Chapter 6 - the child they tried to use)
Elena's scream carried across the dark lawn.
Damian had heard panic before.
Boardrooms.
Accidents.
Funerals.
Nothing sounded like a mother discovering her child missing.
He grabbed Elena before she ran blindly into the darkness.
"Security is searching."
"Let go of me."
"Elena."
"My daughter is gone."
"I know."
"No, you don't."
She shoved him away.
"You don't know what it is to lose someone and wonder if they're calling for you."
The sentence landed harder than she intended.
Damian's father had died surrounded by doctors.
His mother had died years earlier.
But Elena was right.
Mia might be frightened somewhere on the property right now.
Damian turned to his security chief.
"Lock the gates."
"Already done."
"Thermal cameras."
"Checking."
"Every vehicle."
"Yes."
A guard shouted from the driveway.
They ran.
One of the florist vans was moving toward the north service gate.
Security blocked it.
The driver jumped out and ran.
He was caught within seconds.
Inside the rear cargo compartment, behind empty flower crates, was Mia.
Alive.
Terrified.
Taped loosely at the wrists but otherwise unharmed.
Elena climbed into the van.
"Mia."
The girl collapsed into her arms.
"Mommy."
Elena sobbed.
Damian turned toward the captured driver.
He recognized him.
A temporary catering worker named Felix Warren.
Detective Sloan arrived minutes later.
Felix refused to speak until she mentioned kidnapping charges.
Then he changed.
"I wasn't taking her."
"You put a three year old in a van," Sloan said.
"I was told to move her."
"By whom?"
"I don't know."
"Try again."
Felix swallowed.
"A man called me."
"What man?"
"I never met him."
"What did he offer?"
"Fifty thousand."
"To kidnap a child?"
"He said no one would hurt her."
Elena lunged.
Damian stopped her.
Felix continued quickly.
"He said I was supposed to drive her to an abandoned gas station and leave her with a phone."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
Sloan looked at the van.
"What were you supposed to take from her?"
Felix hesitated.
"The dollar."
Everyone became silent.
Damian looked toward the cottage.
The dollar had been left on the pillow.
Felix explained that the caller believed Mia carried something hidden inside it.
Elena frowned.
"It's just a dollar."
Damian remembered Gabriel's habit of writing notes inside folded paper.
He picked up the bill using gloves.
Under strong light, one corner appeared thicker.
Marcus carefully examined it.
Two layers of paper had been attached almost invisibly along the edge.
Gabriel had cut a thin slit.
Inside was a tiny strip of microfilm.
Damian stared.
"Who even uses this anymore?"
"Someone trying to hide evidence from digital searches," Marcus answered.
They brought the strip to an independent forensic lab.
The images contained photographed ledger pages.
The accounts stretched back fifteen years.
Payments to contractors.
Politicians.
Inspectors.
Executives.
And one repeated code.
R17.
Daniel Cross had circled it in several places.
Gabriel had apparently copied the pages from a physical ledger.
Marcus compared the codes with old Cross Meridian records.
R17 matched an internal executive designation.
Damian waited.
"Whose?"
Marcus looked uncomfortable.
"The designation was reassigned over time."
"Who held it when Gabriel died?"
Marcus checked.
"Richard."
Damian closed his eyes.
His uncle had raised him after his mother's death.
Richard had taught him to drive.
Helped him through college.
Sat beside him at his father's funeral.
If Gabriel and Daniel had been investigating him, Damian had invited the enemy to every family dinner for years.
Detective Sloan issued a request to locate Richard Cross.
His Manhattan residence was empty.
His private jet had not moved.
His driver claimed he had not seen him in two days.
By dawn, police identified the blood in Howard Vale's trunk.
It belonged to Howard.
But there was another discovery.
A traffic camera had captured Howard's car leaving the city.
Howard himself was driving.
Someone sat beside him.
The image was blurred.
Marcus enhanced it.
The passenger appeared to be Richard Cross.
Elena looked at Damian.
"Maybe Howard isn't a victim."
Damian understood.
"Maybe they're running together."
Then his phone rang.
Howard Vale.
Damian answered on speaker.
For several seconds, only breathing.
Then Howard whispered.
"Damian?"
"Where are you?"
"I need help."
"Are you with Richard?"
A choking sound.
Howard's voice broke.
"He knows you found the ledger."
"Where are you?"
"Your father kept another copy."
"Where?"
Howard breathed faster.
"Not a copy of the ledger."
"Then what?"
"Proof of who ordered Gabriel's death."
Elena covered her mouth.
Damian stood.
"Howard."
The line crackled.
Howard whispered one final sentence.
"Ask Malcolm about the wedding cake."
May you like
Then the call ended.
Everyone stared at the enormous cake still standing untouched in the ballroom.
