Chapter 10 - Why Nora Was Hired
The truth about Nora's job was simple and ugly.
She had not infiltrated Vale Manor.
She had been invited in.
Michael Crane - Daniel Bennett - approved her application personally.
Elias Ward arranged the opening.
They wanted Nora close to Adrian.
"Why?" she demanded.
Federal agents recovered the answer from the warehouse files.
Daniel believed Adrian still had the drive.
He needed someone Adrian would not suspect.
Someone with access to the library.
Someone who would keep looking even when told to stop.
His own daughter.
Nora felt sick.
"He used me."
Adrian leaned against the conference table.
"He may have thought he was protecting you."
"Don't defend him."
"I'm not."
She stared at the old photo of Daniel.
Twelve years of imagining him trapped, dead, or desperate.
And all along he had been making plans that put her inside a mafia boss's home.
Dominic found another file.
A voice memo recorded by Daniel three months earlier.
"If Nora gets close to Adrian, he may tell her the truth he never told me."
Nora hit pause.
"What truth?"
Adrian's face changed.
She turned toward him.
"What didn't you tell my father?"
Adrian said nothing.
"You keep doing this. One secret after another."
He looked at Dominic.
"Give us the room."
Nora almost objected.
Then Dominic left.
Adrian sat across from her.
"The night your father disappeared, I did more than steal the drive."
"What?"
"I gave Pike a false location for Daniel."
"Why?"
"To buy Daniel time."
"And?"
"Pike sent men there. They killed someone."
Nora went still.
"Who?"
Adrian's voice dropped.
"A federal agent named Mark Bell."
Nora knew the name.
Mark Bell had been listed in Daniel's case file as the last person to see him alive.
Adrian continued.
"Your father blamed me for Bell's death."
"Did you cause it?"
"Yes."
Nora stood.
Before she could answer, Dominic burst back in.
"We found Evelyn."
"Where?"
"At an old church in Dorchester."
May you like
He hesitated.
"She's not alone. Daniel Bennett is with her."
