Chapter 8 - The Child Someone Wanted)
Security at the Vance residence tripled before sunset.
Damian hated every part of it.
Armed guards near elevators.
Vehicles at entrances.
Cameras in hallways.
A security perimeter around two children who should have been arguing about cartoons.
Marcus supervised the changes personally.
Damian watched him through the glass wall of his study.
"You're staring at him," Brooks said.
"I've trusted him for twelve years."
"Trust doesn't make people innocent."
"Suspicion doesn't make them guilty."
"Correct."
Damian turned.
"What did Victoria mean when she told me to ask Marcus about eight years ago?"
"We asked."
"And?"
"He confirmed he worked for your father."
"Doing what?"
"Corporate security."
"Specific assignment involving Claire?"
"He denied it."
"Do you believe him?"
Brooks's expression remained neutral.
"I don't get paid to believe. I get paid to verify."
A forensic technician entered.
"We recovered additional data from Claire's phone."
He placed printed records on the desk.
Three calls to an unregistered prepaid number.
Two calls to Vance International headquarters.
One call to Victoria.
Damian looked at the date.
The day before Claire disappeared.
"How long was the call with Victoria?"
"Eleven minutes."
Victoria had told police Claire had been harassing her.
Maybe that part was true.
"Can you recover audio?"
"No."
"What about location?"
"Claire was at her apartment."
"Victoria?"
"Her phone registered near Central Park."
Damian looked at the map.
Marcus's apartment was three blocks from there.
Coincidence.
Again.
There were too many coincidences.
The technician slid over another page.
"There's something else."
A photograph recovered from deleted storage.
Claire had taken it through a window.
A black SUV was parked across the street from her apartment.
Damian recognized the vehicle.
Vance security fleet.
"License plate?"
"Obscured."
"When?"
"Two days before she vanished."
Damian called Marcus.
He entered less than a minute later.
"What's going on?"
Damian placed the photograph in front of him.
Marcus looked.
"Company vehicle."
"Why was it outside Claire Bennett's apartment?"
"I don't know."
"Check the fleet."
"Already have."
"Already?"
"Police asked an hour ago."
"And?"
"All vehicles accounted for."
"Then somebody cloned our plates or someone is lying."
Marcus looked at him.
"You think it's me."
"I think I don't know."
Marcus leaned on the desk.
"Damian, I've taken bullets for your family."
"Not an answer."
"I protected your father."
"Also not an answer."
"Claire contacted me six months ago."
Brooks immediately straightened.
"You denied having recent contact."
"I denied involvement in her disappearance."
"Why did she contact you?"
Marcus looked at Damian.
"She wanted money."
Damian's jaw tightened.
"Careful."
"Not for herself."
"For what?"
"Protection."
"From whom?"
"She wouldn't say."
"Why come to you?"
"Because she remembered me from your father's security detail."
"Where did you meet?"
Marcus looked at the photograph from the storage unit.
"The restaurant you've already discovered."
"What did she say?"
"That someone was following her."
"Who?"
"She didn't know."
"Did you help?"
"I offered security."
"Through Vance?"
"No. Privately."
"Why not tell me?"
"She demanded that I not."
Damian laughed bitterly.
"Everyone seems to have decided what I was allowed to know."
"She was afraid that telling you would expose Emily."
"Expose her to whom?"
Marcus hesitated.
"Your family."
Damian's expression changed.
"My family?"
"Claire believed the original separation wasn't only about your father protecting the company."
"Then what was it about?"
Marcus looked toward Brooks.
"I don't know."
"That's convenient."
"It's true."
"Why did Claire call someone named M?"
"It could be me."
"Was it?"
"I don't know."
Brooks stepped closer.
"Where were you the night Claire disappeared?"
"At home."
"Alone?"
"Yes."
"Your building cameras?"
"Maintenance outage."
Damian stared.
Marcus saw the implication.
"You can't be serious."
"A camera went offline at my wedding too."
"Because I disabled it."
Silence.
Brooks looked at him sharply.
"You did what?"
Marcus exhaled.
"Nora was moving the children through a restricted area. Victoria asked me to keep it off camera until I understood who they were."
Damian felt fury rise.
"You helped her hide Emily from me."
"For twelve minutes."
"Why?"
"Because she said someone was targeting you."
"Who?"
"The children."
Emily stood in the doorway.
No one had heard her enter.
Marcus turned.
Emily's face was pale.
"You were at our apartment."
Marcus looked at her.
"No, Emily."
"I saw your watch."
"You saw a watch."
"I heard your voice."
Marcus remained calm.
"You told police you didn't see the man's face."
"I didn't."
"Then you can't know it was me."
Emily stepped closer.
"I know something else."
Damian moved toward her.
"What?"
Emily looked at Marcus.
"Mom called the man Michael."
Marcus's expression did not change.
"My name is Marcus."
"I know."
Emily swallowed.
"And she said, 'Tell Michael Vance I won't give him Sophie.'"
The room became silent.
Damian felt as though the floor had shifted.
Michael Vance.
His uncle.
His father's younger brother.
May you like
A man Damian had not spoken to in nine years.
A man everyone believed had died in a boating accident seven years earlier.
