Chapter 8 - Elena's Last Promise)
Grant returned to the mansion at a speed that made Samuel grip the dashboard twice.
Noah's room had been torn apart.
Drawers emptied.
Mattress overturned.
Books scattered.
The wooden music box was gone.
Megan stood in the doorway crying.
"I tried to stop them."
Grant turned.
"Are you hurt?"
"No."
"Tell me exactly what happened."
"Claire came in with Walter and two men. She said you had been injured and Noah needed to come to the hospital."
"Did Noah believe her?"
"At first."
"What changed?"
"He saw Walter lock the front door."
Megan swallowed.
"He ran upstairs."
Grant looked at the destroyed room.
"They chased him?"
"Yes."
"What about the box?"
"Noah grabbed it."
Grant closed his eyes.
Claire had Noah.
And Noah had Elena's codicil.
Samuel asked, "Any tracker on the boy?"
Grant immediately remembered Noah's watch.
He opened the family tracking app.
Offline.
Walter would have disabled it.
Megan wiped her face.
"There's another tracker."
Grant looked at her.
"What?"
"Elena put one in the music box years ago."
"What?"
"It was for the hospital. Noah kept wandering away when she was in treatment. Elena bought a small luggage tracker and hid it under the lining."
Grant stared at her.
"Is it still active?"
"I changed the battery three months ago."
For the first time since the call, Grant felt something resembling hope.
Megan opened the tracking application.
A signal appeared.
Forty-three miles east.
Moving.
Samuel immediately contacted detectives.
Grant grabbed his coat.
Megan caught his arm.
"Grant."
He turned.
"If Claire discovers the tracker, they'll throw the box away."
"I know."
"No. Listen."
She showed him the route.
"They're not going toward the airport."
Samuel studied it.
"They're going toward the old Vance manufacturing district."
Grant knew what was there.
The first factory Thomas Vance had owned.
Closed for twenty years.
The place where Robert Cross died.
Grant called Julian.
His friend answered.
"Where are you?"
"Home."
"Get to the old plant."
"Why?"
"Claire has Noah."
Silence.
"What?"
"Adrian Hale is alive. Walter is involved. They're taking Noah toward the old factory."
Julian swore.
Grant continued.
"Bring every original record you have about your father."
"Why?"
"Because I think Adrian intends to settle everything where it started."
Police were notified.
Grant insisted on going.
Samuel did not try to stop him.
They drove east.
Megan came too.
Grant initially refused.
Then she said, "Noah may trust my voice before anyone else's."
That ended the argument.
The tracker stopped.
Old Vance Plant Number One.
Grant remembered visiting the factory as a child.
His father had seemed enormous there.
Workers moved around him with respect.
Machines shook the walls.
Thomas Vance had told Grant, "Everything you will ever have began in this building."
Grant now wondered how much of that statement had been a confession.
Police established a perimeter.
The main gates were locked.
No visible movement.
Then Grant's phone rang.
Claire.
He answered.
"Let me speak to Noah."
"You'll see him when you come inside."
"No."
"Then he stays with Adrian."
Grant looked at Samuel.
Samuel shook his head, signaling him to keep talking.
"What does Adrian want?"
"The ledger."
"I don't have it."
"You will."
"Claire, listen to me. Whatever Adrian promised you, it ends badly."
A bitter laugh.
"You still think I'm the stupid wife."
"I think you're standing beside a man who kidnapped my son."
"You hit me."
"After you hit a child."
"Your child."
Grant heard the distinction.
"You never loved him."
Claire's silence was enough.
"Did you ever love me?"
This time she answered.
"At the beginning."
Grant closed his eyes.
"What changed?"
"I learned what your family took from mine."
"Adrian is your stepbrother."
"Victor raised me. He was my father in every way that mattered."
"And because Thomas betrayed him, Noah pays?"
"Don't pretend Noah is poor."
"He's seven."
Claire's voice hardened.
"So was I when Victor lost everything."
Grant heard Adrian speaking in the background.
Then Claire said, "Come to the east loading entrance."
"Alone?"
"Yes."
The call ended.
Police refused to let Grant enter alone.
Grant refused to wait.
Samuel finally negotiated a compromise.
A tactical team would move through the western service corridors while Grant approached from the east.
Megan remained with Samuel.
Julian arrived carrying an old document case.
He looked at Grant.
"Is Noah inside?"
"Yes."
Julian's face hardened.
"I'm coming."
"No."
"Adrian's claim is connected to my father."
"And Noah is my son."
Julian opened the case.
Inside was a photocopy of one page from the blue ledger.
Grant stared.
"You had this?"
"Elena sent it to me before she died."
"Why didn't you show me?"
"Because I was a coward."
Grant looked at the page.
Thomas Vance's handwriting listed payments to Victor Hale.
Beside one payment were the words Edward arrangement.
Below that was another name.
Robert Cross.
And beside Robert's name:
Accident must remain accident.
Julian's eyes filled with anger.
"My father didn't die accidentally."
Grant felt sick.
"You think Thomas killed him?"
"I think Thomas covered something up."
Grant looked toward the factory.
Adrian did not merely want money.
He wanted revenge.
Grant entered through the loading door.
The building was dark.
His footsteps echoed across concrete.
"Grant."
Adrian's voice came from the old assembly floor.
Grant walked toward it.
Lights snapped on.
Noah sat in a chair beside Claire.
He was not tied.
But Walter Dean stood behind him.
Adrian stood several feet away.
The same tall man from the staircase.
Now Grant saw his face clearly.
"You."
Adrian smiled.
"Finally."
Grant looked at Noah.
"You okay?"
Noah nodded, fighting tears.
"Dad, I didn't tell them."
"Tell them what?"
Noah looked at the music box in Claire's hands.
"Where Mom's paper is."
Claire stared at the box.
"What?"
Noah suddenly smiled through his fear.
Grant understood.
The codicil was not inside the music box.
Claire had kidnapped Noah for the wrong object.
Adrian's calm expression vanished.
He stepped toward the boy.
"Where is it?"
Grant moved between them.
"You touch him and nothing else matters."
Adrian stopped.
Then Noah looked at Grant.
"Mom said you'd know."
"Know what?"
Noah whispered the words Elena used to say every night before bed.
"Goodnight, little captain."
Grant's breath caught.
Little Captain.
Noah's favorite childhood book.
A copy of The Little Captain had remained untouched on the shelf in Elena's study for four years.
Claire had searched Noah's room.
She had never searched the children's book Elena used during her final days.
Grant now knew where the codicil was.
Unfortunately, Adrian saw the answer in his face.
He smiled.
May you like
"Thank you."
Then Walter raised a gun.
