Chapter 7 - The Price of Silence
Nora’s entire body turned cold.
“Let me speak to Lily.”
Richard Shaw laughed.
“You’re in no position to negotiate.”
“Then you don’t have her.”
A pause.
Nora seized it.
“If Lily were with you, you would put her on the phone.”
Shaw’s voice changed.
“You’re clever like your father.”
“And you’re still afraid of him.”
The line went silent.
Then Lily’s voice came through.
“Nora?”
Nora’s knees nearly gave out.
“Lily.”
“I’m okay.”
“Did he hurt you?”
“No.”
A sharp sound.
Lily gasped.
Nora’s hand tightened around the phone.
“Don’t touch her!”
Shaw returned.
“Midnight. Bennett Conservatory. Bring the original score alone.”
The line disconnected.
Nora looked at the clock.
11:21.
Luca entered behind her.
“No.”
She turned.
“You heard?”
“Enough.”
“He has my sister.”
“And he will kill you both if you walk in alone.”
“He wants the score.”
“He wants what the score unlocks.”
Nora stared at the coded pages.
The rests pointed to financial ledgers.
But maybe there was more.
Elena studied the first movement.
“Daniel loved layers.”
Nora looked at her.
“What?”
“The obvious code was never the important one.”
Nora’s father had taught her that music hid structure beneath structure.
She sat at a desk.
She examined the rests again.
Not the numbers.
Their duration.
Quarter rest.
Eighth rest.
Half rest.
She converted them into values.
A second pattern emerged.
Letters.
Coordinates.
A locker number.
Bennett Conservatory.
Basement archive.
Locker 317.
Nora stared.
“That’s why Shaw wants the score.”
Luca checked his watch.
“We have thirty minutes.”
They formed a plan.
Nora would enter alone.
Luca’s people would surround the conservatory without approaching until Nora confirmed Lily’s location.
Elena insisted on coming.
Luca refused.
She ignored him.
At 11:53, Nora entered the conservatory through the main doors.
She had not been inside since she was seventeen.
Everything smelled the same.
Wood polish.
Old sheet music.
Dust.
Her former life waited in every hallway.
A spotlight came on inside the main recital hall.
Lily sat in the front row.
Hands tied.
Richard Shaw stood beside her.
He was seventy now.
Elegant gray suit.
Silver hair.
A face that television audiences trusted.
“Nora.”
“Let her go.”
“Score first.”
Nora held it up.
Shaw smiled.
“Daniel always believed music made him smarter than everyone.”
“He was smarter than you.”
“Your father was sentimental.”
“He survived you.”
Shaw’s smile disappeared.
“So Elena told you.”
Nora’s heart raced.
“You knew he survived.”
“I suspected.”
“Where is he?”
“If I knew, this would have ended years ago.”
That answer gave Nora something precious.
Her father might still be alive.
Shaw extended his hand.
“The score.”
“Lily first.”
He pulled a pistol.
Nora stopped.
Lily whispered, “Don’t give it to him.”
Shaw pressed the gun near her shoulder.
Nora tossed the score onto the stage.
Shaw picked it up.
He flipped pages.
“You decoded it.”
“Yes.”
“Locker?”
“317.”
Shaw smiled.
“Good girl.”
Nora hated the phrase.
He forced them toward the basement.
Locker 317 contained a metal box.
Shaw opened it.
Inside were drives, ledgers, photographs, and one sealed envelope.
He looked triumphant.
Then confused.
The envelope read:
RICHARD.
Shaw opened it.
A single sheet.
You were always going to come for this.
Daniel.
Shaw’s face drained.
Nora saw a red light begin blinking inside the box.
A transmitter.
The files had been copied the instant the lid opened.
Shaw understood.
“No.”
Luca’s voice came through the basement speakers.
“Actually, yes.”
Security flooded the corridor.
Shaw grabbed Lily.
Gun against her head.
Nora froze.
“Back!” Shaw shouted.
Luca appeared at the far end.
He raised both hands.
“Put the gun down.”
“Tell your men to leave.”
“No.”
Shaw dragged Lily backward toward a side door.
Nora noticed something behind him.
A fire alarm.
Lily noticed Nora looking.
The sisters understood each other.
Lily suddenly dropped her weight.
Shaw staggered.
Nora lunged.
The gun fired into the ceiling.
Luca’s men rushed forward.
Seconds later Shaw was on the floor.
Lily ran into Nora’s arms.
Nora held her so tightly Lily laughed through her tears.
“You’re crushing me.”
“I don’t care.”
Police arrived.
Federal agents followed after receiving the files automatically transmitted from Daniel’s box.
Shaw’s network began collapsing before sunrise.
But when Nora examined the digital archive, she found something else.
A recent upload.
Three weeks old.
A video file.
Sender:
D. BENNETT.
Nora clicked it.
Her father appeared on-screen.
Older.
Gray-haired.
Alive.
He looked directly into the camera.
“Nora, if you found this, don’t come looking for me.”
Then he glanced suddenly toward someone off-camera.
May you like
His expression changed.
And the video ended.
