Chapter 9 - THE OFFER AT NORA’S DOOR
Nora did not return to her apartment alone.
Gavin insisted.
Two members of his security team accompanied her.
So did Gavin.
Taylor slept in Nora’s arms during the drive.
The apartment was small.
Clean.
Second floor.
A long way from the glass penthouse overlooking the bay.
Gavin stood awkwardly inside the living room while Nora unlocked a storage closet.
“You don’t have to apologize for your home,” he said.
Nora looked at him.
“I wasn’t going to.”
He almost smiled.
“Good.”
She pulled down an old cardboard box.
ROSA.
Inside were photographs.
Letters.
Recipe cards.
An old rosary.
A brass key.
Gavin picked it up carefully.
“No markings.”
Nora searched deeper.
Nothing.
Then Taylor woke.
She climbed from the couch and walked toward the box.
“Grandma.”
Nora smiled faintly.
“Great-grandma.”
Taylor picked up an old photograph.
Rosa Bell stood beside Evelyn Roberson.
Behind them was a beach house.
Gavin took the photo.
“My parents’ old Del Mar house.”
Evelyn had sold it after William died.
On the back were handwritten coordinates.
Nora stared.
“Those look like numbers.”
Gavin immediately photographed them.
His phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
He ignored it.
It rang again.
Then Nora’s phone rang.
Unknown.
She answered cautiously.
“Hello?”
A man spoke.
Gavin could hear only Nora’s side.
Her face changed.
“No.”
Pause.
“No, I’m not interested.”
Another pause.
Her eyes went to Gavin.
Then she hung up.
“What was that?”
“Someone offered me money.”
“How much?”
“Five hundred thousand dollars.”
Gavin stared.
“For what?”
“To take Taylor and leave California by morning.”
His expression went cold.
“Did they threaten you?”
“Not directly.”
“What did they say?”
Nora swallowed.
“They said my daughter had already seen too much.”
Gavin immediately called Eric.
“Move two more people here.”
Nora shook her head.
“I don’t want guards outside my apartment forever.”
“This is not forever.”
“You don’t know that.”
He looked at her.
“You’re right.”
His voice softened.
“But tonight, someone offered you half a million dollars to disappear after your three-year-old daughter exposed evidence tied to a United States senator.”
Nora looked away.
Gavin continued.
“I’m not taking chances with Taylor.”
That landed differently.
Nora studied him.
He wasn’t talking about evidence.
He was talking about her child.
Then Taylor spoke from the floor.
“The angry man.”
Nora crouched.
“What angry man?”
“The phone man.”
“You heard him?”
Taylor shook her head.
“Before.”
Nora frowned.
“When before?”
Taylor pointed toward the Roberson penthouse photograph.
“At big house.”
Gavin crouched too.
“What did you hear?”
Taylor thought carefully.
“Lady said, ‘Make them go.’”
Gavin looked at Nora.
“Which lady?”
Taylor touched Priscilla’s face in a photograph.
Nora’s stomach tightened.
“Priscilla?”
Taylor nodded.
“What else?”
Taylor frowned.
“Man said Arizona.”
Gavin froze.
“Arizona?”
Nora’s face changed.
Her grandmother had moved to Phoenix after leaving the Roberson family.
Gavin asked gently.
“What did the man say about Arizona?”
Taylor struggled.
Then repeated the words as best she could.
“Find what Rosa took.”
Silence.
Nora looked at the cardboard box.
Someone believed Rosa Bell had taken something.
The second ledger.
Gavin looked at the brass key.
Then at the photograph from Del Mar.
Coordinates.
Key.
Beach house.
He stood.
“We need to go to Del Mar.”
Nora looked at sleeping Taylor.
“Not tonight.”
“No.”
Gavin nodded.
“Tomorrow.”
His phone buzzed again.
Unknown number.
This time he answered.
“Gavin Roberson.”
A man breathed on the other end.
Then a familiar voice said—
“If you found Rosa Bell’s key, do not take it to the beach house.”
Gavin’s entire body went still.
“Who is this?”
“You know who.”
Gavin looked at Nora.
The voice continued.
“Your father trusted the wrong people.”
“Henry?”
Silence.
Then—
“Yes.”
Henry Vale.
The attorney everyone believed had disappeared twelve years earlier.
Gavin gripped the phone.
“Where are you?”
“That doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me.”
“No.”
Henry’s voice hardened.
“What matters is that Charles knows the ledger survived.”
Gavin looked at the old photograph.
“What does the key open?”
Henry hesitated.
Then answered.
“Not a door.”
“What does it open?”
May you like
“A grave.”
And the line went dead.
