Chapter 3 - The Number Nora Never Gave Him
Victor called again.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
He looked at Adrian.
"Find her."
Adrian was already working.
"Nora's smart. If she doesn't want to be traced—"
"Find her."
Sylvia stepped forward.
"Victor, whoever approached her in that garage—"
He turned.
"Go home."
"No."
"That wasn't a request."
Sylvia stared at him.
Then she said, "You're still doing it."
Victor frowned.
"Doing what?"
"Trying to control everyone because you're terrified."
He almost answered.
Then stopped.
Because she was right.
Adrian looked up.
"I've got something."
Victor moved beside him.
"The SUV Nora used wasn't registered to her."
"Whose?"
"Rental company."
"Driver?"
"No driver. Nora rented it herself yesterday."
Victor exhaled.
"Where?"
"O'Hare."
"Track it."
"I can't legally—"
Victor stared at him.
Adrian sighed.
"I'll make calls."
Twenty minutes later, they had the last recorded toll location.
Northwest.
Nora had left Chicago.
Victor grabbed his coat.
Adrian blocked him.
"If the person threatening her expects you to chase her, you'll lead them straight to her."
Victor stopped.
That possibility hadn't occurred to him.
Adrian continued.
"Think."
Victor hated that word.
He was excellent at thinking when the problem belonged to someone else.
This problem was his wife.
His children.
His failures.
"April seventeenth," Victor said.
They returned to his office.
Victor searched financial records.
Nothing obvious.
Then Adrian found it.
$240,000.
Transferred April 17.
Recipient:
HALCYON CONSULTING.
Victor frowned.
"I've never heard of them."
"Authorized with your credentials."
Victor looked at him.
"I didn't authorize this."
"Someone did."
They searched deeper.
Halcyon Consulting had dissolved three months later.
Its registered address led to a vacant office.
But the transfer authorization contained an internal approval signature.
A signature belonging to someone Victor trusted.
Adrian leaned toward the screen.
"No."
Victor read the name.
THOMAS RINALDI.
Victor's uncle.
The man who had helped raise him after his father died.
The man who had taught Victor how to negotiate, how to protect the family businesses, how never to let fear show.
Adrian whispered, "Thomas had access to your accounts."
Victor stood.
"Call him."
Thomas answered on the second ring.
"Victor?"
"Where are you?"
"Home."
"Stay there."
A pause.
"Why?"
Victor looked at the transaction.
"April seventeenth."
Silence.
Victor knew.
"Thomas."
His uncle finally spoke.
"Come alone."
The call ended.
Adrian shook his head.
"You're not going alone."
Victor stared at the phone.
"No."
"Victor—"
"I'm not going at all."
Adrian looked surprised.
Victor picked up Mia's hospital bracelet.
"Nora left this for me. Not Thomas."
He studied 0417 again.
"She wanted me to find the payment."
"So what now?"
"We find out what Halcyon bought."
It took two hours.
At 7:41 A.M., Adrian located an archived invoice.
PRIVATE INVESTIGATIVE SERVICES.
SUBJECT SURVEILLANCE.
Victor opened the attached document.
The subject's name made his stomach turn.
NORA RINALDI.
His own accounts had funded surveillance of his wife.
Victor scrolled.
Photographs.
Nora leaving the hospital.
Nora pushing a stroller.
Nora visiting a pharmacy.
Nora meeting her mother.
Victor looked sick.
"I didn't do this."
Adrian believed him.
"But Thomas did."
Victor kept scrolling.
Then he stopped.
One photograph showed Nora entering a medical office.
The date was two months before the twins' birth.
Another showed her meeting a woman outside.
Victor zoomed in.
Sylvia.
Adrian frowned.
"That's before April seventeenth."
Victor's phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
A man's voice said:
"You should have gone to your uncle."
Victor stood slowly.
"Who is this?"
"You've always been impatient."
"Where's my wife?"
"Safe."
Victor's eyes hardened.
"If you've touched—"
"Nobody touched Nora."
The man sounded almost amused.
"She's safer away from you than she ever was beside you."
Victor looked at Adrian.
"What do you want?"
"I want you to stop digging."
"Then you don't know me."
"I know you better than you think."
The call ended.
Adrian immediately tried tracing it.
Victor looked again at the surveillance photographs.
Then he noticed something.
In several images, the photographer had accidentally captured a reflection in storefront glass.
A man.
Gray coat.
Older.
Victor enlarged the image.
His face was partially visible.
Adrian leaned closer.
"Do you know him?"
Victor stared.
"No."
But he knew someone who might.
Sylvia.
They called her.
She arrived twenty minutes later.
Victor showed her the image.
Sylvia went pale.
"That's him."
"The garage?"
She nodded.
Victor enlarged the face again.
Adrian ran facial searches through legitimate corporate security databases.
Nothing.
Then Sylvia pointed toward the man's hand.
"Wait."
A ring.
Heavy silver.
An engraved symbol.
Victor recognized it.
He had seen the same ring years ago.
On his father's desk.
His father had belonged to a private investment circle called Meridian.
After his death, Victor had forgotten about it.
Adrian hadn't.
"Meridian dissolved twelve years ago."
"Apparently not."
Victor searched his father's archived files.
MERIDIAN.
Hundreds of documents appeared.
Most financial.
Some legal.
One folder was encrypted.
Victor entered his father's old password.
Wrong.
His mother's birthday.
Wrong.
Victor stared at Mia's bracelet.
He typed it.
The folder opened.
Inside was one video.
Victor clicked.
His father appeared on screen.
Older than Victor remembered him.
Tired.
Afraid.
The recording date was three days before his death.
"If Victor ever sees this," his father said, "then Thomas failed to destroy it."
Victor stopped breathing.
Adrian whispered, "Victor..."
The video continued.
"Your uncle has been using your name."
Victor's eyes widened.
"And if he discovers Nora knows the truth, he will come for the one thing you cannot replace."
Victor froze.
The video ended.
Then Victor's phone received a photograph.
Nora.
Standing beside the twins.
Behind her was a house Victor recognized.
May you like
His childhood lake house.
And in the window behind Nora stood a man wearing a gray coat.
