Chapter 4 - The Man Wearing Daniel’s Name
Clara did not remember crossing the room.
One moment she was standing beside Table 17.
The next, she had Adrian by the sleeve.
“Daniel is dead.”
“I know.”
“I buried him.”
“The police did not say they found your husband. They found a man carrying identification in Daniel Bennett’s name.”
Clara released Adrian.
“What kind of identification?”
“A driver’s license, company badge, and passport.”
“All with Daniel’s photograph?”
“No. With another man’s.”
Naomi approached carefully.
“Clara, you should sit down.”
“I do not want to sit down.”
Adrian spoke into his phone, asking the detective to send a photograph.
Seconds later, an image appeared on the screen.
The man was perhaps forty-five, with dark hair, a narrow face, and a scar near his left eyebrow. He stood beside a police vehicle with his hands restrained in front of him.
Clara had never seen him before.
Adrian enlarged the image of the badge hanging from the man’s jacket.
MORETTI INTERNAL AUDITS
DANIEL BENNETT
“Why would someone use Daniel’s identity?” Clara asked.
“To access buildings, files, and accounts connected to the original investigation.”
“Where is he now?”
“Police headquarters.”
“I want to speak to him.”
“That will not happen tonight.”
“Then make it happen in the morning.”
Adrian studied her.
“You are adapting quickly.”
“My son’s photograph was in Marcus’s desk. I do not have time to adapt slowly.”
The drive to Clara’s apartment took fifteen minutes.
Two Moretti security officers followed in another vehicle. Clara disliked them immediately, not because they had done anything wrong, but because their presence made the danger real.
Mrs. Alvarez opened the apartment door before Clara knocked.
“Leo is asleep,” she whispered.
Clara entered and saw him curled beneath a blanket on the sofa. His yellow backpack sat near his shoes.
For several seconds, she could only look at him.
His face carried traces of Daniel in ways that hurt unexpectedly. The shape of his eyebrows. The small crease beside his mouth when he slept. The habit of holding one hand beneath his cheek.
Clara knelt beside him and touched his hair.
He woke.
“Mom?”
“I am here.”
“Did you bring cake?”
A laugh escaped her before she could stop it.
“No.”
“You said rich people always leave cake.”
“Tonight was unusual.”
Leo looked toward the men in the hallway.
“Are they police?”
“Security.”
“Did someone steal the restaurant?”
Clara glanced at Mrs. Alvarez.
“What did you tell him?”
“Nothing. He guessed.”
Leo sat up.
“Did you get fired?”
Clara hesitated.
“Yes.”
His face fell.
“But then something changed.”
“What?”
“I may own the restaurant now.”
Leo stared at her.
“That does not make sense.”
“No. It does not.”
He thought for a moment.
“Can we still get cake?”
Clara hugged him.
“We will get cake tomorrow.”
After Leo returned to sleep, Clara showed Mrs. Alvarez the photographs.
The older woman’s expression hardened.
“I saw a man near the school.”
“When?”
“Monday afternoon. He stood beside a gray car. I thought he was waiting for another child.”
“Was it the man in this picture?”
Clara showed her the police photograph.
Mrs. Alvarez shook her head.
“The man I saw was older. White hair. Dark glasses.”
“Vincent?”
“I do not know.”
Adrian called shortly after midnight.
The man using Daniel’s name had identified himself as Nolan Reed, a former Moretti security investigator.
“He claims Vincent hired him,” Adrian said.
“To do what?”
“To find the missing audit file.”
“Did he take the photographs of Leo?”
“He denies it.”
“Where was he when police found him?”
“Walking away from Vincent’s car.”
“With Daniel’s identification.”
“Yes.”
“That sounds like a confession.”
“He says the identification belonged to Vincent.”
Clara stood at her kitchen window.
Rain moved down the glass.
“Why would Vincent carry false documents in my husband’s name?”
“Nolan claims Daniel was never the employee’s real identity.”
Clara’s grip tightened on the phone.
“What does that mean?”
“He says your husband entered witness protection before you met him.”
“No.”
“He also says Daniel Bennett died nine years before you married him.”
Clara looked toward the sofa.
Leo slept beneath the blanket.
“Daniel showed me childhood photographs.”
“They may have belonged to someone else.”
“I met people from his hometown.”
“Did you?”
She tried to remember.
There had been stories, names, and places, but no visits. Daniel said his parents had died. He had few friends and moved frequently for construction work.
“He was my husband,” she said. “I knew him.”
“I am not saying you did not.”
“You are saying I did not know his name.”
Adrian was silent.
Clara took the brass key from Vincent’s envelope.
“What is the address in Brooklyn?”
“What address?”
She read it to him.
Adrian inhaled sharply.
“Do not go there.”
“You recognize it.”
“It was one of Daniel’s inspection sites.”
“What is there now?”
“An abandoned storage building.”
“Then why did Vincent give me a key?”
“I do not know.”
“I am going in the morning.”
“No. The police should search it.”
“If the police search it, everyone connected to the Moretti family will know.”
“They already know you have the card.”
“But they do not know I have the key.”
Adrian paused.
“Do not tell anyone else.”
“Can I trust you?”
The question seemed to surprise him.
“You called me tonight.”
“Vincent told me to call a number. He did not say I could trust the person who answered.”
Adrian’s voice became quieter.
“That is a fair distinction.”
“Meet me at the restaurant at seven.”
“Clara.”
“If you are not there, I will go alone.”
She ended the call.
At six thirty the next morning, Clara left Leo with Mrs. Alvarez and entered the security vehicle.
Adrian waited outside the restaurant with two cups of coffee and no argument.
They drove to Brooklyn.
The address led them to a narrow warehouse between an auto shop and a fenced rail yard. Rust covered the metal door.
Clara inserted the brass key.
It fit.
Inside, the building appeared empty.
Dust covered the floor. Broken shelves leaned against the walls. A single hanging bulb swayed beneath the roof.
Adrian examined the concrete.
“Someone has been here recently.”
Clara saw footprints leading toward the back.
They followed them to a row of old lockers.
The key opened locker 17.
Inside was a child’s red winter coat.
Clara recognized it immediately.
Leo had worn it on the day Daniel died.
Beneath the coat was a phone.
Its battery was dead.
There was also a photograph of Daniel standing beside Vincent Moretti.
On the back, Daniel had written a message.
Clara, if Vincent gives you the card, it means I failed to come home.
She turned the photograph over again.
May you like
A second line had been written beneath the first.
Do not let Adrian Vale open the final file.
