Chapter 4 - A Blueprint Worth Killing For
Greg ended the call.
Meline immediately tried calling back.
Nothing.
Dominic took the phone.
“Victor. Trace.”
“Already doing it.”
Meline paced.
“Greg has Harper.”
“Possibly.”
“What does possibly mean?”
“It means we heard his voice. We didn’t see him.”
“You think Harper is involved?”
“I think everyone is involved until proven otherwise.”
“Including me?”
Dominic looked at her.
“No.”
The certainty unsettled her.
“Why?”
“Because you’re the only person in this mess who has consistently had no idea what’s happening.”
“That might be the nicest insult anyone has ever given me.”
They returned to Dominic’s mansion.
For six hours Meline reconstructed the Hawthorne plans from memory.
At noon she found it.
A discrepancy.
The basement columns did not align with the foundation.
“Here.”
Dominic leaned over her shoulder.
“What?”
“This wall.”
“What about it?”
“It isn’t structural.”
“So?”
“The original drawing pretends it is.”
She traced the line.
“My father created a false load-bearing wall.”
“To hide B-17.”
“Yes.”
Dominic stood very close.
She could smell his cologne.
Cedar.
Something darker.
She hated that she noticed.
“What opens it?”
“The bracelet may.”
They looked at the tiny engraved strip.
Coordinates.
EVELYN.
Dominic said, “We go tonight.”
Meline nodded.
“We?”
“Yes.”
“You’re not arguing?”
“I’ve learned it wastes time.”
At midnight they entered Hawthorne through a utility tunnel.
Victor accompanied them.
Dominic’s security team remained outside.
The building smelled of rust and old concrete.
Meline guided them downward.
B1.
B2.
Then a staircase that officially did not exist.
At the bottom stood a wall.
Meline found a narrow opening.
She inserted the metal strip from her bracelet.
Something clicked.
The false wall moved.
Behind it stood Door Seventeen.
Dominic stared.
“Your father built a vault inside Manhattan and nobody found it for twenty-eight years.”
“He was good.”
“So are you.”
Meline looked at him.
The compliment felt strangely intimate.
She entered the code from the scratched briefcase.
Nothing.
Then she tried her father’s birthday.
Nothing.
Her own.
The lock turned.
Dominic looked at her.
“He used you.”
“No.”
“He trusted me.”
The door opened.
Inside were thousands of files.
Old tapes.
Hard drives.
Ledgers.
Photographs.
Dominic found one labeled ARTHUR COSTELLO.
His father.
Meline found THOMAS HAYES.
Her hands trembled.
She opened it.
A letter.
Meline,
If you are reading this, then I failed to keep you away from the Costellos.
She continued.
But understand this before you judge Dominic for his name.
He is not his father.
And Arthur was not the monster history will make him.
Meline looked at Dominic.
He was reading over her shoulder.
The letter explained that Arthur Costello and Thomas Hayes had secretly spent years collecting evidence against a network that had taken control of the Costello criminal empire from within.
Judges.
Police commanders.
Corporate executives.
One hidden leader.
Code name: CROWN.
Dominic whispered, “Who?”
Meline turned the page.
Missing.
Someone had removed it.
Then Victor spoke behind them.
“I know who Crown is.”
They turned.
Victor had his gun raised.
Pointed at Dominic.
Meline stopped breathing.
“Victor?”
His face was devastated.
“I’m sorry.”
Dominic did not move.
“How long?”
“Long enough.”
“You betrayed my father?”
“No.”
“Then lower the gun.”
“I can’t.”
Meline stepped between them.
Victor shouted, “Move!”
“No.”
“Meline.”
“You knew my father. If there’s anything you ever meant when you said you protected me, put the gun down.”
Victor’s eyes filled.
Then another voice came from the vault entrance.
“She really does sound like Thomas.”
Greg Higgins stepped inside.
Behind him stood six armed men.
And beside him—
Harper.
Untied.
Uninjured.
Holding a gun.
Meline stared at her best friend.
May you like
Harper raised the weapon.
And pointed it directly at Meline...
