Chapter 5 - What Charlotte Wanted
Charlotte appeared at the top of the stairs.
She wore a pale coat.
No rain on it.
No panic.
Behind her stood two men Jane had never seen.
Daniel did.
His face changed.
“State police.”
One man raised a badge.
Charlotte smiled.
“There you are.”
Vincent moved in front of Jane.
The officer aimed his weapon.
“Vincent Moretti, hands where I can see them.”
Jane stared.
Charlotte had built the scene perfectly.
A kidnapped woman.
A restrained older woman.
A feared criminal.
A basement.
Police witnesses.
Vincent slowly raised his hands.
Charlotte looked at Jane.
“Oh, sweetheart.”
Jane nearly laughed.
Sweetheart.
Charlotte had called her sweetheart only when cameras were present.
“What did you tell them?”
Charlotte looked wounded.
“That you were abducted.”
“You sent me here.”
“Jane, you’re confused.”
Daniel stepped forward.
“Stop.”
Charlotte’s face changed.
For one brief second, real fear.
“Daniel.”
The officers turned.
One lowered his weapon slightly.
Daniel Mercer was supposed to be dead.
Charlotte recovered fast.
“You see?” she told the officers. “Moretti staged everything.”
Daniel laughed.
“You really haven’t changed.”
The digital timer reached three minutes.
Vincent looked at Luca.
“Figure it out.”
Charlotte glanced at the timer.
Jane noticed.
“You know what happens at zero.”
Charlotte smiled.
“Evidence gets preserved.”
Vincent’s gaze hardened.
“What evidence?”
Charlotte ignored him.
“Jane, come upstairs.”
“No.”
“You’re frightened.”
“I’m angry.”
“Same thing for you.”
Jane stepped around Vincent.
“No, Mother.”
Charlotte’s smile tightened.
“Come here.”
“You sold me.”
“I protected you.”
“You tried to kill me.”
“I gave you everything.”
“You gave me a lie.”
Charlotte’s face hardened.
“Without me, you would have grown up inside that family.”
She pointed at Vincent.
“You think he is your savior?”
“No.”
Jane looked at Vincent briefly.
“He never asked to be.”
That silenced Charlotte.
Jane continued.
“You took me because Daniel loved Elena.”
Charlotte’s eyes flickered.
There.
Jane saw it.
The wound.
Twenty-eight years old and still bleeding.
“You hated her.”
Charlotte whispered, “You know nothing.”
“I know enough.”
Daniel stepped forward.
“You loved me.”
Charlotte looked at him.
“I ruined my life for you.”
“No. You ruined Jane’s.”
“I raised her.”
“You resented her.”
“I fed her. Educated her. Protected her from Moretti.”
Vincent spoke quietly.
“By insuring her for twelve million dollars.”
The officers looked at Charlotte.
Her face changed.
Only slightly.
One officer asked, “What insurance?”
Charlotte ignored him.
Jane noticed the balance shifting.
“Ask her about Daniel’s car accident,” Jane said.
Charlotte stared.
Daniel reached into his coat.
The officers aimed weapons.
He stopped.
“Phone.”
One officer took it.
Daniel gave him the passcode.
“Recording from three years ago. Charlotte threatening me.”
Charlotte laughed.
“A recording from a dead man?”
Daniel looked at her.
“Not dead enough.”
The timer reached two minutes.
Rosa whispered, “Jane.”
Jane looked at her.
Rosa pointed toward the scar.
“The ledger.”
Jane froze.
“You know?”
Rosa nodded.
“Elena told me.”
Vincent stared.
“You knew?”
“I didn’t know where Jane was.”
Rosa’s voice broke.
“I knew Elena had hidden a microfilm capsule inside a medical identification bead.”
Jane touched the scar.
Rosa continued.
“Charlotte must have found the bead after taking Jane.”
Daniel’s face twisted.
“She implanted it?”
“No.”
Rosa shook her head.
“The original hospital bracelet had a tiny metal identification capsule sealed inside the clasp.”
Jane exhaled.
“So not under my skin.”
“Not originally.”
Vincent looked at the scar.
“What did Charlotte do?”
Rosa stared at Charlotte.
“Ask her.”
Charlotte’s mask slipped.
The timer hit ninety seconds.
Luca shouted from the wall panel.
“It’s a purge system.”
“Fire?”
“No. Data.”
Vincent frowned.
Luca pointed to old server equipment behind the wall.
“At zero, the system wipes drives.”
Charlotte smiled.
Vincent understood.
“You stored something here.”
Daniel did too.
“The ledger copies.”
Charlotte looked at him.
“You always were slower than Elena.”
Jane stared.
“You had the ledger?”
“Eventually.”
“How?”
Charlotte’s gaze settled on Jane’s scar.
“When you were four, you fell.”
Jane’s stomach turned.
“The glass table.”
“Yes.”
“You found something.”
“A metal fragment came out near your ear.”
Jane covered her mouth.
Charlotte had known.
For twenty-four years.
“You kept it.”
“I opened it.”
Vincent’s voice went deadly quiet.
“And found proof against my father.”
“Against half this city.”
The officers exchanged looks.
Charlotte continued.
“I spent twenty years turning that information into security.”
“Blackmail,” Daniel said.
“Survival.”
The timer reached sixty seconds.
Luca yanked cables.
“No good.”
Vincent looked at the officers.
“Unless you want evidence destroyed, help him.”
The older officer hesitated.
Then lowered his weapon.
Charlotte snapped.
“Detective!”
Detective.
Not state police.
Vincent noticed.
“So you know him personally.”
The man looked at Charlotte.
That was enough.
The second officer stepped away from her.
“Ma’am, who exactly called us?”
Charlotte’s calm finally cracked.
“Do your job.”
Jane stepped forward.
“You brought them because you needed witnesses when the servers were wiped.”
Charlotte’s eyes sharpened.
“You planned to blame Vincent for destroying the ledger.”
Silence.
Daniel smiled sadly.
“There’s my girl.”
Jane ignored him.
The timer reached thirty seconds.
Luca shouted.
“Need the admin key.”
Rosa looked toward Charlotte.
“Her necklace.”
Everyone turned.
Charlotte grabbed the pearl pendant at her throat.
Vincent moved.
One officer moved faster.
He caught Charlotte’s wrist.
“Give it to me.”
She struggled.
“Get your hands off me.”
The pendant snapped free.
Luca inserted a tiny device hidden inside it.
Five seconds.
Four.
Three.
The timer stopped.
Everyone exhaled.
Except Charlotte.
Jane stared at her mother.
All the polish was gone.
“You lost.”
Charlotte smiled.
“No.”
Her eyes moved toward Daniel.
“You still don’t understand.”
Daniel’s face changed.
“What?”
Charlotte laughed softly.
“The ledger doesn’t matter.”
Vincent’s voice sharpened.
“Why?”
“Because Elena recorded more than payments.”
Jane’s stomach tightened.
“What else?”
Charlotte looked at Vincent.
“Conversations.”
Vincent went still.
“Whose?”
“Your father’s.”
Charlotte smiled.
“And someone else’s.”
Daniel looked pale.
Jane turned toward him.
“What did you do?”
Daniel said nothing.
“Dad.”
The word escaped.
Daniel flinched.
Jane heard it too.
The old instinct.
The old relationship.
She hated herself for it.
“What did Elena record?”
Daniel looked at Charlotte.
“Don’t.”
Charlotte’s smile returned.
“Elena wasn’t murdered because of Moretti money.”
Vincent stepped closer.
“Then why?”
“She was murdered because she discovered who Jane’s father really was.”
Jane stared at Daniel.
He shook his head.
“No.”
Charlotte continued.
“Daniel loved pretending.”
Jane’s voice became very quiet.
“Pretending what?”
Charlotte looked directly at her.
“That he was your father.”
The room went silent.
Daniel closed his eyes.
Jane felt the world tilt again.
“No.”
Charlotte’s voice was almost gentle.
“Elena lied to him.”
Vincent stared at Daniel.
Daniel whispered, “I didn’t know until after she died.”
Jane could barely breathe.
“Then who?”
Charlotte’s smile vanished.
For the first time, she looked afraid of the name she was about to say.
Before she could speak, a gunshot shattered the basement light.
Darkness swallowed the room.
Rosa screamed.
Jane dropped.
Vincent covered her with his body.
A second gunshot struck the wall.
Someone ran.
The basement door crashed open.
Emergency lights flickered on.
Charlotte was gone.
So was Daniel.
On the floor lay the broken pearl pendant.
May you like
And beside it, written in blood with one trembling finger, were two words:
ASK VINCENT.
