Chapter 5 - Someone Followed Us Home
Thomas Vale smiled as though he had arrived for a business meeting.
“Dominic.”
Dominic moved between us.
“What are you doing here?”
“I heard Mrs. Bennett was ill.”
“From whom?”
Thomas paused.
“Your office.”
“My office didn't tell you.”
The smile weakened.
Thomas was sixty-two, polished and composed.
He had advised the Moretti family for decades.
He looked nothing like Raymond Voss.
But Daniel's warning echoed in my head.
Voss is only the hand.
The man paying him is inside.
Thomas looked toward me.
“Elena, I'm sorry about your mother.”
“How did you know which hospital?”
His eyes shifted.
Tiny movement.
Enough.
Dominic saw it too.
Thomas sighed.
“This is becoming unnecessarily dramatic.”
Dominic's voice dropped.
“Answer her.”
Thomas looked offended.
“I don't appreciate being interrogated.”
“Then you'll hate what happens next.”
Thomas stared at him.
The hallway became silent.
Finally he said, “Raymond contacted me.”
My heart jumped.
“When?”
Dominic asked.
“Yesterday.”
“What did he want?”
“Money.”
“For what?”
“Information.”
“About Elena?”
Thomas looked at me.
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“I intended to.”
“When?”
“When I knew whether he was bluffing.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“You let a man stalk a woman and child because you wanted to see if he was bluffing?”
Thomas's face hardened.
“Your father would have understood.”
“My father is dead.”
“And perhaps that's why everything is unraveling.”
Dominic stared at him.
Thomas realized he'd said too much.
“Everything?”
No answer.
Marco arrived.
Thomas was escorted to another room.
Dominic didn't arrest him.
People like Dominic didn't use that word.
But Thomas wasn't leaving.
Mom's condition deteriorated overnight.
I stayed beside her.
At dawn, she opened her eyes.
“Take Lucy somewhere safe.”
“She is safe.”
“No one is safe forever.”
“Mom.”
She smiled weakly.
“You're stronger than you think.”
“I don't want to be strong.”
“I know.”
For once, I let myself cry.
She touched my cheek.
“Then don't be. Not every minute.”
Those words stayed with me.
Mom survived the morning.
Doctors stabilized her.
Dominic arranged private security.
Then he told me we needed to return.
Daniel's evidence had to be secured.
I kissed Mom.
Lucy kissed her twice.
“That's extra,” she explained.
Mom smiled.
“Save one for your mommy.”
Lucy did.
On the drive home, Dominic sat beside me in the back while Marco drove.
“You should sleep.”
“I can't.”
“You haven't slept.”
“Neither have you.”
“I’m accustomed to it.”
“That's not healthy.”
“Neither is working twelve-hour shifts.”
“I work ten.”
“Eleven.”
I looked at him.
“You've been checking?”
He shrugged.
“You're irritating.”
“So you've mentioned.”
Lucy slept between us.
Her hand rested on Dominic's sleeve.
He didn't move it.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked.
“What?”
“All of it.”
His gaze stayed on Lucy.
“Because somebody threatened a child in my house.”
“That's not all.”
He looked at me.
“No.”
The air changed.
I waited.
Dominic was a man comfortable with danger.
Feelings seemed to terrify him.
Finally he said, “I don't like watching you be afraid.”
My throat tightened.
“I am afraid.”
“I know.”
“I've been afraid since Daniel died.”
“You hide it well.”
“I have Lucy.”
“That isn't the same as not being afraid.”
“No.”
I looked out the window.
“I don't need a boyfriend.”
“I know.”
I glanced at him.
“Lucy seems convinced.”
“She has strong negotiating tactics.”
“She learned from cartoons.”
“Remind me to hire her.”
I laughed softly.
Then the vehicle slowed.
Marco cursed.
“What?”
“Traffic.”
Dominic looked behind us.
A dark sedan appeared.
My body went rigid.
“Again?”
Marco changed lanes.
The sedan followed.
Dominic called security.
This time there were two cars.
One ahead.
One behind.
They weren't hiding anymore.
“Get Lucy down.”
I pulled her against me.
Dominic shielded us.
Marco exited the highway.
The cars followed.
Then one turned away.
The second continued.
For twenty minutes, it stayed behind us.
Then disappeared.
Nobody relaxed.
We reached Dominic's mansion shortly after noon.
Security checked everything.
Safe.
At least apparently.
Lucy ran inside.
Rosa met her.
I followed.
Dominic and Marco went to the office.
I should have rested.
Instead, I noticed something.
Lucy had stopped.
She stared toward the floor.
“What?”
She pointed.
A black crayon.
My blood chilled.
“Did you leave that there?”
She shook her head.
Dominic came back.
I showed him.
He didn't touch it.
Security searched the foyer.
Then the guest suite.
Then the kitchen.
Nothing.
Until Rosa screamed.
We ran.
She stood beside the pantry.
On the wall was a child's drawing.
Not Lucy's.
A woman.
A little girl.
A man.
All three beneath a large black X.
Someone had entered Dominic's house again.
Dominic's face became terrifyingly calm.
“Lock it down.”
Doors sealed.
Staff assembled.
Nobody left.
Security footage was reviewed.
No stranger appeared.
That meant the intruder wasn't a stranger.
Someone already inside had placed the drawing.
Dominic questioned staff individually.
I sat with Lucy.
She colored quietly.
Then she looked at the threatening drawing.
“That man draws bad.”
“Yes.”
“He forgot the shoes.”
I looked.
The figures had no shoes.
“What?”
“Watching man draws shoes.”
My pulse jumped.
“How do you know?”
“He drawed with me.”
“When?”
“At daycare.”
Everything stopped.
“What did you say?”
“He came to draw.”
I grabbed Dominic.
Within minutes, we were calling Lucy's former daycare.
A substitute maintenance worker had visited twice.
Fake name.
Security image matched Voss.
He had sat near the children.
He had spoken to Lucy.
My stomach turned.
“What did he ask you?”
I said.
Lucy thought.
“About Daddy.”
Dominic crouched.
“What about Daddy?”
“He asked if Daddy gave me Bunny.”
“And?”
“I said yes.”
“What else?”
“He asked where Bunny sleeps.”
Dominic's eyes hardened.
“Anything else?”
Lucy nodded.
“He said Mommy knows the number.”
I stared.
“What number?”
Lucy picked up a red crayon.
She wrote slowly.
Not correctly.
But recognizable.
“What is that?”
“I don't know.”
Dominic did.
He stood abruptly.
“What?”
“Safe-deposit box.”
“How?”
“Your mother's key.”
We called the bank.
The key number was 3179.
Daniel had split the evidence.
Part in Bunny.
Part in the bank.
Someone believed I knew.
I didn't.
Until now.
The bank closed in forty minutes.
“We go now.”
Dominic shook his head.
“Too obvious.”
“They're already following us.”
“Exactly.”
He created a diversion.
Two SUVs left the mansion.
We exited through a service entrance in an ordinary sedan.
At the bank, the manager took us downstairs.
Box 3179.
My hands shook as I inserted Mom's key.
Inside was a single envelope.
ELENA.
I opened it.
Daniel's handwriting.
If you're reading this, I failed.
My eyes filled.
Dominic stood silently beside me.
Inside was a second memory card and a photograph.
Daniel.
Raymond Voss.
Thomas Vale.
And another man.
Dominic's father.
But Daniel had circled someone reflected in a window behind them.
A younger man.
I recognized him.
Marco.
“No,” Dominic whispered.
My blood turned cold.
A phone began ringing inside the safe-deposit room.
Not mine.
Not Dominic's.
A disposable phone lay beneath the envelope.
Dominic answered.
A distorted voice spoke.
“You finally found the right box.”
Dominic's face hardened.
“Who is this?”
The voice laughed.
Then said:
May you like
“Ask Marco why Daniel Bennett's brakes failed.”
The line went dead.
