Chapter 4 - The Dead Man’s Photograph
Claire enlarged the image.
She knew the watch.
Daniel had worn it in every photograph from her childhood.
Black face.
Scratched steel bezel.
A thin dent near the number four.
Her mother had told Claire it vanished with Daniel's body.
Now it was on Thomas Keene's wrist.
“Where was this taken?”
Mercer swallowed.
“Washington. Three months ago.”
Adrian's voice sharpened.
“Who gave you the photograph?”
Mercer looked toward the door.
“I received it anonymously.”
“Why keep it?”
“Because after your surgery, people started asking questions.”
“What people?”
Mercer hesitated.
Then a gunshot cracked outside.
Marco shoved Claire down.
Adrian reached beneath his wheelchair.
He pulled out a compact pistol.
Claire stared.
“You had a gun under your chair?”
“Later.”
Another shot.
Marco opened the door carefully.
A security man lay wounded in the corridor.
The shooter was gone.
Claire rushed forward.
She pressed her hands against the wound.
“Call trauma.”
The injured man grabbed Adrian's sleeve.
“Boss…”
“Who?”
The man struggled to breathe.
“White coat.”
Claire looked down the hallway.
Dozens of hospital employees wore white coats.
Mercer backed away.
Adrian turned.
Mercer was gone.
They searched.
His office was empty.
His phone lay on the floor.
The photograph of Keene had disappeared.
Claire returned to Adrian.
“He ran.”
“Or somebody took him.”
Police arrived.
Adrian refused to answer most questions.
Claire spent the next hour treating the wounded guard.
When she returned, Adrian was alone.
“You should leave,” he said.
“No.”
“Claire.”
“You don't get to decide.”
“Someone fired a weapon twenty feet from you.”
“I noticed.”
“Daniel asked me to protect you.”
“Twenty years ago.”
“I failed him once.”
Claire softened.
“You didn't know where I was.”
“I should have found you.”
“Maybe somebody made sure you couldn't.”
Adrian looked at her.
That possibility had been growing.
Daniel's records.
The tracking device.
Keene alive.
Claire's personnel file.
Someone had manipulated their lives for years.
Adrian reached for the wheels.
“I need to get out of this hospital.”
“You're not medically cleared.”
“I wasn't asking.”
Claire blocked him.
“You can barely transfer without assistance.”
His pride flashed.
“Move.”
“No.”
He tried anyway.
His legs failed.
Claire caught him before he hit the floor.
For a terrible second, the feared Adrian Vale was helpless in her arms.
He hated it.
She saw that immediately.
“Don't,” he whispered.
“Don't what?”
“Look at me like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like I'm broken.”
Claire helped him back into the chair.
“I was looking at you like you're stubborn.”
He almost smiled.
Then she crouched.
“Your legs failing doesn't make you less dangerous.”
“That was supposed to comfort me?”
“A little.”
He looked at her.
Something changed between them.
Not romance yet.
Trust.
Fragile.
Unexpected.
Marco entered.
“We found Mercer.”
“Where?”
“Parking garage.”
Claire stood.
“Alive?”
Marco's silence answered.
Adrian closed his eyes briefly.
“What else?”
Marco handed him an envelope.
It had been inside Mercer's coat.
Adrian opened it.
A key.
A Manhattan address.
And four handwritten words.
ASK GHOST ABOUT SHEPHERD.
Claire read them.
“Shepherd?”
Adrian looked at her.
“Your father's call sign.”
Claire's pulse jumped.
“What address?”
Adrian recognized it.
An apartment building on West 72nd Street.
He had owned an apartment there fifteen years earlier.
An apartment nobody should have known about.
They went that night.
Marco protested.
Claire protested more when Adrian suggested leaving her behind.
By midnight, they were inside the old apartment.
Dust covered everything.
Adrian had not entered since before Daniel died.
Claire searched the bedroom.
Adrian went to the study.
Behind an old bookcase, he found a wall safe.
His old code still worked.
Inside was one object.
A cassette recorder.
Claire joined him.
“Is that yours?”
“No.”
Adrian pressed play.
Daniel's voice filled the room.
“Ghost, Keene betrayed us.”
Claire grabbed the desk.
Adrian's face hardened.
The recording continued.
“If you're hearing this, I'm probably dead. But listen carefully. There was another survivor.”
Static.
Then Daniel spoke one final name.
Adrian's hand went numb.
Claire stared at him.
“Who is that?”
May you like
Adrian stopped the tape.
Because the name Daniel had spoken belonged to the man Adrian trusted most.
