Chapter 3 - WHAT NOAH SAW
Mara interviewed Noah in the library with a child specialist present.
I wanted to stay beside him.
She asked me not to.
"Children try to protect parents," she said. "Let him tell it his way."
So I watched through the glass.
Noah hugged the stuffed dinosaur Elena had brought from his room.
"Did you see the man touch the glass tower?" the specialist asked.
Noah nodded.
"What did he do?"
"He pushed the bottom thing with his shoe."
"Did anyone talk to him?"
"Uncle Julian."
My throat tightened.
"What did Uncle Julian say?"
Noah thought carefully.
"He said, 'Not until Ethan gets here.'"
Mara turned toward me behind the glass.
Noah continued.
"Then Uncle Julian saw me looking. He gave me cake early."
"Did he tell you anything?"
"He said don't tell Dad because Dad gets mad on birthdays."
Julian knew exactly how to manipulate a five-year-old.
After the interview, Elena sat across from me in the breakfast room while a medic cleaned the cuts on her arms.
"I owe you an apology," I said.
She looked up.
"For yelling?"
"For seeing you with my son and assuming you were the threat."
"You were scared."
"That's not an excuse."
She gave a small nod.
Then she said, "The tower didn't wobble naturally."
"What do you mean?"
"I worked banquets before I came here. That base was reinforced. Someone had loosened it."
Grant examined the structure.
She was right.
Two locking bolts had been removed.
One was found beneath the table.
The other was missing.
Mara searched Owen Kane.
Under his shirt, the snake tattoo covered an old military unit number.
Grant recognized it. "He served with Adrian. Same private security contract in Kabul."
Mara opened Owen's phone.
One message had arrived six minutes before the tower fell.
WAIT UNTIL E IS ON THE STAR.
May you like
The sender was saved as A.V.
My dead brother's initials.
