Chapter 6 - The Star Comes Back

I do not remember crossing the meeting room.

I remember James catching my arm before I reached the door.

“Let go.”

“No.”

“My daughter is in that hotel.”

“I know.”

“Adrian is there.”

“I know.”

“Then let go.”

“If he wanted Chloe, he would not announce himself at the desk.”

“You don’t know that.”

Elena stepped between us.

“Grace, listen to me.”

“No.”

“Your sister said he is downstairs. Chloe is upstairs. We can lock the floor and move them through a service exit.”

I looked at her.

“How fast?”

“Now.”

She was already on the phone.

James released my arm.

“Rachel needs a phrase so she knows who to trust.”

I called her back.

“Rachel.”

“What is happening?”

“Take Chloe into the bathroom. Lock the door.”

“She’s right here.”

“Do it.”

A pause.

“All right.”

“If anyone comes to the suite, ask them what Mom burned at Thanksgiving.”

Rachel understood immediately.

“Pumpkin pie.”

“No.”

Silence.

Then she said, “Right. Good.”

The truth was lasagna.

My mother still mentioned it every year.

Only family knew.

I ended the call.

James was speaking to his security chief.

“Use the kitchen elevator. No uniforms. No weapons visible. Elena’s agents meet them in the loading bay.”

I stared at him.

“You know the hotel routes.”

“I own the building.”

“Of course you do.”

Elena pointed at me.

“You stay here.”

“No.”

“Grace.”

“I am done staying in rooms while other people decide things.”

James said, “She comes.”

Elena looked at him.

“I did not ask.”

“No, but you’ll waste five minutes arguing.”

She looked at me.

“Will you follow instructions?”

“Yes.”

James made a skeptical sound.

I glared at him.

“I can.”

“Recent evidence suggests otherwise.”

“Not now.”

He nodded.

We drove to the hotel in two cars.

By the time we arrived, Rachel and Chloe had been moved to an unmarked federal vehicle three blocks away.

I wanted to go directly to them.

Elena stopped me.

“Adrian came for a reason.”

“I don’t care.”

“You will if he follows them.”

James looked at the lobby through the glass doors.

“He wants the recorder.”

“Or something else,” Elena said.

“Then we find out.”

I hated them both for being right.

Adrian sat alone near the hotel Christmas tree.

He held a small silver star between two fingers.

My chest tightened.

It was Chloe’s.

I walked in with James and Elena.

Luca stayed near the entrance.

Adrian stood.

He looked almost exactly as he did on television: silver tie, perfect posture, calm face.

No one would look at him and think murderer.

Maybe that was the point.

“Mrs. Bennett.”

“Give me the star.”

He glanced at James.

“You brought company.”

“Give it to her,” James said.

Adrian smiled.

“I was going to.”

He placed the star on the coffee table.

I picked it up.

The hinge was bent.

The picture inside was gone.

“What did you do to it?”

“Nothing.”

“You stole it from my apartment.”

“No.”

“Then who did?”

“That is why I’m here.”

James laughed softly.

“Your performance needs work.”

Adrian looked wounded.

“I thought you knew me better.”

“I’m beginning to.”

Elena sat opposite him.

“Mr. Vale, you should understand that this conversation is being recorded.”

“I assumed.”

“You tried to confine three people in a storage unit.”

“I have no idea what you mean.”

“We have audio of your voice.”

“Artificial audio is increasingly easy to create.”

Elena smiled without warmth.

“You’re going to be exhausting.”

“So I’m told.”

I held up the star.

“Why bring this?”

“Because Dominic took it.”

James's expression changed.

Adrian continued.

“Not me.”

“Dominic broke into Grace’s apartment?” James asked.

“He ordered it.”

“How do you know?”

“Because one of his men brought the star to my office this morning.”

“Why?”

“He believed it contained Daniel’s evidence.”

“And?”

“It didn’t.”

“You opened it.”

“Yes.”

I wanted to throw the star at him.

“You had no right.”

“No.”

The simple answer stopped me.

Adrian leaned forward.

“Mrs. Bennett, you have been told I am the villain because I signed documents. Dominic has been told James is preparing to turn on him. James has been told Dominic killed Michael. Everyone is being given exactly enough truth to attack the next person.”

Daniel’s letter echoed in my mind.

If anyone tells you one person is responsible for all of it, they are lying.

“What are you saying?” I asked.

“I am saying Dominic is guilty of many things. So am I. So is James. But Daniel discovered a structure that existed before any of us were in charge.”

James’s jaw tightened.

“Do not put me in your category.”

Adrian looked at him.

“You inherited the benefits.”

“I did not create the theft.”

“No. You merely signed papers without reading them because your father taught you that accountants were furniture.”

Elena interrupted.

“Who created the network?”

Adrian looked at her.

“You already know the public names.”

“Marcus Hale?”

“Yes.”

“The deputy mayor?”

“Yes.”

“Who else?”

Adrian smiled slightly.

“Now we arrive at the useful question.”

I sat.

“Then answer it.”

“Judge Samuel Wren. Port Commissioner Leonard Shaw. Former Police Superintendent Colin Mercer.”

Elena’s face changed at the last name.

“Mercer is retired.”

“And very comfortable.”

James looked at Adrian.

“You are giving us names because?”

“Dominic intends to kill me.”

No one spoke.

Adrian continued.

“He believes I kept copies of Michael’s records. He is correct.”

“Where?” James asked.

“Safe.”

“Nothing is safe.”

“That sounds almost like concern.”

“It isn’t.”

Adrian looked at me.

“Daniel came to me before he died.”

My skin went cold.

“When?”

“Two days before.”

“Why?”

“He wanted the original authorization logs.”

“Did you give them to him?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because doing so would have implicated me.”

“At least you’re honest.”

“Self-preservation encourages clarity.”

I hated him.

I also believed that sentence.

“What did Daniel say?”

Adrian’s expression shifted.

“He said he had proof that Michael had been killed because he was preparing to expose the network.”

James stepped forward.

“What proof?”

“A witness.”

“Who?”

“I never learned.”

“Did Daniel tell Dominic?”

“No.”

“Did he tell you where the witness was?”

“No.”

“Then how did Dominic know to stop him?”

Adrian’s eyes met mine.

“That is the question I came to ask you.”

I laughed.

“You came here to ask the widow who knew nothing?”

“Daniel believed you knew more than you realized.”

“That phrase is becoming offensive.”

“He said you remembered dates.”

My breath caught.

I did.

Daniel teased me about it constantly.

I remembered birthdays, anniversaries, appointments, the day we bought our first couch, the afternoon Chloe lost her first tooth.

Adrian continued.

“He said if anything happened to him, you would remember the wrong Tuesday.”

I stared at him.

“The wrong Tuesday?”

James looked at me.

“Does that mean anything?”

“No.”

Adrian leaned back.

“Then perhaps not yet.”

Elena said, “You have admitted knowledge of financial crimes and contact with a murdered source.”

“I have not admitted a crime.”

“You admitted signing suspicious documents.”

“Negligence is not necessarily criminal.”

She almost smiled.

“Keep talking.”

He ignored her.

“James, Dominic is moving money out of the foundation accounts.”

“I stopped today’s transfer.”

Adrian’s face changed.

“You stopped it?”

“Yes.”

“Then you have hours, not days.”

“Why?”

“Because the annual transfer is not only theft.”

“What is it?”

“A signal.”

The lobby seemed suddenly colder.

“To whom?” Elena asked.

Adrian looked at the security cameras.

“To everyone who is still being paid.”

“What signal?”

“That the network remains intact for another year.”

James stared at him.

“And stopping it?”

“Means someone has broken ranks.”

Luca approached from the entrance.

“Boss.”

“What?”

“We have movement outside.”

“How many?”

“Three cars.”

Adrian closed his eyes.

“Dominic.”

James looked at him.

“You led them here.”

“No.”

“Then how did they know?”

Adrian reached slowly into his pocket.

Luca’s hand moved toward his jacket.

“Easy.”

Adrian placed a phone on the table.

The screen showed a blinking red dot.

A tracking application.

“I found this under my car twenty minutes ago.”

Elena stared.

“You drove here with a tracker?”

“I wanted him to follow.”

I stood.

“You used a hotel full of people as bait?”

“I used James.”

James grabbed Adrian by the front of his coat.

“You came into my building knowing Dominic would bring armed men?”

“Yes.”

James pulled him closer.

“Give me one reason I should not break your jaw.”

“Because I know where Michael’s witness is.”

James froze.

Adrian smiled faintly.

“Now you’re listening.”

Elena stepped closer.

“Where?”

“Not until we leave.”

James released him.

“Luca, clear the lobby.”

The hotel staff moved guests toward a rear ballroom under the pretense of a fire-safety issue.

Elena’s agents positioned themselves near the doors.

I called Rachel.

“Are you with Chloe?”

“Yes.”

“Do not come back.”

“I wasn’t planning to.”

Chloe’s voice sounded in the background.

“Mommy?”

My throat tightened.

“Hi, baby.”

“Did you get my star?”

I looked at the bent silver ornament in my hand.

“Yes.”

“Is the picture still inside?”

I opened the locket.

“No.”

She was quiet.

Then she said, “That’s okay.”

“Why?”

“Daddy made another one.”

I stopped.

“What?”

“The picture.”

“Where?”

“In his wallet.”

My mind flashed backward.

Daniel’s wallet.

The police returned it after his death.

I still had it.

At my apartment.

In the lockbox.

No.

The lockbox had been opened.

“Chloe, did Daddy ever show you anything behind the picture?”

“Yes.”

My heartbeat thundered.

“What?”

“Numbers.”

James was watching me.

Elena too.

“What numbers?”

“I don’t remember.”

“Try.”

“I can’t.”

“That’s okay.”

She sounded upset.

“I’m sorry.”

“No, baby. You have nothing to be sorry for.”

I forced my voice steady.

“Do you remember what Daddy called the picture?”

A pause.

“The bridge.”

I closed my eyes.

“Why?”

“He said Mommy crossed it on the wrong Tuesday.”

The wrong Tuesday.

My mind snapped to a memory.

Two weeks before Daniel died, he had asked me to meet him at a café near Longfellow Bridge.

I had shown up on Tuesday.

He had meant Thursday.

We laughed about it for days.

Except now I remembered something else.

He had not been alone when I arrived.

A man had been sitting across from him.

Older.

Nervous.

I had barely seen his face because Daniel immediately stood and walked me outside.

At the time, he said it was a witness from work.

I looked at Adrian.

“The wrong Tuesday.”

His expression sharpened.

“You remember.”

“Yes.”

“Who was Daniel meeting?”

“I don’t know his name.”

“Describe him.”

“Sixties. Gray hair. Thin. He wore a port authority jacket.”

James looked at Elena.

Elena went pale.

“Leonard Shaw.”

“The commissioner?” I asked.

She nodded slowly.

“He was deputy commissioner then.”

Adrian’s face lost all color.

“That’s impossible.”

“Why?”

“Because Leonard Shaw was supposed to be part of the network.”

James looked at him.

“Maybe he wanted out.”

Adrian whispered, “Or Daniel was turning him.”

Outside, car doors slammed.

Luca said, “We need to move.”

Elena pointed toward the service corridor.

“Federal vehicles are in the loading bay.”

Adrian shook his head.

“No. Dominic knows that route.”

“Then where?”

James looked toward the hotel’s old banquet hall.

“There’s a tunnel.”

I stared at him.

“A tunnel.”

“Prohibition-era service tunnel to the building next door.”

Elena rubbed her forehead.

“Of course there is.”

We moved.

As we crossed the empty ballroom, Adrian fell into step beside me.

“You kept Daniel’s wallet?”

“Yes.”

“Was it searched after his death?”

“By police.”

“Then the numbers may still be there if they did not know what mattered.”

“What numbers?”

“Michael used a substitution cipher for account IDs.”

James heard him.

“You taught him that?”

Adrian looked at him.

“No.”

“Who did?”

Adrian’s face tightened.

“Your father.”

The room seemed to stop around James.

“My father?”

“Yes.”

James stared.

Adrian continued.

“Anthony Moretti discovered the theft before Michael did.”

James’s expression became stone.

“Then why didn’t he stop it?”

“Because by then he was dying, and half his organization depended on the money.”

“You told me he never knew.”

“I lied.”

James stepped toward him.

I moved between them.

“Not now.”

He looked at me.

“Grace.”

“Not now.”

For once, he listened.

We entered the tunnel.

It smelled like stone and old water.

Halfway through, James said quietly, “My father knew.”

No one answered.

He looked at Adrian.

“How long?”

“Four years before his death.”

“And Michael?”

“Found out two years later.”

“And me?”

“You were the son Anthony wanted kept clean enough to inherit the legitimate companies.”

James laughed once.

“So everyone protected me by lying.”

I understood that sentence too well.

I looked at him.

“Apparently it runs in families.”

He met my eyes.

For a moment, anger left his face.

Then Elena’s phone rang.

She answered.

Her expression changed.

“What?”

She listened.

“When?”

Another pause.

“Keep him there.”

She ended the call.

“Who?” James asked.

Elena looked at me.

“Leonard Shaw.”

My heart jumped.

“What about him?”

“He walked into a federal field office twenty minutes ago.”

“Why?”

“He says he wants protective custody.”

Adrian stared.

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Elena continued.

“And he says he knows who ordered Daniel Bennett’s murder.”