Chapter 5
He had been dead nine years, and I was still sorting through the consequences.
“What promise?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why didn’t Thomas tell you?”
“He thought he had more time.”
A sadness entered her voice that had nothing to do with Victor.
“He always thought he could solve one more thing before bringing it home to me.”
I sat again.
“How did Thomas die?”
“A heart condition.”
Not murder.
Not mysterious disappearance.
Not the violent answer my mind had been prepared to hear.
Claire seemed to understand my surprise.
“He had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. It had been diagnosed when he was twenty-nine. He managed it carefully for years.”
“And then?”
“He collapsed at work.”
“I’m sorry.”
She nodded.
“Thank you.”
There was no accusation in her face.
No suggestion Victor caused it.
Just the quiet exhaustion of a woman who had lost her husband and inherited the unanswered question he left behind.
“Why move so often?” I asked.
Claire looked at Lily.
“After Thomas died, Victor began contacting me.”
“What did he say?”
“At first, nothing threatening. He said Thomas had taken documents belonging to one of his companies. He asked whether I’d found them.”
“And had you?”
“No.”
“Did you believe him?”
“At first.”
“What changed?”
“He knew things he shouldn’t have known. Where Lily went to daycare. The name of my landlord. Once, he mentioned a grocery store I used.”
My jaw tightened.
Claire noticed.
“He never hurt us.”
“That’s not the standard.”
“I know.”
“So you moved.”
“Yes.”
“Again and again.”
“Yes.”
“Then came here.”
Her eyes met mine.
“Victor avoided you.”
The words were simple.
The implication wasn’t.
“You thought my house was the safest place.”
“I thought it was the one place he wouldn’t come.”
“And tonight proved you wrong.”
“Yes.”
I wanted to be angry.
Part of me was.
Claire had entered my home under false pretenses. She had withheld information about my father, Victor, and properties currently tied up in one of the most contentious negotiations my company had faced that year.
But another part of me kept seeing Lily outside my bedroom door.
Barefoot.
Holding that rabbit.
The bad man found us.
“You said he wanted a file.”
“Thomas referred to one in his notebook.”
“Where’s the notebook?”
Claire’s gaze shifted.
That tiny movement told me enough.
“You have it here.”
“No.”
“Claire.”
“I had it here.”
“What happened to it?”
“I hid it.”
“Where?”
She swallowed.
“The laundry room.”
I stared at her.
“You hid your dead husband’s investigative notebook in the laundry room of my estate?”
“I didn’t know where else to put it after Victor wrote to me.”
“A safe.”
“I don’t have a safe.”
“I have approximately fourteen.”
For the first time that night, she actually laughed.
It was weak and brief, but unmistakable.
“I didn’t think asking my employer to store evidence in his safe would be subtle.”
“Apparently subtlety hasn’t worked out especially well.”
“No.”
“Where exactly?”
“Behind the loose panel beneath the folding counter.”
I stood.
“Stay here.”
“Adrian.”
I looked back.
“If the notebook is gone…”
“I’ll find out.”
Her voice softened.
“And if Victor took it?”
“Then we find out what he was afraid you would learn.”
Daniel met me in the hall.
“I have something.”
“So do I.”
We went downstairs together.
The laundry room sat beyond the linen pantry near the rear service staircase.
Daniel closed the door behind us.
“Security footage?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?”
“Victor Kane never entered through a gate. No vehicle matching his. No exterior camera caught him.”
“Then Lily imagined him?”
“I didn’t say that.”
Daniel held out his phone.
“Camera fourteen went offline at 8:42 tonight.”
“Which camera?”
“East service corridor.”
The hallway outside the laundry room.
“When did it come back?”
“9:16.”
Thirty-four minutes.
“What caused it?”
“System says maintenance override.”
“By whom?”
“That’s the interesting part.”
He turned the screen toward me.
The credential belonged to Daniel Russo.
I looked at him.
“That wasn’t you.”
“No.”
“How many people can duplicate your access?”
“Two in theory. Maybe four if somebody knows the infrastructure.”
“Names.”
“I’m pulling them.”
I pointed at the folding counter.
“Claire hid something here.”
We found the loose panel in less than a minute.
Behind it was an empty space.
No notebook.
May you like
Only dust.
And a small brass key.
