Chapter 6 - The Second Man

Graham died before they reached the ranger station.

Victoria did not cry.

When Leo entered the interrogation room, she sat at a metal table with her wrists cuffed in front of her, staring at the blood on her sleeve.

Beatrice remained behind the one-way glass with Mateo.

“She looks bored,” Beatrice said.

“She’s terrified,” Mateo replied.

“How can you tell?”

“She keeps counting exits.”

“There is one.”

“She has counted it twelve times.”

Leo sat across from Victoria.

“You nearly killed my daughter.”

Victoria looked at him.

“No.”

“Do not waste time.”

“I did not nearly kill Lily.”

“You locked her in a cellar without her inhaler.”

“I locked her in a cellar because she was screaming.”

Leo’s hands flattened on the table.

“Choose your next sentence carefully.”

Victoria’s chin lifted.

“You want me to say I’m a monster because it will make everything simple.”

“It is already simple.”

“No. You have no idea how complicated it is.”

“Then explain.”

She laughed weakly.

“You won’t believe me.”

“Try.”

Victoria looked toward the mirrored glass.

“Is the maid back there?”

Beatrice’s shoulders tightened.

Mateo touched the intercom.

Leo’s voice came through.

“Her name is Beatrice.”

Victoria smiled.

“Of course it is now.”

Leo leaned forward.

“What does that mean?”

“It means you never saw her until she bled for you.”

Beatrice flinched.

Mateo glanced at her.

Victoria continued.

“She has been under your roof four years. She comforts your daughter. She knows your kitchen, your routines, your blind spots. But suddenly she becomes a person because you need someone to believe.”

Leo’s face changed.

“This is not about Beatrice.”

“Everything in that house is about what you choose not to see.”

Beatrice hated that the words contained truth.

Leo did too.

“You disabled the cameras.”

“I used Mateo’s credential.”

“So you admit it.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Victoria looked at her hands.

“Because I needed privacy.”

“To torture a child?”

“To find the key.”

Behind the glass, Beatrice inhaled.

Leo’s voice was cold.

“What key?”

“You found it.”

“How do you know?”

Victoria smiled.

“Because you are here instead of killing me.”

“Do not mistake restraint for mercy.”

“I never do.”

Leo waited.

Victoria’s smile vanished.

“My father spent two years looking for Elena’s ledger.”

“You helped him.”

“Yes.”

“Did you help kill Elena?”

“No.”

“Did you tell Richard her schedule?”

Victoria looked away.

Leo’s chair scraped.

“Answer.”

“Yes.”

Beatrice closed her eyes.

Victoria’s voice shook.

“I told him she was going to North Harbor.”

“Why?”

“He said he wanted to scare her.”

“Dr. Hale says the same thing.”

“Then for once the coward told the truth.”

“You knew a device would be put on her car?”

“Yes.”

“And you said nothing.”

“I was twenty-eight and stupid.”

“You were twenty-eight, not eight.”

“I know.”

Leo’s voice broke.

“My wife burned alive.”

Victoria’s eyes filled with tears.

“I know.”

“Do not cry.”

“I loved her too.”

Leo stood.

Victoria flinched.

“Do not say that.”

“She was my friend before she was your wife.”

“Then you betrayed your friend.”

“Yes.”

The word came out small.

Leo paced to the wall.

“Why did the bomb become lethal?”

“I don’t know.”

“Who changed it?”

“I don’t know.”

“Graham?”

“No.”

“Richard?”

“No.”

“You sound certain.”

“Because my father was furious after Elena died.”

Beatrice looked at Mateo.

Mateo frowned.

Leo turned.

“Why?”

“Because her death created attention. Federal attention. Police attention. Your attention.”

“You expect me to believe Richard wanted her alive?”

“He wanted her frightened enough to give him the ledger.”

“Then who killed her?”

Victoria looked toward the mirror again.

“The same man who killed Graham.”

Mateo leaned closer to the glass.

Leo sat.

“Name him.”

“I can’t.”

“Why?”

“Because if I say his name, Lily dies.”

Beatrice’s blood ran cold.

Leo became utterly still.

“Explain.”

Victoria’s breathing quickened.

“He has people inside your organization.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know all of them.”

“Name the ones you know.”

“No.”

Leo’s hand closed around the table edge.

Victoria whispered, “He has access to the school, the doctors, the drivers. He knew where this convoy would be.”

Mateo cursed.

Leo said, “You sent him our location?”

“No.”

“Then who did?”

“I don’t know.”

Beatrice thought of the farmhouse.

Only a handful of people knew.

Dr. Hale.

The guards.

Mateo.

Leo.

Beatrice.

The nurse.

Her stomach tightened.

“Mateo.”

He turned.

“The nurse.”

His face changed.

They ran.

Upstairs at the farmhouse, Lily’s room was empty.

The window stood open.

A glass vial rolled on the floor.

Beatrice screamed.

“Lily!”

Leo reached the room seconds later.

He saw the empty bed.

Everything inside him stopped.

“Where is she?”

One guard lay unconscious in the hall.

Mateo checked his pulse.

“Alive.”

Beatrice picked up the vial with a towel.

“Sedative.”

Leo looked at the open window.

Snow had begun to fall outside.

Tracks crossed the yard.

Mateo grabbed a radio.

“Lock the perimeter!”

No answer.

He tried again.

Static.

“Signal jammer.”

Leo ran outside.

Beatrice followed.

“Stay inside.”

“No.”

“Beatrice.”

“No.”

He turned on her.

“My daughter is gone.”

“So is mine.”

The words escaped before she could stop them.

Leo stared.

Beatrice’s face crumpled.

“I did not mean—”

“Yes,” he said.

His voice softened.

“You did.”

Neither had time to understand it.

Mateo shouted from the tree line.

“Tracks!”

They followed footprints through the snow to the old equipment shed.

The door was open.

Inside, the nurse lay bound and gagged.

Beatrice dropped beside her.

The woman sobbed when the gag came off.

“He took her.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know.”

“What did he look like?”

“Black coat. Mask.”

“Vehicle?”

“No. Snowmobile.”

Mateo looked at the tracks beyond the shed.

“North.”

Leo started running.

Mateo grabbed him.

“You’ll lose the trail on foot.”

A guard brought two snowmobiles from the barn.

Leo climbed onto one.

Beatrice climbed behind him.

“No.”

She wrapped her arms around his waist.

“Drive.”

“Beatrice—”

“Drive.”

Mateo took the second machine.

They tore through the woods.

Snow stung Beatrice’s face.

Branches whipped past.

The trail crossed a frozen service road and turned toward an old marina.

Mateo shouted over the engines.

“There!”

A snowmobile lay abandoned near the dock.

A black SUV waited beyond it.

The driver shoved Lily into the back.

She kicked him.

“Bee!”

Beatrice heard her.

Leo did too.

He accelerated.

The SUV started moving.

Mateo swerved in front of it.

The driver jerked the wheel.

The vehicle hit a snowbank and stalled.

Leo leaped off before their machine stopped.

A gunshot cracked.

Beatrice dropped.

Leo fired twice.

The masked man disappeared behind the SUV.

Lily screamed.

Beatrice crawled toward the rear door.

“Lily!”

“Bee!”

Another shot.

Glass shattered.

Leo shouted.

“Stay down!”

Beatrice reached the door handle.

Locked.

She yanked again.

The masked man appeared around the back.

His gun pointed at her.

Time slowed.

Beatrice saw the barrel.

She thought of Daniel.

She thought of Lily beneath a kitchen table, eating shortbread.

She thought of every doorway she had apologized for.

Then she did the most natural thing in the world.

She stopped trying to become smaller.

Beatrice charged him.

Her shoulder hit his chest.

He staggered.

The gun fired into the snow.

She grabbed his wrist with both bandaged hands.

Pain exploded through her fingers.

He struck her face.

She held on.

“You stupid—”

“Bee!”

Lily’s scream gave her strength.

Beatrice drove her knee into the man’s thigh.

He fell.

Leo reached them.

The fight ended in seconds.

Leo pinned the man against the SUV, forearm across his throat.

“Who sent you?”

The man laughed.

Blood ran from his lip.

“You still don’t know.”

Leo tightened his grip.

“Name.”

The man looked past him at Beatrice.

“Ask the brother.”

Mateo arrived.

His face changed.

The man smiled.

“Hello, Mateo.”

Beatrice froze.

Leo turned.

“You know him?”

Mateo stared.

“No.”

The man laughed harder.

“Liar.”

Leo ripped off the mask.

Mateo went pale.

“Rafael.”

Beatrice looked between them.

“Who is Rafael?”

Mateo’s voice was hollow.

“My brother.”

The world went silent.

Leo loosened his grip by accident.

Rafael twisted free.

He reached for a second gun.

Mateo fired.

One shot.

Rafael fell.

Mateo stood with his pistol raised.

His brother stared up at him, shock in his eyes.

Then he stopped moving.

Leo did not speak.

Mateo lowered the gun.

Beatrice opened the SUV.

Lily threw herself into her arms.

“Bee!”

“I have you.”

“Daddy!”

Leo gathered them both close.

For a moment, he held his daughter and Beatrice as one trembling shape.

Mateo stood ten feet away in the snow beside his brother’s body.

No one knew what to say.

Finally Leo looked at him.

“You told me Rafael died in Mexico.”

Mateo’s face was gray.

“I thought he had.”

“How could you not know?”

“I buried an empty coffin.”

“What?”

Mateo swallowed.

“Rafael disappeared twelve years ago. Our mother was told he was dead.”

Leo stared.

“You never checked?”

“I was nineteen.”

“You check everything.”

“I was nineteen.”

The repetition carried a lifetime.

Lily clung to Beatrice.

Mateo looked at Rafael.

“He worked for Richard once.”

Leo’s head snapped up.

“You knew that?”

“Years ago. Before Elena.”

“What did he do?”

“Security. Smuggling. Anything that paid.”

“And you never told me?”

“I thought he was dead.”

Leo’s anger rose.

Beatrice stepped between them.

“Not here.”

Leo looked at her.

“Beatrice—”

“Lily is listening.”

That stopped him.

Lily’s face was buried in Beatrice’s shoulder.

Leo lifted his daughter.

“We go back.”

Mateo did not move.

“Mateo.”

“I killed my brother.”

Leo’s face tightened.

“You saved Lily.”

“I killed my brother.”

Beatrice approached him.

“You can grieve both truths.”

Mateo looked at her.

His eyes were wet.

“How?”

“I don’t know.”

She touched his sleeve.

“But you can.”

Back at the farmhouse, Lily refused to let Beatrice out of sight.

Leo sat beside them on the floor.

Mateo stayed in the kitchen alone.

After Lily slept, Leo whispered, “Rafael is the second man.”

Beatrice nodded.

“Daniel drew the crown over water.”

“Rafael had the tattoo.”

“He changed the bomb.”

“Maybe.”

“Victoria knows.”

Leo stood.

“Then she talks.”

Beatrice looked toward the kitchen.

“And Mateo?”

Leo’s expression was torn.

“I trust him.”

“You sound like you are trying to convince yourself.”

“I am.”

She nodded.

“That is more honest.”

His eyes met hers.

“You called Lily yours.”

Beatrice looked away.

“I know.”

“Do you regret it?”

“No.”

Leo’s voice softened.

“Good.”

For a second, the entire war outside the farmhouse disappeared.

Then Mateo entered.

He held Rafael’s phone.

“I unlocked it.”

Leo stood.

“What’s on it?”

Mateo placed the screen on the table.

One recent message.

Finish the child. Bring me the ledger. If Leo survives, let him blame Kensington.

The sender was saved under a single initial.

S.

Leo stared.

“Sebastian Vale is dead.”

Mateo looked at him.

“Yes.”

Beatrice felt a chill.

“Then either he isn’t.”

Mateo shook his head.

“I saw his body.”

“Or S is someone else,” Leo said.

Mateo scrolled.

An older message appeared.

The sender had written:

Your brother still trusts the wrong king.

Mateo’s face changed.

“King.”

Beatrice remembered the tattoo.

Crown over water.

Leo whispered, “Rafael wasn’t working for Kensington.”

“No,” Mateo said.

“He was working for someone inside Rossi.”

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The traitor Daniel had warned about had never left the house.

He had simply let everyone else take the blame.