Chapter 4 - Someone on the Fourteenth Floor
Harper stared at Adrian.
“What did you do?”
“I was seventeen.”
“That isn't an answer.”
Adrian ordered Cole to find Graham.
Harper grabbed Adrian's sleeve.
“Answer me.”
He looked at her hand.
Nobody grabbed Adrian Crowe.
She released him.
“Daniel came to our house the night my father died,” Adrian said. “He was bleeding.”
Harper stopped.
“He gave my father something. They argued. I heard gunfire.”
“Who fired?”
“I don't know.”
“You were there.”
“I found my father dead. Daniel was gone.”
“And later my father died in a crash.”
“Yes.”
“You never investigated?”
“For nineteen years.”
Harper laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“And?”
“Everyone connected to that night disappeared.”
“Except you.”
“Yes.”
They returned to Crowe Meridian through a service entrance.
Fourteen was empty.
Graham's office had been torn apart.
Blood marked the carpet.
But no body.
Harper opened his desk.
Inside was her personnel file.
Not unusual.
Except this version was twenty years old.
The first page showed a photograph of Harper at seven.
SUBJECT: HARPER LANE.
PROTECTIVE MONITORING AUTHORIZED.
Signed:
ALEXANDER CROWE.
Harper's hands shook.
“Your father was watching me.”
“Protecting you.”
“You don't know that.”
Adrian couldn't argue.
Cole found a hidden compartment beneath Graham's desk.
Inside was a key.
Number 4217.
Adrian recognized it.
“Union Station lockers.”
Harper looked at him.
“Then we're going.”
“No.”
She stepped closer.
“You don't own me.”
His expression hardened.
“No. That's why I'm trying to keep you alive instead of locking you in a room.”
Harper blinked.
“You considered that?”
“Yes.”
“Good to know.”
For the first time, Adrian smiled.
Barely.
It vanished almost immediately.
Harper saw it anyway.
Something shifted between them.
Then the office lights died.
Cole cursed.
Emergency lighting turned the hallway red.
A sound came from the design studio.
Harper whispered, “Someone's here.”
Adrian pushed her behind him.
A shadow moved beyond the glass.
Cole approached.
The figure ran.
Cole followed.
Adrian stayed with Harper.
“Why aren't you chasing him?”
“Because you're here.”
The simplicity of the answer unsettled her.
A computer monitor suddenly turned on.
One file appeared.
VIDEO_1997.
Harper clicked.
Security footage filled the screen.
A younger Alexander Crowe stood beside Daniel Lane.
A third man entered.
Harper leaned closer.
The image distorted.
The third man's face became visible for one second.
Adrian's blood went cold.
Harper looked at him.
“Who is that?”
Before Adrian could answer, the office door clicked shut behind them.
A voice came from the darkness.
May you like
“His uncle.”
And Adrian slowly turned toward the man who had just stepped out of the shadows.
