Chapter 2 - THE ROOM ADRIAN KEPT LOCKED
The Vale mansion was still smoking when Dominic drove through the gates.
Nora stared through the rain-streaked window.
“What are we doing here?”
“Not the main house.”
Dominic turned down a narrow private road she had never noticed during her nine months working on the estate.
Trees closed around the SUV.
A minute later, a smaller stone building appeared behind them.
Two stories.
Dark windows.
No lights except one over the entrance.
“The guest house?” Nora asked.
“Safe house.”
“Of course you have one.”
Dominic glanced at her.
“You worked for Adrian Vale and expected normal?”
“I expected better fire alarms.”
That almost made him smile.
Almost.
Inside, two security men searched Nora's handbag.
She slapped one man's hand away when he reached toward her phone.
“Absolutely not.”
Dominic said:
“Give it to him.”
“No.”
“Nora.”
“I have spent twelve years having people decide what I am allowed to know. You can start this conversation by not stealing my phone.”
Dominic studied her.
Then told the guard:
“Leave it.”
That was the first useful thing he'd done.
Nora sat in a small library.
Her hands had been bandaged at the hospital.
Every movement hurt.
She barely noticed.
Adrian entered twenty minutes later on crutches.
He had stitches near his hairline.
His left trouser leg had been cut away below the knee to accommodate a brace.
He looked terrible.
He still managed to look dangerous.
Nora stood.
“You knew my father.”
“Yes.”
No greeting.
No pretending.
Good.
“You knew who I was before tonight.”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
Adrian paused.
“The day you applied to work at the estate.”
Her stomach dropped.
“Nine months.”
“Yes.”
“You let me scrub floors for nine months while knowing exactly why I was there?”
“I didn't know exactly why.”
“Don't insult me.”
“I knew your name.”
“You ran a background check.”
“Yes.”
“And Thomas Bennett came up.”
Adrian held her stare.
“Immediately.”
Nora laughed once.
It sounded ugly.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“And you said nothing.”
“Yes.”
She crossed the room before she knew she was moving.
Dominic stepped forward.
Adrian lifted one hand.
Dominic stopped.
Nora stood two feet from Adrian.
“Did you kill him?”
“No.”
“Did your family?”
“No.”
“Then where is he?”
Adrian's silence changed.
Nora saw it.
“Where is my father?”
“He survived the night he disappeared.”
The room seemed to shrink.
“For how long?”
Adrian didn't answer quickly enough.
Her heart began pounding.
“For how long, Adrian?”
“Years.”
Nora stopped breathing.
Years.
Not hours.
Not days.
Years.
“You told Dominic people killed him.”
“I told Dominic what to tell you if something happened to me before I could explain.”
“That isn't what I asked.”
Adrian sat slowly, favoring his injured leg.
“Thomas discovered something in 2012.”
“What?”
“Money.”
Nora almost laughed.
“All this for money?”
“Money leads to people.”
He gestured toward the photograph.
“Your father worked as a forensic accountant for Brody Urban Development.”
She knew the company.
Everyone in Boston did.
City contracts.
Luxury towers.
Public redevelopment.
Stadium projects.
Her father had told her he handled compliance.
“He found false invoices,” Adrian continued. “Shell companies. Payments routed through construction subcontractors.”
“To your family?”
“Some.”
Her stomach turned.
“Your family was laundering money?”
“My uncle was.”
Nora stared.
“Your uncle?”
“Victor Vale.”
She knew the name.
Adrian's father's younger brother.
Dead eight years.
Supposedly a heart attack.
Adrian continued.
“Victor had partnered with Mayor Elias Ward.”
Nora thought of the photograph.
The third man.
Ward had been city council president then.
Now he was in his third term as mayor.
“My father warned me about him.”
“When?”
“I was fifteen.”
“What did he say?”
Nora closed her eyes.
Never trust a man who smiles before he answers.
At the time, she thought her father simply disliked politicians.
Adrian continued.
“Thomas copied records.”
“Why didn't he go to police?”
“He did.”
Nora frowned.
“He approached a detective.”
“What happened?”
“The detective warned Ward.”
A chill went through her.
“Then Thomas came to me.”
“Why you?”
“Because I was trying to remove Victor from our organization.”
Nora laughed bitterly.
“So my father asked a mafia family for help.”
“He asked the one member trying to stop the man threatening him.”
Adrian's voice hardened.
“Those distinctions mattered that night.”
Nora looked at the photograph again.
“When was this taken?”
“Seven hours before he vanished.”
Her fingers shook.
“What happened?”
Adrian looked toward Dominic.
Dominic remained silent.
Adrian said:
“Your father agreed to meet Ward at an abandoned warehouse near the harbor. He told Ward he wanted money in exchange for the records.”
“He was blackmailing him?”
“No.”
“Then why—”
“It was bait.”
Nora stared.
Adrian continued.
“We needed Ward to acknowledge the documents were real.”
“You were recording him.”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“Someone betrayed the location.”
“Victor?”
“We believed so.”
“Believed?”
Adrian's jaw tightened.
“Six men arrived before Ward.”
Nora stopped moving.
“There was gunfire.”
“My father?”
“Shot.”
Her eyes filled.
“Where?”
“Shoulder and abdomen.”
She pressed her fist against her mouth.
Adrian continued carefully.
“I got him out.”
“You?”
“Yes.”
“Then you knew he was alive.”
“Yes.”
Rage broke through shock.
“You let me think he abandoned me.”
“I did what he asked.”
“Stop saying that like it absolves you.”
“It doesn't.”
That answer slowed her.
Adrian looked down.
“Thomas refused to go to a hospital under his own name. We used one of ours.”
Nora thought of the photograph.
YOUR FATHER LIVED.
“How long?”
“He recovered for six weeks.”
Six weeks.
She had spent those six weeks calling hospitals.
Police departments.
Her father's coworkers.
Anyone who might listen.
While he was alive.
Hidden.
“Why didn't he call?”
“He wanted to.”
“Then why didn't he?”
“Because the morning after the shooting, someone photographed you walking into school.”
Nora went cold.
Adrian continued.
“The photograph arrived at his hospital room.”
She knew what came next before he said it.
“A warning.”
“Yes.”
Her eyes filled.
“So he left.”
“With help.”
“From you.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“I cannot tell you yet.”
Nora crossed the room and slapped him.
Dominic moved.
Adrian again stopped him.
The sound hung in the room.
Nora stared at Adrian's face.
“You don't get to say yet.”
“I do if saying more gets you killed.”
“You don't own the truth.”
“No.”
Adrian's voice stayed calm.
“But I know who is still alive because of it.”
Nora's eyes burned.
“My mother died believing he left.”
Adrian's face changed.
“I know.”
“She died three years ago.”
“I know.”
“Did he?”
Silence.
Nora's breath caught.
“Did my father know?”
Adrian looked away.
That was enough.
“He knew she died.”
“Yes.”
Nora felt something inside her break.
She walked toward the door.
Dominic blocked it.
“Move.”
“Nora.”
“Move!”
Adrian spoke.
“Dominic.”
He stepped aside.
Nora opened the door.
Adrian's voice followed.
“The fire tonight wasn't meant to destroy the house.”
She stopped.
“The explosion started in my private library.”
Nora turned.
Adrian continued.
“The only room containing Thomas Bennett's original files.”
Her pulse jumped.
“Files?”
“The ones he gave me before disappearing.”
She stared.
“They're gone?”
Adrian looked at Dominic.
“We don't know.”
“Why would somebody wait twelve years?”
Adrian's expression became cold.
“Because your father contacted me three weeks ago.”
Everything in Nora stopped.
May you like
Adrian finished quietly:
“Thomas Bennett is alive.”
