Chapter 5 - What Clare Never Told Him
“Let me see my daughter!”
Clare grabbed the phone.
“Maisie!”
The little girl looked toward the camera.
“Mommy?”
“I’m here, baby.”
“I want Bunny.”
“You’re going to get Bunny.”
Mrs. Conti’s voice remained calm.
“She is safe.”
Victor stepped closer.
“If you hurt her—”
“I have cared for that child more times than you have spoken to her.”
“Then bring her back.”
“I will.”
“What do you want?”
“The ledger.”
Victor’s eyes hardened.
“No.”
Clare turned toward him.
“Victor!”
Mrs. Conti continued.
“Midnight. Calder House. Come alone.”
The video ended.
Clare shoved the phone into Victor’s chest.
“You’re giving her the ledger.”
“I’m getting Maisie back.”
“With the ledger.”
“Yes.”
Clare studied him.
“Don’t play games with my daughter.”
“I won’t.”
“You play games with everyone.”
Victor absorbed that.
She was scared.
She had every right to be.
“I give you my word.”
Clare’s anger broke.
“She’s four.”
“I know.”
“She still crawls into my bed when it thunders.”
Victor said nothing.
“She thinks her father is in the stars because I didn’t know how else to explain death.”
Clare began crying.
“And now someone dragged her into this because of secrets I didn’t even know existed.”
Victor lowered his voice.
“We will bring her home.”
“How can you promise that?”
“Because Elias trusted me to.”
Clare looked at him.
“Daniel trusted you long before he ever met me.”
Victor frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Clare wiped her eyes.
“There’s something I never told you.”
“Apparently tonight is popular for that.”
“Don’t.”
Victor stopped.
Clare reached into her purse.
She removed an old envelope.
“I’ve carried this for eleven months.”
Victor recognized Elias’s handwriting.
“Why?”
“Because Daniel told me to give it to you only if Maisie ever said the five-minute thing.”
Victor stared.
“He planned that?”
“He knew children remember rituals better than instructions.”
Victor opened the envelope.
Inside was a single page.
Vic,
If Maisie gives you the hug, it means Clare has run out of safe choices.
Don’t punish her for what I asked her to hide.
And don’t trust the kidnapping if one happens.
Victor reread the final sentence.
“What?”
Clare leaned closer.
Below it, Elias had written:
Conti is not your enemy.
Victor looked at Clare.
“She just took your daughter.”
“Then why would Daniel write that?”
Vincent entered.
“We located them.”
“Where?”
“Calder House.”
Victor’s childhood home.
Abandoned for twelve years.
Exactly where Mrs. Conti had told him to go.
Victor showed Vincent the letter.
Vincent read it twice.
“She wants Graham to believe she’s cooperating.”
Victor nodded.
“Which means Graham is watching.”
At 11:42 p.m., Victor arrived at Calder House.
Alone visibly.
Not actually.
Vincent coordinated from three blocks away.
Clare remained in the vehicle with him despite Victor’s objections.
Victor carried the ledger.
The front door stood open.
He entered.
“Maisie?”
A light appeared beneath the library door.
Victor pushed it open.
Mrs. Conti sat beside Maisie.
The child was eating crackers.
She jumped up.
“Mr. Victor!”
Mrs. Conti caught her gently.
“Wait.”
Victor stared at the older woman.
“Explain.”
“You brought it?”
He raised the ledger.
“Now give me Maisie.”
“Not yet.”
Victor’s patience vanished.
Mrs. Conti looked toward the ceiling.
Then Victor understood.
Microphones.
She was being watched.
He changed his tone.
“You wanted the ledger. Take it.”
He placed it on the table.
Mrs. Conti walked toward him.
As she reached for it, she whispered barely audibly:
“Basement. Two minutes.”
Then loudly:
“Graham will be pleased.”
Victor let her take the book.
Maisie ran to him.
He lifted her.
She wrapped her arms around his neck.
“Five minutes?”
“Not yet, sweetheart.”
“Why?”
“Because we have to find your mom.”
“She’s not here.”
“I know.”
Maisie whispered, “The old lady said Daddy left something downstairs.”
Victor looked at Mrs. Conti.
She gave the smallest nod.
Victor carried Maisie toward the hall.
A voice came from the darkness.
“You always were impatient, Victor.”
Graham Calder stepped from the shadows.
Seventy-one.
Silver-haired.
Elegant.
Smiling.
Victor stopped.
Graham looked at Maisie.
“So this is Elias’s little insurance policy.”
Victor shifted her away from him.
“She’s a child.”
“Yes. And children complicate everything.”
Mrs. Conti held the ledger.
Graham extended his hand.
She gave it to him.
Victor watched her.
Graham smiled.
“Twenty years, Victor. And Elias still managed to annoy me from the grave.”
“You were afraid of him.”
“I was afraid of what he stole.”
“The truth?”
“Evidence.”
Graham opened the ledger.
His smile disappeared.
Blank pages.
Victor said, “Looking for something?”
Graham stared at him.
Victor had switched the ledger.
The real one was already with federal investigators through Martin Reese.
Graham laughed.
“You finally learned.”
“From better men than you.”
Footsteps sounded outside.
Graham didn’t seem worried.
“You think this ends with me?”
Victor stared.
“Who else?”
Graham looked toward Mrs. Conti.
She looked terrified.
Not of Graham.
Of something behind Victor.
Victor turned.
The basement door had opened.
And Clare stood there holding a photograph she had just found below.
Her face was white.
“Victor.”
He looked at the photograph.
It showed Elias.
Graham.
And Victor’s father.
May you like
But there was a fourth man standing beside them.
Vincent Hale.
