Chapter 12 - The Price of a Face
Alisa refused to go anywhere alone. "I believed one man without proof for thirty-one years," she told Ortiz. "I'm not doing it again."
The detective agreed to arrange a controlled meeting at the police station, with counsel present. Silas arrived in an oversized coat, his false bridal makeup still clinging to his neck. Without the mask, he looked like an exhausted old man who had borrowed somebody else's nightmare.
"Why my wedding?" Adrian asked through the glass of the interview room.
Silas laughed bitterly. "Because Gideon cared more about a perfect family picture than anything alive in it. I wanted him to see his picture ruined."
"You tied my fiancée behind a wall," Adrian said. "You terrified my five-year-old sister."
"I did. I have no excuse for that." Silas stared at the table. "My plan was to stand at the altar until Gideon recognized me. I was wearing a microphone. I thought he'd panic and confess in front of all those people."
"So you were going to use my brother's marriage as a trap?" Alisa asked.
"I was going to use his shame."
"You used innocent people. That's not the same thing."
Silas looked away. He admitted Grant had opened the dressing room, and that two hired men had hidden Tessa when she resisted. He'd promised to release her after Gideon admitted the old fraud. Willa's sudden arrival had destroyed his scheme before the recording began.
"Gideon invited you?" Alisa asked.
"He offered me money to scare Tessa. I'd been blackmailing him for years. I wanted more than money this time."
"Why?"
Silas swallowed. "Because Walter was alive when I set the fire. Gideon told me the building was empty. Then he made me listen to Walter knocking on that gate."
Alisa pressed a hand to her mouth.
"He could have opened it," Silas said. "I begged him to. He told me that if Walter walked out, neither of us would see another sunrise without a prison wall."
Ortiz leaned forward. "Do you have proof beyond the tape?"
May you like
Silas lifted his face.
"I have the original books," he said. "And there's a name in them you haven't asked about yet."
