Chapter 144: Mason Wasn’t Supposed to Be There

Chapter 144: Chapter 144: Mason Wasn’t Supposed to Be There

Daisy barely slept at all. She spent the entire night lying in the dark hotel room, staring at the bright screen of her phone. She kept reading Zane’s warning over and over again. Don’t connect Mason’s injury to 2019. The next morning, she arrived at the dusty archive room earlier than usual. But Ben was already there. He was sitting at the wooden table, a half-empty cup of coffee next to him. Spread out across the table was a massive stack of printed newspaper articles. Daisy dropped her bag onto a chair. "You were working all night?" "I was checking something," Ben answered, keeping his eyes on a document. He had printed out every public report he could find about the 2019 financial discrepancy, alongside every article mentioning Mason’s later knee injury. Ben looked up at her. He needed to make one thing completely clear before they started. "We’re not investigating Mason," Ben stated firmly. Daisy looked at him. "We’re investigating the dates," Ben corrected. Daisy nodded. That distinction was exactly what kept them professional. They weren’t hunting a friend. They were chasing the timeline. They cleared the center of the table and created a simple, handwritten timeline on a blank piece of paper. 2019 Financial discrepancy first noticed. Daniel Mercer raises concerns to management. Regional tournament takes place. Senior officials appear at the stadium (Photo taken). Mason is a senior university footballer and team captain. Daniel Mercer abruptly leaves the club. Later Mason leaves for the Florida opportunity. Mason eventually moves to Europe. Mason suffers his career-ending knee injury in Europe. Daisy stared at the list. "So the injury didn’t happen in 2019," Daisy noted softly. Ben shook his head. "No. But something happened in 2019 that may have followed him." He took his pen and firmly underlined the word suspicious next to the 2019 cluster. "But suspicious isn’t evidence," Ben added. They decided to investigate the 2019 portion properly. They searched through dozens of old local and national sports reports. The public story was surprisingly, frustratingly simple. There were several lengthy articles about Mason’s catastrophic injury years later in Europe. But there was almost nothing describing what had actually happened around him in 2019. Daisy noticed the gap immediately. "Why is there no detailed report about what actually happened back then?" Daisy asked, clicking through another page of search results. Ben searched deeper into the archives. She was right. There wasn’t a single clear account of why Mason had been present at certain club activities that week. There was no clear record of which officials had authorized his involvement, or why his name appeared in some internal records but not others. For a senior, the team captain, and a player everyone on campus knew, the records were strangely thin. Daisy opened another box of files. Ten minutes later, she found an inconsistency. It was an old, printed club schedule from that exact week in 2019. She scanned the roster. Mason wasn’t originally listed for the specific club activity where he had later been documented. Daisy called Ben over. "Look." Ben walked behind her chair and studied the faded paper. "His name isn’t here," Ben confirmed. "Then why was he there?" Daisy asked, looking up at him. Ben didn’t immediately answer. He walked back to his desk and checked another document. Then another. "The schedule may have been changed later," Ben said quietly. "We don’t know." But they both knew they had just found something entirely worth verifying. Daisy reopened the digital photograph from yesterday. She zoomed in on the senior official standing near the VIP entrance in the background. She stared at the pixels for a long time. Then, she noticed something she had missed before. The official wasn’t looking toward the football tournament happening on the pitch. He was looking over his shoulder, directly toward Mason. And Mason wasn’t looking at the pitch either. He was looking directly back at the official. Daisy studied the heavy eye contact. "They knew each other," Daisy said. "Probably," Ben nodded. "Mason was a senior that year. Team captain. Everyone on campus knew him." "That’s not what I mean," Daisy corrected. She pointed at the photograph on her screen. There was a strange familiarity in the exact way they were looking at each other. It wasn’t a passing glance. But a photograph couldn’t prove what actually happened. So Ben simply wrote down the official’s name on his notepad. Verify identity. It took Ben an hour to search through the archived corporate club records. They finally identified the man in the photograph. He was a senior operations executive for the club in 2019. And here was the incredibly important part: According to the corporate structure, he worked very closely with the financial department. It wasn’t enough to formally accuse the man of stealing money. But it was definitely enough to make him highly relevant to the investigation. Then, Ben found his termination date. The executive had quietly left the football club shortly after the massive financial discrepancy became a public scandal. Daisy leaned back in her chair. "Another one," Daisy whispered. Ben looked at her. "Another what?" "Another person who disappeared," Daisy said. Neither of them liked that pattern at all. The heavy door to the archive room opened. Zane Kessler walked in unexpectedly. He was holding a fresh cup of coffee. As he walked past the table, he glanced at Daisy’s laptop screen. He noticed the photograph was still open. His entire easy, friendly expression vanished. Daisy didn’t let him escape this time. "Who is the man beside Mason?" Daisy demanded quickly. Zane didn’t answer. He just stared at the screen. "You know him," Ben stated, his voice flat. Zane slowly looked at Ben. "I knew of him." "That’s not the same thing," Daisy pointed out sharply. Zane looked at her for several long seconds. The silence in the room was suffocating. Then, Zane spoke. "Mason wasn’t supposed to be in that room," Zane said quietly. Total silence. Ben immediately stepped forward. "What room?" Zane’s eyes widened slightly. He suddenly realized he had said way too much. He looked quickly toward the door. "Forget I said that," Zane muttered, turning around. "You told us to stop investigating," Ben challenged loudly. "Now you’re telling us Mason wasn’t supposed to be somewhere." Zane stopped with his hand on the doorknob. He looked directly at Ben over his shoulder. "Because you’re getting closer than you realize," Zane warned softly. Then, he opened the door and left. Daisy let out a frustrated breath. "He keeps giving us half answers," Daisy complained, rubbing her temples. "Because half answers are safer than the truth," Ben said, staring at the closed door. "For him?" Daisy asked. Ben slowly looked back at his notes. "Maybe." Ben immediately returned to the archived newspaper coverage. Twenty minutes later, he found the first genuine contradiction. The football club’s original internal records described Mason’s presence that week as part of an unscheduled club activity. But Ben found a small local article published that same week. It casually mentioned Mason participating in a completely different club event at almost the exact same time. Daisy read both records side-by-side. "So somebody got the timeline wrong," Daisy concluded. Ben shook his head slowly. "Or somebody changed it," he corrected. That was the exact moment the investigation genuinely became dangerous. They ended up working late into the evening again. The archive room grew cold. Daisy reached across the table for a specific manila folder. Ben reached for it at the exact same time. Their hands brushed. Neither of them immediately pulled away. The warm contact lingered over the cold paper. Daisy smiled faintly, looking at their hands. "We’re doing it again," Daisy whispered. Ben looked down at her fingers touching his. "Apparently," Ben replied smoothly. "This is becoming embarrassing." "For you?" Ben asked, his voice dropping slightly. She looked up into his dark eyes. "For both of us." A very small, genuine smile appeared on his face. He held her gaze for a second longer before gently taking his hand away. "Work," Ben instructed softly. Daisy rolled her eyes playfully. "You’re obsessed with that word." "Someone has to be," Ben muttered, grabbing his pen. Just before they packed up to leave for the night, Ben’s laptop chimed. He had just received an email from the newspaper’s archive department back in the city. They had finally located a copy of an original, internal club statement concerning Mason’s initial 2019 schedule. The document was an older draft, written before the version that eventually appeared publicly. Ben quickly opened the PDF attachment. He read the first line. The wording was entirely different. The original statement didn’t say: "Mason Calloway was present during a closed, private training session." Instead, the raw draft clearly stated: "Mason Calloway was present during an unscheduled club activity." Daisy stared blankly at the glowing screen. "Unscheduled?" Daisy whispered. Ben nodded slowly. Then, they noticed the timestamp at the bottom of the page. The document had been hastily amended two days later. The revised version was the one that became the official public record. Daisy looked at Ben, completely stunned. "Why would they change that?" Daisy asked softly. Ben looked at the date on the document. Then, he looked at the printed photograph on the table. Then, he looked at Mason’s name written in his notebook. "That’s what we’re finding out," Ben said.