Met with him repeatedly. Then that victim ended up dead with my scent all over the crime scene.
This is proof. Complete, undeniable proof that I was framed. That Cormac orchestrated everything. That my conviction was corrupt from beginning to end.
I flip back to the note. "From someone who keeps records."
Silas. The body trader. It has to be. Silas documents everything. Keeps files on every supernatural in London. This is exactly the kind of information he'd collect and preserve.
But why send it to me? What does Silas gain?
The answer is obvious. Future favor. Silas is investing in me. Providing valuable information now in exchange for unspecified favor later. That's how he operates. Help people when they're desperate. Collect the debt when they're successful.
I'm holding proof of my innocence. Evidence that could exonerate me. Clear my name. Prove I was victim of massive conspiracy.
Except it's useless.
Who do I show this to? Supernatural court? The same court system that convicted me based on fabricated evidence? The same judges who are corrupt and in Mordaunt's pocket?
The pack? They won't listen to exiled omega. Pack law says I have no standing. No right to challenge Alpha. No way to present evidence.
Parliament? They're the ones who supported Cormac's rise to power. They benefit from having puppet Alpha. They won't care about justice for packless wolf.
I've got proof of innocence but no way to use it. No allies to help me. No legal standing to demand justice.
The evidence is valuable. Potentially explosive. But only if I can survive long enough to make it matter. Only if I can build enough power to force people to listen.
Right now, I'm nobody. Packless wolf barely surviving in the Rookeries. I could shout about this evidence from every rooftop and no one would care.
I need allies first. Need to build something. Need to become someone who matters enough that people pay attention when I speak.
Derek notices my expression. "Bad news in that package?"
"Complicated news. Evidence I need but can't use yet."
"What kind of evidence?"
I consider telling Derek. Consider explaining that I'm innocent. That my brother framed me. That I have proof.
But what's the point? Derek can't help. Telling him just puts him at risk. Better to keep this quiet until I know what to do with it.
"Just information about my case. Nothing useful right now."
Derek accepts that and goes back to his business. I hide the documents under my mattress. Not great hiding spot but better than carrying them around.
This evidence is my future. Proof I'll eventually use to destroy Cormac. But first I need to survive. Need to build strength. Need to create situation where evidence matters.
That means staying in the Rookeries. Building connections. Gathering allies. Becoming something more than broken wolf struggling to not go feral.
Silas gave me a gift. A powerful gift. But it comes with responsibility. I need to survive long enough to make it count.
I need to become dangerous enough that people listen when I speak.
That's going to take time. And allies. And resources I don't currently have.
But at least now I know the truth. Have proof. Have evidence that my innocence isn't just claim but documented fact.
Cormac destroyed me. But he left evidence. And someone collected it. And now I have it.
That has to count for something.
Even if I don't know what yet.
I'm at the fighting pits that night when I see them. Cormac's spies. Two wolves I recognize from the pack. They're not approaching. Just watching. Documenting.
Cormac's monitoring me. Keeping track of my activities. Making sure I stay down.
I pretend not to notice. Pretend I'm just another desperate wolf fighting for money. But I'm watching them too. Learning their patterns. Figuring out when they report back.
This is useful information. Knowing Cormac's paranoid enough to spy on me means he's worried. Means he thinks I might be threat.
Good. He should be worried.
I've got eighteen months of prison-earned brutality. I've got evidence of his crimes. I've got nothing to lose and everything to gain.
I'm not the Beta he destroyed anymore. I'm something else now. Something harder. Something dangerous.
And eventually, I'm going to use that. Use the evidence. Use my survival skills. Use everything prison taught me.
But not yet. Not until I'm ready. Not until I have allies and resources and actual chance of success.
For now, I fight in pits. Collect money. Survive. Build strength.
And I wait. Because patience is something prison taught me too.
Cormac thinks he won. Thinks he eliminated his rival permanently. Thinks I'm broken and powerless.
He's wrong on all counts.
The documents prove it. Silas's gift proves someone believes I can be useful. The spies prove Cormac's scared.
All of it adds up to one truth. I'm not finished. Not broken. Not powerless.
Just waiting for the right moment.
And when that moment comes, Cormac's going to learn that destroying someone doesn't always work.
Sometimes it just makes them dangerous.