Chapter 11 - THE LAWYER AT THE TABLE
Elias raised both hands.
"Don't."
Evelyn stepped between him and Vivienne.
"You have five seconds."
"The authorization is real."
Vivienne felt physically sick.
"You worked for Victor."
"No."
"My father's money went through your credentials."
"Because Charles asked me to move it."
Marcus frowned.
"What?"
Elias opened his briefcase slowly.
He removed an original letter.
Charles Hartwell's signature at the bottom.
Elias explained.
Some Meridian payments were not funding Victor's illegal clinics.
They were buying patients out.
Relocating witnesses.
Paying legal settlements secretly to keep victims alive until Victor could be prosecuted.
Charles used Elias as a channel.
"Why hide this?"
"Because if Victor knew which money was Charles's, he would find the survivors."
Vivienne stared at him.
"Then why are the records mixed together?"
"Because Victor discovered the channel and hijacked it."
Marcus examined the ledger.
Elias was telling the truth.
At least partly.
Then Evelyn asked the right question.
"Why lock the door?"
Elias looked toward the hallway.
"Because someone followed me."
The lights died.
Again.
A bullet struck the reinforced window.
Naomi dropped.
Security returned fire from the hallway.
Vivienne's chair was pushed behind a concrete wall.
The attack lasted twelve seconds.
Then silence.
One attacker escaped.
Another died at the scene.
Inside his jacket, police found a Hartwell security badge.
Issued twenty-three years earlier.
To Charles Hartwell's former bodyguard.
Thomas Rourke.
Officially dead.
Evelyn stared at the identification.
"No."
Vivienne looked at her.
"You know him."
"He was there the night my car exploded."
"Did he die?"
"I thought so."
Another ghost.
Only this one had returned with a gun.
Police later identified fingerprints.
Thomas Rourke was alive.
And surveillance placed him near Sloane's abduction.
Marcus whispered, "Shepherd."
Vivienne turned.
"What?"
"Charles may not have transferred the designation to me voluntarily."
Vivienne understood.
Rourke had known the systems.
Known the family.
Known the house.
Known how to enter without triggering alarms.
Known the ring.
The mysterious third player was no longer mysterious.
But they still didn't know whose side he was on.
Then a text arrived from Sloane's phone.
ST. AGNES. MIDNIGHT. COME ALONE OR SHE DIES.
Vivienne checked the time.
11:14 p.m.
Forty-six minutes.
She looked at Evelyn.
"No police."
Evelyn began protesting.
Vivienne interrupted.
"I'm not giving Adrian Meridian."
"Then what are you giving him?"
May you like
Vivienne looked toward the newly decrypted archive.
"A reason to confess."
