Chapter 2 - The Secret Inside His Jacket
Norah’s hand remained inside her apron pocket.
“Nothing.”
Arthur’s gaze did not move.
“That was your first mistake.”
She felt anger cut through fear.
“Excuse me?”
“Lying badly.”
“You lied to me all night.”
Arthur walked toward the table.
“I omitted information.”
“That’s called lying when normal people do it.”
He stopped.
“Show me.”
“No.”
His eyebrows lifted.
Norah surprised herself almost as much as she surprised him.
She removed the photograph but kept it against her chest.
“My father.”
Arthur went still.
“You knew him.”
Silence.
“Answer me.”
“Yes.”
The single word changed everything.
Norah’s throat tightened.
“How?”
Arthur looked toward the locked door.
“Your father worked for my father.”
“My father repaired industrial refrigeration systems.”
“That’s what you were told.”
Norah laughed once.
It sounded brittle.
“My father spent fifteen years crawling through restaurant basements fixing compressors.”
“He also maintained refrigeration units at warehouses controlled by my family.”
“So?”
“So he saw things.”
Norah put the photograph down.
“Things like what?”
Arthur looked at her.
“Things he shouldn’t have.”
Cold moved through her.
Her father had died three years earlier after a long illness.
During his final months, he had barely remembered what day it was.
But he had remembered one thing.
Never work for powerful men, Norah.
She had thought it was generic advice.
Then she had taken the highest-paying housekeeping job she could find.
At the Costello estate.
“What does ‘knows everything’ mean?”
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t.”
“I’m telling you the truth.”
“You knew my father and hired me anyway?”
“I didn’t hire you.”
“Your house did.”
Arthur’s expression changed.
Exactly enough.
Norah saw it.
“You knew.”
“I recognized your surname after you started.”
“And you let me stay.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Arthur took the photograph.
“Because your father disappeared from my family’s business eleven years ago, and nobody ever understood why.”
“He didn’t disappear. He quit a contract.”
“That’s what somebody wanted everyone to believe.”
Norah felt sick.
“Who?”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to determine.”
She stared at him.
“Last night.”
Arthur said nothing.
“The old friend you killed.”
His jaw tightened.
“Was he connected to my father?”
Arthur walked toward the window.
The library overlooked the frozen gardens.
“He said your father had discovered a second ledger.”
“What ledger?”
“One my father never kept.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“It does if someone was stealing from him.”
Arthur turned.
“Large amounts.”
“How large?”
“Millions.”
Norah almost laughed.
Her father had died owing hospitals more money than he had earned in years.
“You think my father stole from you?”
“No.”
The certainty surprised her.
“Why?”
“Because Daniel Reed lived in a two-bedroom apartment and drove the same Ford for fourteen years.”
Arthur placed the photograph down.
“Men who steal millions eventually buy something.”
Norah remembered the collection notices.
The oxygen machine.
Her father apologizing because she had dropped out of community college to work.
“If he knew where millions went, why didn’t he tell anyone?”
“Maybe he tried.”
The room seemed smaller.
Arthur continued.
“The man I confronted last night told me Daniel had hidden proof.”
“Where?”
“He died before telling me.”
Norah’s face hardened.
“You mean before you killed him.”
Arthur accepted the correction.
“Yes.”
She turned away.
“You need to leave me out of this.”
“I intended to.”
“Then why did you come to my room?”
“I told you. I had nowhere else.”
“You expect me to believe that was coincidence?”
Arthur looked almost offended.
“Yes.”
“Arthur, my father’s photograph was sewn inside your jacket.”
“I didn’t put it there.”
That stopped her.
“What?”
“This jacket was delivered from my tailor yesterday.”
Norah stared.
“You think someone planted it?”
“I think someone wanted me to find it.”
“Why?”
“Maybe not me.”
His eyes settled on her.
“Maybe you.”
A knock hit the library door.
Both froze.
“Arthur?”
A male voice.
Vincent Rizzo, Arthur’s longtime adviser.
Arthur moved instantly.
He slipped the photograph into his inner pocket.
“Go through the service door.”
Norah did not move.
“Now.”
She hurried behind the bookcase and through the narrow staff passage.
Before the panel closed, she heard Arthur unlock the main door.
Vincent entered.
“You look terrible.”
“Thank you.”
“Where were you last night?”
Norah stopped.
Arthur answered calmly.
“Drinking.”
“Alone?”
“Yes.”
A pause.
Then Vincent said, “Interesting.”
Norah’s pulse climbed.
“Why?”
“Because one of the basement cameras went offline at 2:57.”
Silence.
Norah covered her mouth.
Vincent continued.
“And came back at 5:42.”
Arthur’s response was almost bored.
“Then fix the camera.”
“I already did.”
Norah slowly backed away.
She reached the kitchen without being seen.
For the rest of the morning, she worked automatically.
At noon, she received a text.
Unknown number.
Your father tried to save you from this house.
Norah stopped breathing.
Another message arrived.
Arthur Costello is not the man you should fear.
Then a third.
Look under your father’s floor.
Norah stared at the screen.
Her father’s apartment had been emptied after his death.
But Norah still had one thing.
The storage unit containing everything she had been unable to throw away.
At two, she told Maria she was sick.
At 2:17, Norah left through the staff entrance.
She did not notice the black sedan following her.
The storage facility stood forty minutes away.
Norah unlocked unit 314.
Boxes filled the narrow space.
Her father’s desk sat at the back.
Floor.
What floor?
She searched every box.
Nothing.
Then she remembered.
Her father had built the desk himself.
Norah turned it over.
The bottom looked ordinary.
Until she noticed four tiny screws.
She removed them.
A thin compartment opened.
Inside was a brass key.
A folded note.
And an old digital voice recorder.
Norah unfolded the note.
Her father’s handwriting.
If anything happens to me, do not trust the man who says Arthur is the enemy.
Her blood went cold.
The storage unit door slammed shut behind her.
Darkness swallowed the room.
Then someone outside slid the lock into place.
Norah grabbed her phone.
Before she could dial, the old voice recorder suddenly clicked on by itself.
May you like
Her father’s voice filled the darkness.
“Norah, if you’re hearing this, Arthur Costello has finally found you.”
