Chapter 11 - THE SIGNET RING
Adrian removed the ring and dropped it on the table.
No one touched it.
Grace examined the photograph again.
“Edmund was wearing this six months after his funeral.”
“Then the ring in my possession is a copy,” Adrian said.
Eleanor shook her head.
“My husband noted that the patient refused to remove it during surgery. He said it contained a hidden mechanism.”
Lucas picked up the ring with a cloth.
The Vale crest was engraved into black stone. Along the inner band, almost invisible, were four tiny symbols.
A raven.
A bridge.
A crown.
A key.
Grace pressed the raven.
Nothing happened.
Lucas pressed the bridge and crown together.
The black stone released.
Inside was a coil of microfilm.
Adrian stared.
“I wore that for eight years.”
Grace unrolled the film beneath a magnifying lens.
Rows of account numbers filled the surface, along with initials and dates.
Near the end was a list titled Continuity Heirs.
C.C.
S.R.
A.V.
And beneath them:
L.V. only if G.V. fails.
“Grace Vale,” Lucas said.
Grace nodded slowly.
“Your father considered me part of the succession.”
“Why?”
“Because I understood the network better than anyone outside it.”
Adrian pointed to the final line.
“Lucas only if Grace fails.”
Lucas looked at her.
“Did Edmund recruit you?”
“No.”
“Did he try?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Before we married.”
She sat across from him.
“Edmund offered to erase the evidence I had found. In exchange, I would work for him.”
“And you refused.”
“I pretended to accept.”
Lucas absorbed the words.
“You were inside his network before our wedding.”
“For seven months.”
“Did you marry me because of him?”
Grace’s eyes filled.
“No.”
“How can I know that?”
“You can’t.”
The farmhouse fell silent.
Rain moved across the roof.
Adrian stepped away from the table.
“We need to contact federal authorities.”
Grace shook her head.
“The list includes federal judges and senior investigators.”
“Then who do you trust?”
“No institution. Only individuals.”
Lucas looked at the ring.
“Why give this to Adrian?”
“To mark him.”
Grace pointed to a nearly invisible line beneath the crest.
“It’s not only a data container. It transmits location when exposed to certain frequencies.”
Adrian looked toward the windows.
“You mean they have tracked me for eight years.”
“Possibly.”
“Then they know we are here.”
The lights went out.
A vehicle approached along the farmhouse road.
Eleanor opened a locked cabinet and removed a shotgun.
Grace pulled Lily’s moon charm from Lucas’s pocket.
“You brought this?”
“She gave it to me.”
Grace pressed the center.
A small light blinked.
Her face changed.
“This was not mine.”
“Lily said you gave it to her.”
“I gave her a silver moon, but not this one.”
Lucas stared at the blinking charm.
“A transmitter.”
Grace threw it into a metal sink and smashed it with a pan.
Headlights swept across the curtains.
A voice called from outside.
“Grace, we know you are inside.”
Charles Crowe.
Vanessa’s father.
Grace moved toward the rear door.
Lucas stopped her.
“No more running.”
“They have at least six men.”
“And we have evidence.”
“Evidence does not stop bullets.”
A second voice came through a loudspeaker.
Vanessa’s voice.
“Lucas, do not believe her. Grace took Lily.”
Lucas froze.
The farmhouse door shook beneath a heavy impact.
Grace whispered, “Vanessa was under police guard.”
“She escaped,” Adrian said.
“No,” Lucas replied. “Someone released her.”
The door shook again.
Charles called, “Send Grace outside and Lily will be returned unharmed.”
Lucas turned toward Grace.
“Lily was supposed to be with police.”
Grace stared at him.
“I didn’t take her.”
“Who knew where she was?”
“Margaret. Adrian. Vanessa. The protection team.”
“And you.”
Grace looked wounded.
“You think I would hurt our daughter?”
“I think I no longer know what you would do.”
A child’s cry came through the loudspeaker.
“Daddy!”
Lily.
Lucas moved toward the front door.
Grace caught him.
“It could be a recording.”
Then Lily screamed again.
This time she said something no stranger could have known.
“Daddy, the blue bird is awake.”
Grace released Lucas immediately.
Her face drained of color.
“What does that mean?” he asked.
“It means Lily found the last camera.”
“Where?”
May you like
Grace looked toward the dark woods.
“Inside the coffin we buried in my name.”
