Chapter 3 - The Dead Man's Ring
Dominic stared at the photograph until Evelyn quietly said his name.
“That ring belonged to my father.”
Adrian looked over his shoulder.
“You're sure?”
“I buried him wearing it.”
Nobody spoke.
Victor Carver had died eight years earlier after a stroke.
Dominic had stood beside the coffin.
He had watched the lid close.
Yet the heavy black onyx ring in the photograph was unmistakable.
Evelyn studied the image.
“Could someone have taken it before he was buried?”
Dominic looked at Adrian.
Adrian was already calling Chicago.
Martin remained near the door.
“I need to tell you something else.”
Dominic turned.
Martin swallowed.
“Victor wasn't the only person who threatened me.”
“Who?”
“I never knew his name.”
“Describe him.”
“Younger than Victor. Maybe thirty then. Always wore that ring.”
Dominic went still.
“That wasn't my father's ring?”
“I assumed it was some Carver symbol.”
It wasn't.
Dominic enlarged the photograph.
The ring resembled Victor's, but there was one difference.
A narrow silver line crossed the black stone.
Dominic remembered seeing it before.
On another man's hand.
His uncle.
Richard Carver.
Victor's younger brother.
Richard had supposedly moved to Europe ten years earlier after selling his stake in the family company.
Dominic hadn't spoken to him since.
“Richard.”
Adrian looked up.
“Your uncle?”
Dominic nodded.
Evelyn opened Thomas's notebook again.
“R.C.”
She found the initials repeatedly.
R.C. approved transfer.
R.C. altered manifest.
R.C. followed G.
Dominic felt the truth shifting beneath him.
Maybe Victor had been involved.
Maybe Richard had been involved.
Maybe both.
But somebody had spent twelve years ensuring nobody assembled the complete story.
Evelyn touched the sealed envelope.
“We should open this.”
“You said your father told you not to open it on the train.”
“He also thought you would be alone.”
Dominic looked around Car Nine.
Nothing about this journey was following Thomas Hart's plan.
“Not yet,” he said.
“Why?”
“Because someone arranged for you to be here.”
“Martin did.”
“No. Martin created the reservation. But somebody knew he would.”
Martin's face tightened.
Dominic continued.
“Somebody disabled my apartment security at the exact moment we found the photograph. Somebody had access to information that should have died twelve years ago.”
Evelyn looked toward the connecting door.
“You think they're on the train?”
“I think we assume they are.”
The Continental Crown began slowing.
An announcement came overhead.
Unexpected signal delay.
Dominic looked at Adrian.
“That wasn't scheduled.”
Adrian checked his phone.
“No.”
Martin went toward the door.
“I'll speak with the engineer.”
Dominic caught his arm.
“You stay here.”
“Why?”
“Because you're one of four people who knew enough to arrange today.”
Martin stared at him.
“You think I—”
“I think everybody stays where I can see them.”
Evelyn closed her father's notebook.
“And me?”
Dominic looked at her.
“You're the only person I'm reasonably certain didn't know what was happening.”
“That's comforting.”
Despite everything, Dominic almost smiled.
Almost.
The train stopped.
Outside was not a station.
Only trees.
An access road.
A maintenance crossing.
Then the lights in Car Nine flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Darkness.
Evelyn inhaled sharply.
Dominic moved toward her voice.
“Stay where you are.”
Emergency lighting activated several seconds later.
Dim amber strips illuminated the floor.
The envelope was gone.
Evelyn looked down.
“My letter.”
Dominic turned.
The connecting door was swinging.
Someone had opened it during the blackout.
Adrian ran.
Dominic followed.
They crossed into Car Eight.
Passengers looked up in confusion.
A man in a gray coat was moving quickly toward the next vestibule.
“Stop!”
The man ran.
Dominic followed through Car Seven.
Then Six.
The train started moving again.
The man reached a service door.
Adrian came from the opposite aisle.
Trapped.
The stranger turned.
He wasn't young.
Sixties.
Gray hair.
A scar along his jaw.
Dominic recognized him.
“Samuel Price.”
Samuel had been Victor Carver's private attorney for nearly thirty years.
He had disappeared after Victor's funeral.
Samuel held the envelope.
“Give it to me.”
Samuel shook his head.
“You don't understand what you're opening.”
“Then explain it.”
“Your brother should have stopped.”
Dominic's expression changed.
“What did you say?”
Samuel realized his mistake.
Dominic stepped closer.
“You knew what Gabriel was doing.”
“I knew enough.”
“Were you on the train?”
“No.”
“Was Richard?”
Samuel said nothing.
That was an answer.
Dominic held out his hand.
“The letter.”
Samuel looked at the envelope.
Then at Dominic.
“Your father spent his life protecting you from what this family really was.”
Dominic's voice remained quiet.
“My father protected himself.”
Samuel laughed bitterly.
“You still think Victor was the worst of them.”
The words landed strangely.
“Who was worse?”
Samuel looked past Dominic.
Toward Car Nine.
“Ask the teacher who her father really worked for.”
Dominic turned slightly.
That was all Samuel needed.
He shoved open the service door and disappeared into the next car.
Adrian followed.
Dominic returned to Car Nine.
Evelyn was standing beside Thomas's notebook.
“What happened?”
“Samuel Price took the letter.”
Her face fell.
“Who?”
“My father's attorney.”
Martin muttered something under his breath.
Dominic caught it.
“What?”
Martin looked frightened.
“Samuel was there.”
“Where?”
“The night Gabriel died.”
Dominic stared at him.
“You said you saw Victor.”
“I did.”
“And now Samuel?”
“I didn't see his face. I heard his voice.”
Dominic grabbed the seatback.
“How many things did you leave out?”
“I was trying to survive.”
“So was Gabriel.”
Martin looked down.
Evelyn opened her father's notebook again.
She had stopped on a page Dominic hadn't seen.
There was a name.
Not Thomas Hart.
Thomas Carver.
Evelyn stared at it.
Her face emptied.
“No.”
Dominic stepped beside her.
Beneath the name was a sentence.
MY REAL NAME MUST NEVER REACH EVELYN.
Dominic looked at her.
Evelyn slowly shook her head.
“My father was Thomas Hart.”
But tucked inside the notebook's back cover was an old birth certificate.
Evelyn pulled it free.
Father: Thomas Carver.
Grandfather: Edward Carver.
Dominic knew that name.
Edward had been Victor's eldest brother.
The brother supposedly killed in a warehouse fire before Dominic was born.
Evelyn looked at Dominic.
“What does this mean?”
Before he could answer, Adrian returned.
He was alone.
Samuel had escaped into a service compartment during the stop.
But Adrian was holding something.
The stolen envelope.
“I got it back.”
Evelyn reached for it.
Adrian didn't move.
“There's a problem.”
“What?”
“The seal was already broken.”
Dominic took the envelope.
Inside was a single sheet.
He unfolded it.
At the top, in Gabriel's handwriting, were seven words:
DOM, IF YOU'RE READING THIS, TRUST EVELYN.
Dominic looked up.
Then he read the next line.
And for the first time in twelve years, he understood why Gabriel had been killed.
At the bottom of the page was the name of the person Gabriel had planned to expose.
Dominic whispered it aloud.
“Richard Carver.”
May you like
Behind them, Martin suddenly said:
“He's on this train.”
