Chapter 5 - The Man Behind the Campaign
Dominic hit the floor first.
“Down!”
Claire barely processed the command before he pulled her behind the desk.
Glass rained across the study.
Margaret screamed.
Marco dragged her behind a stone column.
A second impact struck the wall.
Not a bullet.
A small metal canister rolled across the carpet.
Dominic saw it.
“Move!”
Smoke erupted.
Claire coughed.
The room disappeared into white haze.
Dominic pushed her toward a side door.
“Stay with me.”
Claire stumbled into a corridor.
Alarms sounded.
Marco followed with Margaret.
Men appeared from other rooms.
Dominic shouted orders.
“Lock the east gate. Nobody leaves.”
Claire grabbed his arm.
“My laptop.”
“Forget it.”
“The evidence.”
“It’s encrypted.”
“It’s my father.”
Dominic looked at her.
For one second, anger and understanding fought across his face.
Then he turned to Marco.
“Get it.”
Marco disappeared into smoke.
Dominic took Claire downstairs.
They reached a reinforced room beneath the house.
Claire paced.
“Crane knew where we were.”
Dominic nodded.
“How?”
“That is what worries me.”
Margaret sat on a bench.
“He has people everywhere.”
Dominic looked at her.
“So do I.”
Claire folded her arms.
“That sentence should not be comforting.”
“It wasn’t meant to be.”
Marco returned ten minutes later carrying the laptop.
Claire took it.
“Thank you.”
He nodded.
Dominic checked a security feed.
A black SUV had been abandoned outside the property.
No attacker visible.
“They wanted to scare us,” Claire said.
Dominic shook his head.
“No.”
“What?”
“The canister wasn’t smoke.”
Marco looked at him.
“What was it?”
Dominic stared at the monitor.
“Tracer powder.”
Claire frowned.
“Meaning?”
“They wanted us to run.”
Margaret understood.
“So they could follow.”
Dominic nodded.
Claire felt cold.
“They expected us to take the evidence somewhere.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Dominic looked at her.
“Victor.”
Claire stared.
Crane wanted them to lead him to Victor Hale.
That meant Victor still possessed something Crane needed.
“Then we should go to him.”
Margaret stood.
“No.”
Claire looked at her.
“Mom.”
“No.”
“He tried to stop Crane.”
“He still spent seventeen years lying.”
“So did you.”
Margaret flinched.
Claire regretted it immediately.
But she did not apologize.
Not yet.
Dominic turned off the monitor.
“Claire is right.”
Margaret stared at him.
“Of course you think that.”
“Victor knows what happened after the recording ended.”
Claire nodded.
“And where Dad’s body was.”
Dominic looked at her carefully.
Her voice cracked.
“I need to know.”
Victor agreed to meet at dawn.
Not at his house.
Not at an office.
At St. Matthew’s cemetery.
Claire almost refused.
Then Dominic explained Daniel Bennett’s memorial stone stood there.
The grave was empty.
Claire arrived just before sunrise.
Victor stood beside the stone alone.
Claire stopped several yards away.
“You knew.”
Victor looked at Daniel’s name.
“Yes.”
“You knew there was no body.”
“Yes.”
“My mother buried an empty coffin.”
“I arranged it.”
Claire wanted to slap him.
Dominic remained behind her.
Victor looked toward him.
“You grew into your father’s suit.”
Dominic’s expression stayed cold.
“And you grew old pretending you were respectable.”
Victor almost smiled.
Claire interrupted.
“Enough.”
Both men looked at her.
She held up the laptop.
“I heard the recording.”
Victor’s face changed.
“You found it.”
“Crane shot my father.”
Victor looked away.
“Crane fired the first shot.”
Claire’s stomach dropped.
“The first?”
Victor sighed.
“Daniel was wounded. Not dead.”
Claire stared.
“What happened?”
Victor looked at the memorial stone.
“I tried to get him into my car.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“And?”
“My security detail arrived.”
“Whose security detail?”
Victor looked at him.
“Men Crane had selected.”
Dominic understood.
“They were Crane’s.”
“Yes.”
Victor continued.
“Daniel knew he wasn’t leaving alive.”
Claire pressed one hand against her chest.
“He gave me a camera.”
“The Leica?”
“No. Another one.”
“What was in it?”
“Film.”
“Where is it?”
Victor looked at Claire.
“That is why Crane is still afraid.”
Claire’s pulse quickened.
“You have it.”
Victor nodded.
“Seventeen years.”
“Why didn’t you expose him?”
Victor’s face hardened.
“Because the photographs also exposed me.”
Claire laughed bitterly.
“There it is.”
“Yes.”
“At least you admit it.”
“I was a coward.”
Dominic watched him.
Victor continued.
“I convinced myself keeping the evidence hidden protected you.”
“Did it?”
“For a long time.”
“No. It protected you.”
Victor did not argue.
Claire looked at Daniel’s stone.
“What happened to him?”
Victor took a breath.
“Daniel pushed the camera into my hands. He told me to keep you safe.”
Claire closed her eyes.
“One of Crane’s men shot him again.”
Margaret, standing farther back, began sobbing.
Claire did not.
Not yet.
“Where?”
Victor looked toward the ground.
“There’s an abandoned church north of the city.”
Claire understood.
“You buried him.”
Victor’s voice became rough.
“I did.”
Claire slapped him.
The sound echoed between stones.
Nobody moved.
Victor did not touch his face.
Claire’s hand shook.
“You let us bury nothing.”
“I know.”
“You let me spend seventeen years wondering why I couldn’t say goodbye.”
“I know.”
“You went on television. You built hospitals. You gave speeches.”
“I know.”
“And every year you knew where my father was.”
“Yes.”
Claire stepped back.
Dominic moved closer but did not touch her.
Victor reached into his coat.
Marco’s hand went inside his jacket.
Victor stopped.
“It’s photographs.”
He slowly removed an envelope.
Claire took it.
Inside was one photograph.
Daniel.
Standing beside Claire at age five.
She recognized the backyard.
Daniel held her upside down while she laughed.
Claire stared at Victor.
“Why do you have this?”
“He gave it to me that night.”
On the back, Daniel had written:
IF I DON’T MAKE IT HOME, SHE STILL DESERVES THE TRUTH.
Claire’s vision blurred.
Victor said, “I failed him.”
“Yes.”
“I know.”
“Where is the film?”
Victor looked around the cemetery.
“Not here.”
“Where?”
“At the Hale Foundation archive.”
Dominic stiffened.
“That building is public.”
“The archive isn’t.”
Victor handed Claire a keycard.
“Lower level. Vault three.”
“Why are you giving it to me now?”
“Because Crane knows you found the digital copy.”
Claire stared.
“And?”
“He’ll come for the original negatives.”
Dominic looked at Victor.
“You’re using them as bait.”
Victor’s silence answered.
Claire became furious.
“You brought me here to turn me into bait?”
“No.”
Victor looked directly at her.
“I brought myself.”
A black sedan entered the cemetery.
Dominic turned.
Marco reached for his phone.
Victor remained calm.
The sedan stopped.
A man stepped out.
Claire recognized him immediately from campaign posters.
Elliot Crane.
Sixty-five.
Silver at the temples.
Perfect suit.
Warm political smile.
He walked toward them alone.
“Victor.”
Victor faced him.
Crane looked at Claire.
“So this is Daniel’s little girl.”
Claire’s hands tightened.
Crane smiled.
“I suppose we’re finally going to have the conversation your father died trying to avoid.”
Dominic moved between them.
Crane laughed.
“Still protecting Bennetts, Dominic?”
Claire stared.
“Still?”
Crane looked delighted.
“Oh.”
He glanced at Dominic.
“She doesn’t know.”
Claire turned slowly.
“Know what?”
Dominic said nothing.
Crane reached into his coat.
Marco moved.
Crane pulled out a photograph.
He tossed it onto Daniel’s memorial stone.
Claire picked it up.
Dominic stood beside Daniel.
Both much younger.
Timestamp.
The day Daniel died.
Claire looked at Dominic.
“You said you never reached him.”
Dominic’s face went pale.
May you like
Crane smiled.
“He lied.”
