Chapter 4 - CLARISSA SHAW
“You didn’t use the state database,” Clara said.
“No.”
“How much do you know?”
“Enough to know your name used to be Clarissa Shaw.”
Dominic turned another page.
“Forensic accountant.”
Another.
“London.”
Another.
“Federal authorities declared you dead after a warehouse fire.”
His eyes hardened.
“And forty-two million dollars disappeared from accounts connected to my organization at almost the same time.”
Clara leaned against the wall.
“I didn’t steal it to spend it.”
“Then why take it?”
“Because money leaves evidence.”
“Whose evidence?”
Her eyes moved toward the elevator.
Dominic followed the look.
“Nicholas.”
Clara lowered her voice.
“He was laundering money through relief companies, pension funds and shipping accounts.”
Dominic’s expression barely changed.
“Nicholas works for me.”
“He used your name.”
“That is not the same thing.”
The fluorescent lights hummed.
Clara continued.
“My husband, Daniel, helped me copy the ledgers.”
Dominic said nothing.
“Nicholas came to our apartment before we could meet the federal investigator.”
Her voice tightened.
“He killed Daniel in our kitchen.”
Something changed behind Dominic’s eyes.
“He told me Toby would be next.”
“How old was Toby?”
“Two.”
Clara looked toward the recovery doors.
“I moved the money into a frozen holding structure before disappearing.”
“So Nicholas couldn’t access it.”
“Yes.”
“And the warehouse fire?”
“Made my death believable.”
“You arranged that?”
“No.”
“Federal?”
“I don’t know everything they did. That was the point.”
Dominic watched her.
“I became Clara Sullivan. Took cash jobs. Stayed out of systems. Tried never to be memorable.”
“And then you threw a cleaver beside Paulie Mercer’s face.”
“He touched me.”
Dominic almost smiled.
“Expensive loss of discipline.”
“I’ve had worse.”
“Where is the money?”
“Still frozen.”
“Who can release it?”
“Two authentication keys.”
“You have one.”
“The investigator had the other.”
“Had?”
“He disappeared three years ago.”
Dominic became very still.
Then Clara’s eyes returned to his watch.
“Nicholas knows Toby is here.”
Dominic frowned.
“I didn’t tell him.”
“You called him.”
“I declined a call.”
“He can track the car.”
“Not unless—”
Dominic stopped.
Slowly, he removed the Omega from his wrist.
Nicholas had repaired its clasp two months earlier.
Dominic pressed beneath the leather backing.
A tiny black square fell into his palm.
Clara felt cold.
“He’s known where you were all night.”
At the far end of the corridor—
the stairwell door opened.
May you like
Nicholas stepped through.
And two men in maintenance uniforms followed him.
