Chapter 2 - The Deal Luca Killed
Richard entered before Luca invited him.
For the first time Norah could remember, her father looked genuinely afraid.
Not angry.
Not irritated.
Afraid.
He reached for the photograph.
Luca placed his hand over it.
"No."
Richard stopped.
"That belongs to my family."
"Apparently," Luca said, "so does a company you've never mentioned to your daughter."
Norah looked at her father.
"What is Hian Development Holdings?"
"Nothing relevant."
"Mom wrote that I own half."
"Your mother wrote many things while she was sick."
Norah recoiled.
Luca's expression hardened.
"Careful."
Richard looked at him.
"This is family business."
"You attached family business to forty million dollars of my money."
Richard's mouth closed.
Norah studied the corporate filing.
Hian Development Holdings had been created seventeen years earlier.
Her mother owned fifty percent.
The other fifty percent belonged to a name she didn't recognize.
Samuel Vale.
"Who's Samuel Vale?"
Richard's eyes shifted.
That was enough.
"You know him."
"I knew him."
"Who was he?"
"A developer."
"What happened to him?"
"He died."
"When?"
Richard hesitated.
"Fifteen years ago."
Norah's skin prickled.
Her mother had died eight years ago.
Which meant Eleanor had known about Hian for seven years after Samuel's death.
"Why wasn't this company part of Mom's estate?"
"It had no assets."
Luca slid another page forward.
"That's inaccurate."
Richard's face tightened.
The document showed ownership of twelve acres along the riverfront.
The same twelve acres at the center of the redevelopment contract Luca had just killed.
Norah read it twice.
Then a third time.
"This land belongs to Hian?"
"Belonged," Richard said quickly. "It was transferred."
"To whom?"
Richard didn't answer.
Luca did.
"Bennett Construction."
Norah looked at her father.
"When?"
"After your mother died."
Her voice became very quiet.
"How?"
Richard stared at her.
She already knew.
Her mother's ownership interest would have passed through probate.
Norah had been executor.
No transfer involving Hian had ever crossed her desk.
"How?" she repeated.
Richard looked toward the conference room.
Grant was pacing outside.
"I protected the company."
Norah felt something inside her finally break.
Not loudly.
Almost peacefully.
She had spent years believing her father made bad decisions because he loved Bennett Construction too much.
Now she wondered whether love had ever been involved.
"You forged Mom's estate documents."
Richard snapped his eyes toward her.
"I did what was necessary."
Luca leaned against the desk.
"That's not a denial."
Richard pointed at him.
"You stay out of this."
Luca looked at the finger.
Richard lowered it.
Norah gathered the documents.
"Who sent these?"
"We don't know," Luca said.
"Why send them to you?"
"Probably because whoever sent them knew I'd investigate before investing."
Norah stopped on another page.
There was a handwritten notation.
EVB-17.
She recognized the format.
Her mother had labeled storage boxes that way.
Eleanor Vale Bennett.
Box seventeen.
Norah looked at Richard.
"Where are Mom's records?"
"Gone."
"That's not what I asked."
"We cleared the old storage after she died."
"Which storage?"
Richard's silence answered again.
Grant entered.
"Dad, lawyers are calling. Moretti's team already sent termination notices."
Norah turned.
"Where are Mom's storage boxes?"
Grant blinked.
"What?"
"EVB. Her records."
"I don't know."
Richard said, "Enough."
Grant looked from his father to the photograph.
Then his face changed.
"You showed her?"
Richard stared at him.
Norah felt cold.
"You knew?"
Grant immediately backed away.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"You recognized the photograph."
"No."
"You did."
"Norah—"
"Where are the boxes?"
Grant glanced at Richard.
Norah had spent thirty-two years watching her brother lie.
Grant's lies were charming when he had time.
Under pressure, he looked left.
He was looking left now.
"Warehouse," Norah said.
Grant's eyes returned to her.
"What warehouse?"
"The old Bennett equipment warehouse."
Nobody answered.
Norah picked up her purse.
Richard blocked the door.
"You are not going there."
She looked at him.
That sentence confirmed everything.
"Move."
"I'm your father."
"And I'm apparently half-owner of something you've been hiding for seventeen years."
"Norah."
"Move."
Luca stepped beside her.
Richard moved.
They crossed the conference room together.
Grant followed.
"You can't take company documents."
Norah didn't stop.
"They're copies."
"Where are you going?"
"To learn what Mom expected me to know eight years ago."
Grant grabbed his phone.
Norah noticed.
So did Luca.
Luca's driver took them downtown.
Norah spent the ride reading.
Samuel Vale had been an architect and developer.
Hian's original operating agreement gave Eleanor and Samuel equal authority.
The riverfront land had been purchased cheaply before the neighborhood boomed.
Today it was worth more than twenty million dollars by itself.
"Why Hian?" Norah asked.
Luca sat opposite her.
"Maybe a name."
"Whose?"
"I don't know."
She studied him.
"You know more than you're saying."
"Yes."
At least he didn't insult her with denial.
"What?"
"Samuel Vale wasn't simply a developer."
"What was he?"
"My father's business partner."
Norah froze.
Luca continued.
"Legitimate business partner."
The qualifier mattered.
"My father financed several of Samuel's projects. After Samuel died, records disappeared."
"Did your father know my mother?"
"Yes."
"Did you?"
"I met her twice."
Norah stared.
"You knew my mother?"
"I was twenty-three. She terrified me."
Despite everything, Norah almost smiled.
"That sounds like her."
"She told my father she would never let Richard Bennett turn her company into his personal bank."
The smile disappeared.
"She said that?"
"Yes."
"Why didn't anyone tell me?"
"My father died before your mother."
Luca looked out the window.
"And I had no reason to involve myself until your name appeared on a transaction involving the same land."
The warehouse stood in an industrial district twenty minutes away.
The manager recognized Norah.
"Ms. Bennett?"
"I need access to archived executive storage."
His expression changed.
"Mr. Bennett called."
Of course he had.
"And?"
"He said nobody gets inside."
Norah looked at Luca.
Luca said nothing.
He didn't need to.
Norah turned back.
"Who owns this warehouse?"
"Bennett Construction."
"And who is chief compliance officer?"
"You are."
"Then open it."
The manager swallowed.
Five minutes later, the steel door rolled upward.
Dust floated through fluorescent light.
Rows of shelving stretched into darkness.
Norah found EVB boxes near the back.
Fourteen.
Fifteen.
Sixteen.
Then eighteen.
She stopped.
"Seventeen is missing."
Luca examined the shelf.
The dust beneath the gap had been disturbed recently.
Very recently.
Norah crouched.
A torn strip of packing tape lay on the floor.
Printed on it was a shipping code.
She photographed it.
Then her phone rang.
Grant.
She declined.
He called again.
Declined.
A text appeared instead.
DON'T OPEN BOX 17.
Norah stared at the screen.
A second message arrived.
This one wasn't from Grant.
Unknown number.
I HAVE BOX 17.
A photograph loaded beneath the words.
The missing box sat on a table.
Beside it was today's newspaper.
Then a third message appeared.
COME ALONE IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOUR MOTHER DID.
Norah enlarged the photograph.
Something was visible behind the box.
A woman's hand.
May you like
On one finger was Eleanor Bennett's wedding ring.
Norah's mother had been buried wearing it.
