Chapter 9 - Nora's Last Room)
They returned to Beacon House before dawn.
Grace argued against it.
Roman went anyway.
This time she brought six investigators.
Titan stayed with Leah under guard.
Emma went with Roman.
The silver key opened a room none of them had noticed during the first search.
A narrow door behind a bookcase in Nora's office.
Roman stared at it.
"I grew up with her."
Emma looked at him.
"And she still had secrets."
"Apparently."
Inside was a small records room.
No dramatic vault.
No weapons.
No money.
Only file boxes.
Photographs.
Hard drives.
And an old voice recorder.
Roman picked it up.
A label read:
FOR R.
His hand shook.
Emma noticed.
He pressed play.
Nora's voice filled the room.
"Roman, if you're hearing this, you finally found the room."
Roman closed his eyes.
Nora laughed softly through the speaker.
"You always were terrible at looking behind things."
Emma turned away to give him privacy.
Roman continued listening.
"I don't know how much time I have. Victor knows I'm investigating Northbridge."
Roman's eyes opened.
"Malcolm knows too."
Emma turned back.
Nora continued.
"The foundation fraud is bigger than dogs. Northbridge is used to hide money moving through security contracts. Blackwater is where they test techniques for private clients."
A pause.
"I made copies."
Roman looked around the room.
Boxes.
Drives.
Evidence.
Then Nora's voice softened.
"I know you trust Victor because he saved your life in London. I know you trust Malcolm because Dad trusted him. But loyalty can become a hiding place when you stop asking questions."
Roman swallowed.
Emma watched him.
"I need you to ask questions."
The recording crackled.
"If something happens to me, do not destroy yourself trying to punish the first person you blame."
Roman lowered his head.
"Find the truth. Then build something better."
The recording ended.
For a long time nobody spoke.
Grace began cataloging evidence.
Emma remained beside Roman.
He stared at the recorder.
"I failed her."
Emma did not offer comfort he had not asked for.
Instead she said, "Then don't fail what she left you."
Roman looked at her.
That sentence stayed with him.
By noon investigators had enough records to trace ten million dollars in fraudulent contracts.
Malcolm Voss had approved many transfers.
Victor had approved operational invoices.
But the evidence surrounding Nora's death remained incomplete.
One file contained vehicle maintenance logs.
Nora's car had been serviced two days before the crash by a contractor connected to Victor.
Another contained emails.
Nora had scheduled a meeting with a federal investigator the morning after she died.
Roman stared at the screen.
Emma stood beside him.
"Still not proof."
"No."
"But close."
Roman looked toward the harbor.
"What if I never know?"
Emma understood what he meant.
Not the fraud.
His sister.
"What if nobody confesses?"
Roman nodded.
Emma thought about Titan.
Animals did not get explanations.
They survived what had been done to them and learned, slowly, whether the next hand was safe.
"Then you live with what can be proven," she said.
Roman looked at her.
"And you don't let the unanswered part turn you into the people you're chasing."
Roman smiled faintly.
"You say things I don't enjoy hearing."
"That's becoming a pattern."
Grace entered.
"We found something."
She placed a tablet on the desk.
A toll camera image.
Nora's car the night of the crash.
Three minutes behind it was Victor's SUV.
Seven minutes later, Malcolm Voss's car entered the same road.
Roman stared.
"Malcolm said he was at a dinner in Cambridge."
"He lied."
Grace changed images.
Another camera showed Malcolm returning forty minutes later.
No Victor.
"Where did Victor go?"
Grace swiped.
His SUV appeared two hours later near Blackwater harbor.
Emma felt cold.
Roman looked at the map.
"Victor knows we found this room."
Grace nodded.
"Probably."
"Then why send the key?"
Nobody answered.
Emma did.
"He wants you to know something."
Roman looked at her.
"Or he wants you to think he does."
At that moment Emma's phone rang.
Leah.
Emma answered.
"What's wrong?"
Leah was crying.
"Emma, I'm sorry."
Emma stood.
"What happened?"
"The fire alarm went off. We evacuated the clinic."
Roman's face changed.
Emma already knew.
"Titan?"
A pause.
"They took him again."
Emma closed her eyes.
Leah continued.
"But this time he fought."
"What do you mean?"
"He ripped part of the man's coat."
Emma opened her eyes.
"We found fabric in his teeth."
Grace immediately took the call.
The fabric was black wool.
Inside the torn piece was a tailor's label.
Not Victor's.
Not Malcolm's.
A custom Boston tailor.
The client number belonged to someone Roman knew.
Someone who had voted against suspending him.
Someone who had been inside Nora's house many times.
Roman stared at the name Grace wrote on a piece of paper.
Elias Grant.
His loyal bodyguard.
The man who had stood beside him through everything.
Emma whispered.
"No."
Roman did not move.
From the hallway came the sound of footsteps.
Elias appeared in the doorway.
He looked at the paper.
May you like
Then at Roman.
His face went pale.
