Chapter 5 - The Man Adrian Could Not Kill
Victor Crowe looked almost exactly as Adrian remembered him.
Older.
Thinner.
But alive.
Adrian had buried him fifteen years ago.
Harper backed away.
“You're supposed to be dead,” Adrian said.
Victor smiled.
“So are many useful men.”
Adrian moved toward him.
Victor raised a remote.
“Take another step and this floor burns.”
Adrian stopped.
Victor looked at Harper.
“You have Daniel's eyes.”
“I never met you.”
“You did. You were seven.”
Harper's face tightened.
Victor explained nothing.
He enjoyed watching uncertainty work.
“You killed my father,” she said.
“No.”
“Then who did?”
Victor smiled.
“That answer costs something.”
Adrian's voice lowered.
“What?”
“The ledger.”
“We don't have it.”
“But she has the last page.”
Harper shook her head.
“I don't.”
Victor pointed toward her bag.
“Daniel knew children lose things. So he gave you something you wouldn't throw away.”
Harper remembered.
Her mother's box.
Old drawings.
School awards.
A birthday card from her father.
And one photograph she had carried through every move.
She said nothing.
Victor saw recognition.
“There.”
Adrian moved.
Victor pressed the remote.
An explosion shook another part of the building.
Sprinklers activated.
Victor vanished through a service door.
Adrian started after him.
Harper caught his hand.
“Don't.”
He stopped.
It was the first time anyone had stopped Adrian Crowe by simply holding his hand.
Cole returned.
“Boss.”
Adrian looked toward the service door.
Then at Harper.
“Get her somewhere safe.”
Harper shook her head.
“My apartment.”
“No.”
“The photograph is there.”
That changed everything.
They reached her apartment twenty minutes later.
The door was open.
Harper went pale.
Adrian entered first.
Everything had been searched.
Mattress cut.
Drawers emptied.
Photographs scattered.
Harper knelt.
She found an old picture beneath the couch.
Daniel holding seven-year-old Harper.
On the back was a childish drawing of a bird.
She peeled the photograph from its cardboard backing.
A thin piece of paper was hidden underneath.
Numbers.
Names.
Payments.
Adrian read them.
Judges.
Police officers.
Executives.
Politicians.
Then Harper pointed to one entry.
C. BARRETT.
Her eyes lifted.
“Cole?”
Adrian said nothing.
Cole Barrett had served Adrian for fourteen years.
Saved his life six times.
Killed for him.
The apartment door opened behind them.
Cole walked in.
He saw the paper.
Then he saw Adrian's face.
“What?”
Adrian held up the ledger page.
May you like
Cole's expression changed.
And his hand slowly moved toward the gun beneath his jacket.
