Chapter 7 - Richard’s Bargain
Marcus did not speak for several seconds.
None of us did.
Richard’s voice came through the phone as calmly as if he were arranging dinner.
“I assume Elena finally told you.”
Marcus’s jaw clenched.
“Where is Evan?”
“With me.”
Daniel moved closer.
“Put him on speaker.”
Marcus already had.
Richard heard him.
“Daniel.”
“Where is Evan?”
“Safe.”
“If you hurt him—”
“Everyone keeps threatening me today.”
Richard sounded almost tired.
“It isn’t productive.”
Marcus gripped the phone.
“Let me speak to my son.”
“First, I need something.”
“No.”
“Then we have nothing to discuss.”
Marcus’s face hardened.
“I will find you.”
“I’m sure you’ll try.”
“What do you want?”
“A drive.”
I looked at Elena.
She looked frightened.
Marcus asked the obvious question.
“Which drive?”
“The one Claire’s father left.”
My blood turned cold.
Daniel looked at me.
Richard laughed softly.
“Ah.”
“So she didn’t tell you about that either.”
Daniel’s eyes stayed on mine.
“What drive?”
I ignored him.
“How do you know about it?”
“Thomas Bennett was careful.”
Richard replied.
“But he wasn’t invisible.”
My father’s name in Richard’s mouth made me want to throw the phone against the wall.
“You killed him.”
Daniel looked at me.
Marcus stared at the speaker.
Richard paused.
“No.”
“Then who did?”
“You’re asking questions you aren’t ready to hear answered.”
“Try me.”
“Give Marcus the drive.”
“I don’t have it.”
Richard laughed.
“You do.”
“No.”
“Claire.”
His voice became softer.
“Your father gave you three things before he died.”
My heart pounded.
“A key.”
I said nothing.
“A photograph.”
Nothing.
“And a music box.”
Daniel’s eyes narrowed.
Richard continued.
“You found the key.”
“Yes.”
“You found the photograph.”
“Yes.”
“But you never understood the music box.”
I felt cold.
The music box sat inside my apartment safe.
A cheap wooden thing.
My father had owned it since I was a child.
He played it whenever he couldn’t sleep.
I had kept it for sentimental reasons.
I had never taken it apart.
Richard knew.
“How?”
I whispered.
“How do you know about that?”
“Because your father stole it from me.”
I stopped breathing.
“That is impossible.”
“No.”
“It belonged to him.”
“It belonged to Arthur.”
Daniel stared.
“My father?”
“Yes.”
Richard sounded almost amused.
“Arthur hid the only complete copy of the ledger inside it.”
My mind raced.
“The drive.”
“Yes.”
Marcus’s face hardened.
“What happens if Claire gives it to you?”
“Evan comes home.”
“And if she doesn’t?”
Richard went quiet.
Then we heard another voice in the background.
“Dad?”
Marcus closed his eyes.
“Evan.”
“I’m okay.”
“Where are you?”
“I don’t know.”
Richard took the phone away.
“That is enough.”
Marcus shouted.
“Evan!”
“Twenty-four hours.”
Richard said.
“After that, the bargain changes.”
The call ended.
Marcus immediately began issuing orders.
Phone trace.
Vehicle search.
Private airfields.
Security contacts.
Daniel grabbed my wrist.
Not hard.
But desperate.
“Do you have the music box?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Safe.”
“Then we get it.”
Elena shook her head.
“No.”
We looked at her.
“If Richard wants the ledger this badly, you don’t take the original anywhere.”
Marcus nodded.
“She is right.”
Daniel looked at me.
“Can we copy it?”
“If there’s actually a drive inside.”
“There is.”
Elena said.
“How do you know?”
“Arthur showed me.”
That surprised all of us.
“He made three encrypted copies.”
“Where are the others?”
“One went to Thomas.”
“My father?”
“Yes.”
“One stayed with Arthur.”
“And the third?”
Elena’s eyes lowered.
“He gave it to someone else.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel looked frustrated.
“You were his secret witness for years and you don’t know?”
“Arthur stopped trusting everyone at the end.”
“Why?”
“Because one of the people helping him was reporting to Richard.”
The room became silent.
Marcus stopped typing.
“Who?”
Elena looked at him.
“I don’t know.”
Marcus stared.
“You think it was me.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
Daniel stepped between them.
“Enough.”
I thought about Arthur’s list.
Marcus.
Margaret.
Vanessa.
Names my father believed could be trusted.
But no Daniel.
That bothered me now.
Why wasn’t my husband on the list?
Maybe because he had been too young when the investigation began.
Or maybe because my father had discovered something about him.
My phone vibrated.
I looked down.
Unknown number.
Again.
This time there was no threat.
Only coordinates.
And one sentence.
EVAN ISN’T WHERE RICHARD SAYS HE IS.
I showed Marcus.
He stared.
“Whose number?”
“Blocked.”
“Could be a trap.”
“Yes.”
Daniel looked at the coordinates.
“That is forty miles north.”
Marcus checked the map.
“Industrial area.”
Elena whispered.
“Arthur owned property there.”
Daniel frowned.
“My father?”
“Not Hale Holdings.”
“Private?”
“Yes.”
Marcus looked at me.
“Whoever is texting you knows a lot.”
“I know.”
“Could it be Vanessa?”
I considered it.
“Maybe.”
Daniel pulled out his phone.
“She isn’t answering.”
Marcus looked toward the hidden corridor.
“We need to leave.”
We split responsibilities.
Marcus would follow the coordinates with two officers.
Daniel and I would retrieve the music box.
Elena would stay in a protected room until Detective Cole arrived.
Before I left, Elena grabbed my hand.
“Claire.”
I looked at her.
“Your father didn’t die because he found the money.”
“What?”
“He died because he found the names.”
“What names?”
She looked frightened.
“People Richard had bought.”
“How many?”
“Enough to make Arthur realize going to the police wasn’t safe.”
My chest tightened.
“Was Detective Cole on the list?”
“I never saw the whole thing.”
That wasn’t comforting.
“What about Daniel?”
Elena’s eyes shifted toward my husband.
He was speaking with Marcus several feet away.
“Elena.”
She lowered her voice.
“Your father wrote something about him.”
My heartbeat changed.
“What?”
“I only saw it once.”
“Tell me.”
She hesitated.
Then whispered.
DANIEL KNOWS ABOUT THE CHILD.
I stared at her.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“I know.”
“He was sixteen.”
“I know.”
“What child?”
Elena looked toward Daniel again.
“I assumed Vanessa’s.”
My mouth went dry.
Daniel had told us he knew Vanessa had been pregnant.
But he claimed he knew nothing about what happened to the baby.
If my father’s note was accurate, Daniel knew more than he admitted.
I stepped away from Elena.
Daniel walked toward me.
“You ready?”
I forced myself to smile.
“Yes.”
He kissed my forehead.
Then took my hand.
I looked at the man I had loved for six years.
The father of my unborn baby.
May you like
The person sleeping beside me every night.
And for the first time since Vanessa pushed me down the stairs, I wondered whether the most dangerous secret in the Hale family had been lying beside me all along.
