Chapter 6 - What Adrian Did
Nora turned slowly.
Adrian did not deny it.
"Tell me."
"Not here."
"Tell me now."
He looked toward the dark rafters.
"After I warned Daniel, I followed him."
"Why?"
"I wanted the evidence."
Nora stared.
"For what?"
"To use against my father."
At nineteen, Adrian had already known Vincent Vale would eventually destroy him too.
Daniel had carried a drive containing account ledgers and names.
Adrian followed him to Pier 19.
So did Samuel Pike.
Shots were fired.
Daniel escaped through the rear loading dock.
Adrian found the drive on the floor.
And kept it.
"You stole his evidence."
"Yes."
"You let him disappear with nothing."
"Yes."
The word hit like another betrayal.
Adrian continued.
"I planned to trade it to federal agents for protection. Before I could, Pike found out I had it."
"What happened?"
"I hid it."
"Where?"
"In the library wall."
Nora understood.
The fire.
Someone had not been trying only to kill Adrian.
Someone had been searching for the drive.
Dominic found an old cassette recorder behind a beam.
The tape continued.
Daniel's voice:
"If Adrian still has the drive, understand this: he saved my life, then made a choice that nearly ruined it. Both things are true."
Nora closed her eyes.
Her father had known.
He had not forgiven Adrian completely.
But he had not called him an enemy either.
The tape clicked.
One final sentence.
"The evidence is useless without the key. The key is with Nora's mother."
Nora's eyes opened.
"My mother?"
Her mother, Claire Bennett, had died five years ago.
Cancer.
Before she died, she had given Nora one box of family keepsakes.
Nora had never opened the false bottom.
May you like
They raced to her apartment.
The box was gone.
