Chapter 4 - The Brother Who Came Too Quickly
Thomas Carrington was Victor's younger brother.
Nora learned that in the ten seconds after he entered the room.
She also learned that Luca hated him.
Not from anything Luca said.
From the way Luca stepped between Thomas and Victor.
“Who told you he was here?”
Thomas removed his gloves.
“Family hears things.”
“Not this quickly.”
Thomas smiled.
“You've become suspicious.”
“My father was poisoned.”
The smile vanished.
“What?”
Victor watched his brother.
Thomas looked genuinely shocked.
Or he was very good.
Nora couldn't tell.
“Who did it?” Thomas asked.
“We're investigating.”
Thomas noticed Edward.
His face changed.
“Well.”
Edward stood.
“Hello, Thomas.”
“You're alive.”
“So I've heard.”
Thomas stared at him.
“Where have you been?”
“Learning which Carringtons lie best.”
Luca said, “Enough.”
Thomas's eyes moved to Nora.
“And the maid?”
“Nora Ellis.”
Something flickered in his face.
Recognition.
Nora saw it.
“You know my name.”
Thomas recovered quickly.
“I know many employees.”
“I've never met you.”
“No.”
“Then how?”
Thomas smiled faintly.
“The estate keeps records.”
Nora didn't believe him.
Neither did Luca.
“What was her mother's name?” Luca asked.
Thomas looked at him.
“What?”
“You know the employee records. Tell me.”
Thomas said nothing.
Nora answered.
“Grace Ellis.”
Thomas's face remained composed.
But one hand tightened around his gloves.
Victor saw it.
“So you remember her.”
Thomas looked at him.
“I remember the foundation accountant.”
Nora's throat tightened.
“You met my mother?”
“Once.”
“When?”
“Years ago.”
Edward said, “October seventeenth.”
Thomas turned.
Edward's voice sharpened.
“The night Grace made the recording.”
Thomas laughed quietly.
“This is ridiculous.”
Nora stepped toward him.
“My mother died two days later.”
“I am sorry.”
“Were you in her office?”
“No.”
“You didn't even ask which office.”
Silence.
Thomas's eyes narrowed.
Luca looked at Nora.
Then back at his uncle.
“Answer her.”
Thomas sighed.
“Grace Ellis accused several people of financial misconduct. She was emotional.”
“My mother was an accountant.”
“That does not make her incapable of emotion.”
Nora took another step.
“What did she accuse you of?”
Thomas looked at Luca.
“I will not be interrogated by staff.”
Victor's voice came from the bed.
“You will answer her.”
Thomas stared at his brother.
Victor continued.
“She has shown me more loyalty in three weeks than half this family has shown in ten years.”
Thomas's expression hardened.
“You don't know her.”
“No.”
Victor glanced at Nora.
“That is precisely why her kindness mattered.”
Nora's eyes stung.
She looked away.
Thomas said, “Grace believed charitable funds were being rerouted through shell companies.”
“Was she right?” Luca asked.
“I never saw evidence.”
Edward lifted the briefcase.
“I did.”
Thomas's face changed again.
Only slightly.
Luca noticed.
“What are you afraid is in that case?”
“Nothing.”
“Then sit.”
Thomas laughed.
“You give orders like your grandfather.”
“Sit.”
Thomas sat.
For the next hour, documents became a map.
Edward explained the structure.
Money moved from Carrington Medical Foundation to regional clinics that existed mostly on paper.
From there, payments went to consulting companies.
Then trusts.
Then real estate.
Millions over fifteen years.
Helena had processed paperwork.
But someone above her approved transfers.
Someone with board-level credentials.
Thomas sat silent.
Luca reviewed transaction logs.
“These approvals came from my father's credentials.”
Victor shook his head.
“I never approved these.”
“Some are biometric.”
“That is impossible.”
Edward looked toward Victor's hand.
“Not if someone had regular access to him.”
Nora thought about Helena bringing tea.
Helping Victor dress.
Handling his watch.
Victor seemed to understand.
“She used my fingerprints.”
Luca's face hardened.
Thomas stood abruptly.
“This is speculation.”
Luca looked up.
“Sit down.”
“I have a board meeting.”
“No, you don't.”
Thomas stared.
“I beg your pardon?”
“I canceled it.”
“When?”
“Three minutes ago.”
Thomas pulled out his phone.
No signal.
He looked at Luca.
“Hospital security.”
Luca nodded.
Thomas's anger became visible.
“This family is not your private kingdom.”
“No. But the company is currently mine.”
“Your father still owns voting shares.”
Victor said, “Which I'm reconsidering.”
Thomas turned.
Victor's gaze was steady.
“Sit down.”
Thomas obeyed.
Nora found it strange.
A man who looked important enough to command almost any room obeyed Victor like a younger brother who had heard that tone his entire life.
Marco brought more evidence.
Helena's burner phones contained hundreds of messages.
Most used initials.
T.C.
C.M.
E.W.
Nora saw Thomas's eyes move.
Luca did too.
“T.C.?”
Thomas smiled without humor.
“Half the city has those initials.”
“Not half the family.”
“And C.M.?”
“Charles Mercer, presumably.”
Victor looked at Luca.
“Where is Charles?”
Marco answered.
“His office says he left the city this morning.”
Luca leaned back.
“Before or after my father entered the hospital?”
“Before.”
Thomas seized on it.
“There. If anyone looks suspicious, it is Charles.”
Edward said, “Interesting.”
Thomas turned.
“What?”
“You named him very quickly.”
“He is the obvious suspect.”
“Too obvious.”
Nora studied Thomas.
He was becoming impatient.
Fearless people did not usually check the clock every thirty seconds.
People waiting for something did.
She looked at his phone.
No signal.
But his smartwatch continued vibrating.
Messages queued through a hospital network perhaps.
“Your watch.”
Thomas looked at her.
“What?”
“It keeps buzzing.”
Everyone looked.
He covered it with his sleeve.
“Work.”
Luca held out his hand.
“Give it to me.”
“No.”
“Then you're hiding something.”
Thomas stood.
“I've tolerated enough.”
He moved toward the door.
Marco blocked him.
Thomas looked at Luca.
“You cannot detain me.”
“You can leave.”
Marco stepped aside.
Thomas relaxed.
Luca continued.
“But your devices stay.”
Thomas froze.
A long second.
Then he removed the watch.
He tossed it onto the table.
“Enjoy your paranoia.”
He walked out.
Nora watched him go.
“Too easy.”
Luca looked at her.
“What?”
“He gave up the watch too easily.”
Marco picked it up.
“Maybe wiped remotely.”
Edward shook his head.
“Or it's bait.”
They examined it.
Mostly normal messages.
Business.
Appointments.
One message had arrived three minutes earlier from a number saved only as H.
IT'S DONE. MOVE THE SECOND PACKAGE.
Luca went still.
Marco swore.
Victor said, “Helena.”
Luca called security at the estate.
No answer.
He tried another line.
Nothing.
Marco tried.
Still nothing.
“Network's down.”
Luca stood.
“I'm going back.”
Nora said, “I'm coming.”
“No.”
“My mother's drive came from that house.”
“Exactly.”
“You think I'm safer here?”
“Yes.”
“What if whatever evidence exists disappears before you get there?”
Luca stared at her.
“She has a point,” Edward said.
Luca glared at him.
Edward shrugged.
“She usually does.”
Victor said, “Take her.”
“No.”
“Luca.”
“She isn't trained.”
Nora folded her arms.
“I spent three years in nursing school and six years working emergency intake before medical debt forced me out. I know how to keep someone alive until help arrives.”
Luca looked at her.
“You were a nurse?”
“Almost.”
“What happened?”
“My mother died. Bills happened.”
Victor looked pained.
“You never told me.”
“You never asked.”
Luca considered.
Finally, “You stay beside Marco.”
Nora smiled faintly.
“Is that permission?”
“It is an order.”
“Those don't work very well on me.”
“I've noticed.”
Victor called after them.
“Nora.”
She turned.
He held out his watch.
“Take this.”
“Why?”
“Because someone wanted us to notice it.”
She hesitated.
Then accepted.
The drive back to the estate took twenty-three minutes.
The front gates stood open.
Too open.
No guard.
Luca's face changed.
“Stay in the car.”
He and Marco entered first.
Nora waited thirty seconds.
Then forty.
Then she saw someone moving behind the second-floor curtains.
Not Luca.
A woman.
She got out.
The mansion was silent.
Crystal still glittered on the dining room floor.
The spilled soup had been partially wiped.
Nora moved toward the staff corridor.
A door slammed upstairs.
Then a gunshot.
She froze.
Another shot.
Marco shouted.
Nora ran toward the stairs before common sense could stop her.
She reached the landing.
Luca emerged from Victor's bedroom.
“Why are you out of the car?”
“Someone fired.”
“We're fine.”
“Where's Helena?”
“Gone.”
Marco came from the opposite hall.
“Found the security team locked in the cellar. No serious injuries.”
Nora looked around.
“Second package.”
Luca remembered.
They searched Helena's office.
Empty safe.
Empty desk.
Burner phones gone.
Then Nora noticed the bookshelf.
One volume was missing dust.
She pulled it.
Nothing.
She examined the shelf.
A narrow gap.
She pressed.
The bookshelf clicked.
Luca looked at her.
“How did you—”
“My apartment has cheap cabinets.”
The shelf swung inward.
A hidden stairway descended into darkness.
Marco drew his weapon.
“Stay behind me.”
They descended.
The underground room smelled like paper, metal, and damp concrete.
Shelves covered the walls.
Files.
Old computers.
Photographs.
Nora moved slowly.
Then she saw her mother's face.
Dozens of photographs.
Grace entering work.
Grace buying groceries.
Grace driving.
Grace standing outside Nora's old nursing school.
Nora stopped.
“Oh my God.”
Luca looked.
Someone had followed her mother for weeks.
A photograph near the bottom showed Grace's car.
The image was dated the day before her accident.
The hood was open.
A man leaned over the engine.
His face was hidden.
Nora picked it up.
On the back, handwritten:
BRAKES READY.
Her hands began shaking.
Luca took the photograph.
“Nora.”
“She didn't have an accident.”
“No.”
“She was murdered.”
“Yes.”
Nora closed her eyes.
She wanted to scream.
Instead she forced herself to look at the remaining evidence.
A filing cabinet stood nearby.
One drawer labeled G.E.
Locked.
Marco broke it.
Inside was Grace's personnel file.
Bank records.
A map.
And one sealed letter addressed to:
NORA ELLIS.
Her knees weakened.
She tore it open.
The handwriting was her mother's.
Nora,
If you're reading this, then I didn't get the chance to tell you myself.
I'm sorry.
I found something inside the Carrington Foundation, and I made the mistake of telling the wrong person.
But the money isn't the worst part.
Someone has been using the foundation to pay for disappearances.
Nora stopped reading.
Luca looked over her shoulder.
Below was one final line.
If anything happens to me, trust Victor Carrington.
But do not trust his sons.
Nora slowly looked at Luca.
Neither spoke.
Then footsteps sounded on the hidden stairs.
Someone was coming down.
Marco raised his gun.
May you like
The basement door opened.
And Victor Carrington stepped into the room.
