Chapter 11 - The Helpful Traitor
Thomas Vale disappeared before police reached his apartment.
His phone was found inside a taxi near LaGuardia Airport.
His passport remained at home.
Detective Ruiz believed he had never intended to board a plane.
The airport trail was another distraction.
Grant remained unconscious for nearly eighteen hours.
Lily sat beside him through most of that time.
She held his hand and told him small things she had not said in two years.
She told him about the birds outside her bedroom.
She told him she hated peas.
She told him she remembered her mother singing during thunderstorms.
Grant could not answer.
But the machines showed his heart rate changing whenever Lily spoke.
My mother was transferred to the same hospital under police protection.
Margaret and Adam occupied rooms on another floor.
For the first time, the people Renata had tried to isolate were gathered in one place.
That made us stronger.
It also made us a larger target.
Ruiz stationed officers at every entrance.
She questioned Thomas Vale’s assistant.
The assistant revealed that Vale had met Victor Cole privately for years.
He had pretended to help Grant because Elaine’s arrest created an opening.
If Grant fell, Thomas intended to become chairman.
Victor Cole had promised him the position.
“The company was being divided before Grant even knew there was a war,” I said.
Ruiz nodded.
“Greed rarely produces loyal partners.”
“What happens now?”
“We find Renata, Victor, and Vale.”
“And until then?”
“You stay inside this hospital.”
I glanced toward Lily.
“She needs clothes.”
“An officer can retrieve them.”
“She needs something familiar.”
Ruiz looked at me carefully.
“You are thinking about returning to the estate.”
“Her music box may still be there.”
“The one she carried after Claire died?”
“Yes.”
“She asked for it.”
Ruiz considered the request.
“I will send officers.”
“They searched already.”
“Lily hid things from Renata.”
“She may remember where it is.”
“You are not taking her.”
“I wouldn’t.”
“She can draw the location.”
Lily drew a staircase, a window, and a small black bird.
I recognized the old conservatory near the north wing.
A stone raven decorated the banister.
Ruiz allowed me to accompany four officers.
The estate felt different when we returned.
The rooms were quiet.
Police tape crossed the bathroom doors.
The spilled laundry still lay in the hallway where I had dropped it.
No one had picked up the towels.
I stared at them.
The entire nightmare had begun less than three days earlier.
It felt like another life.
We entered the conservatory.
Dead leaves covered the floor.
The room had not been used since Claire’s death.
A black stone raven sat beside the staircase.
Behind it, we found a loose floorboard.
The silver music box rested beneath it.
There was also a sealed envelope.
Grant’s name was written across the front in Claire’s handwriting.
I wanted to open it.
I did not.
It belonged to him.
A noise sounded above us.
One officer raised his weapon.
“Police.”
“Show yourself.”
Silence.
Then the glass ceiling shattered.
A smoke canister struck the floor.
The room filled with white fog.
Someone seized me from behind.
I fought blindly.
A cloth covered my mouth.
A sweet chemical smell filled my lungs.
My knees weakened.
The last thing I heard was an officer shouting my name.
I woke inside a moving vehicle.
My wrists were tied.
My head rested against a cold window.
Renata sat across from me.
She wore black trousers and a dark coat.
A small bandage covered her forehead from the pier.
“You are remarkably difficult to kill,” she said.
I tried to speak.
Tape covered my mouth.
She removed it.
“Where are we going?”
“To correct a mistake.”
“Which one?”
“Leaving you alive.”
I looked around.
The windows were tinted.
Thomas Vale drove.
Victor Cole sat beside him.
All three fugitives were together.
Renata held Claire’s envelope.
“You should not have gone looking for this.”
“What does it contain?”
“We are about to find out.”
She tore it open.
Inside was a letter and a brass key.
Renata read the first page.
Her face changed.
“What is it?”
She folded the letter.
“Nothing.”
“You look frightened.”
She leaned closer.
“You believe you saved Lily.”
“You did not.”
“You taught her to speak.”
“And now she can testify.”
“That is exactly why this ends tonight.”
My stomach tightened.
“Where is Lily?”
Renata smiled.
“Still at the hospital.”
“Surrounded by police.”
She glanced toward Victor.
“For the next few minutes.”
The vehicle turned sharply.
Through the windshield, I saw the lights of Manhattan.
Then I saw our destination.
Callahan Industrial headquarters.
Victor had not brought me somewhere hidden.
May you like
He had brought me to the most visible building in the city.
A building he intended to take before sunrise.
