Chapter 6 - The Ring
Evelyn's mother had been dead for three years.
Her wedding ring was in Evelyn's apartment.
Richard knew that.
Evelyn tried not to react.
He saw it anyway.
“There.”
“What?”
“That look.”
“I don't know what you're talking about.”
“You do now.”
Richard pulled up a chair.
Unlike Vanessa, he did not look nervous.
Richard Wexler had the relaxed manner of a man who had spent decades assuming every room eventually belonged to him.
“Your father was inconvenient.”
Evelyn's stomach tightened.
“You killed him.”
Richard smiled faintly.
“Careful.”
“You did.”
“I didn't say that.”
“You didn't need to.”
Richard leaned back.
“Thomas was offered money.”
“My father couldn't be bought.”
“He had debts.”
“He had principles.”
“Principles are simply luxuries people cling to until the price becomes uncomfortable.”
“You didn't know him.”
“I knew enough.”
Evelyn looked at the metal box.
“What is inside?”
Richard's smile vanished.
“You tell me.”
“I've never seen it.”
“That is a lie.”
“No. It isn't.”
“Thomas carried it the night he died.”
“Then how do you have it?”
Richard didn't answer.
Evelyn's pulse quickened.
He had just confirmed he had been with her father.
“What did you do to him?”
Richard stood.
“You really are like him.”
“I'll take that as a compliment.”
“You shouldn't.”
A door opened.
Detective Alan Price entered.
Ben had been right.
Price carried Evelyn's phone.
“No sign of Wexler yet.”
Richard checked his watch.
“He'll come.”
“You sure?”
“He stood up for her in front of two hundred people.”
Richard looked at Evelyn.
“Men like Adrian spend their entire lives pretending emotion doesn't influence them. Then one person gets under their skin and suddenly they're predictable.”
Evelyn hated the flutter of fear those words caused.
“Adrian doesn't care about me.”
Richard smiled.
“That sounded less convincing than you intended.”
At 11:56, headlights appeared outside.
Adrian entered alone.
He carried the flash drive.
Richard greeted him like family arriving late for dinner.
“Right on time.”
“Release her.”
“Drive first.”
“No.”
Richard sighed.
“You were always stubborn.”
“You were always a thief.”
Price raised his weapon.
Richard lifted a hand.
“Not yet.”
Adrian held up the flash drive.
“You want this?”
“Yes.”
“Then untie Evelyn.”
“After I verify it.”
Evelyn watched Adrian.
His face revealed nothing.
He tossed the drive onto the table.
Richard inserted it into a laptop.
Files appeared.
Transaction records.
Shell accounts.
Foundation payments.
Richard smiled.
“Arthur really did collect everything.”
“Not everything.”
Richard's smile faded.
Adrian looked at the metal box.
“You still don't have what's inside that.”
Richard closed the laptop.
“Give me the key.”
“I don't have it.”
“She does.”
“No,” Evelyn said.
Richard turned toward her.
“Your mother's ring.”
“I don't have the ring.”
“Where is it?”
She stayed silent.
Price stepped closer.
Adrian's voice hardened.
“Touch her and the drive becomes useless.”
Richard laughed.
“You already gave it to me.”
Adrian smiled.
“Try opening the encrypted folder.”
Richard's eyes narrowed.
He clicked.
PASSWORD REQUIRED.
“What password?”
“Untie Evelyn.”
Richard gestured.
Price cut her restraints.
Evelyn stood and immediately moved toward Adrian.
Richard blocked her.
“Not so fast.”
Adrian's gaze became dangerous.
“Deal was untie her.”
“I did.”
“Now let her go.”
“Password.”
“After she's outside.”
Richard considered it.
Then he nodded at Price.
Evelyn walked toward the door.
As she passed Adrian, he did not touch her.
He only whispered:
“Marcus.”
She understood.
Security was outside.
Evelyn reached the door.
It opened.
Price suddenly grabbed her from behind.
Everything happened at once.
Adrian lunged.
Lights exploded on across the warehouse.
Marcus's team entered from two sides.
Price fired once into the ceiling.
Richard grabbed the laptop and ran.
Evelyn drove her heel into Price's shin.
He released her.
Adrian reached her.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Sure?”
“Yes.”
Marcus's men tackled Price.
But Richard disappeared through a rear door.
The metal box remained.
Adrian picked it up.
Evelyn stared.
“We need the ring.”
Her apartment was secured within an hour.
Evelyn found the small jewelry case inside her bedroom closet.
Her mother's ring lay exactly where she remembered.
Gold.
Simple.
She turned it over.
Nothing.
Adrian examined it.
“There.”
A tiny seam ran through the inner band.
They twisted it.
A narrow piece of metal slid out.
A key.
Evelyn's hands shook.
She inserted it into the box.
Click.
Inside were photographs.
Receipts.
A microcassette.
And a folded letter addressed:
FOR EVELYN.
She opened it.
Her father's handwriting filled the page.
Evie,
If you're reading this, then I failed to come home.
Her vision blurred.
Adrian moved closer but did not interrupt.
She continued.
Never believe the person who tells you Arthur Wexler was my enemy. He tried to save me.
The evidence Richard fears most isn't in this box.
Evelyn frowned.
Then she read the final lines.
I hid the real ledger where Richard could never enter without being seen.
You have walked past it hundreds of times.
Evelyn looked at Adrian.
“Seeds of Hope.”
He nodded.
Then they heard a sound from her living room.
Glass breaking.
Adrian moved in front of her.
Marcus shouted from the hallway.
“Stay inside!”
A second crash followed.
May you like
Then smoke began pouring beneath the bedroom door.
Someone had set Evelyn's apartment on fire.
