Chapter 8 - THE WRONG PASSENGER
Nobody spoke.
Rain tapped through gaps in the concrete structure.
Nicholas stared at Daniel.
“Claire wasn’t in the car.”
“She was supposed to be.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“That dinner in Highland Park. She canceled twenty minutes before you left.”
Nicholas remembered.
Claire had claimed migraine.
His driver, Anthony, had taken Nicholas alone.
The brakes failed near the bridge.
Anthony died instantly.
Nicholas barely survived.
Daniel continued.
“Someone knew her schedule.”
Nicholas’s voice was quiet.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“You kidnapped a child for a notebook because you don’t know?”
“I know pieces.”
Daniel held out his hand.
The masked man passed him Rebecca’s notebook.
Daniel flipped through it.
“Rebecca contacted me because she found medication records that started before your accident.”
Hannah stepped forward.
“What does that mean?”
“Claire was being drugged first.”
Nicholas looked at him.
“What?”
“Small doses. Sedatives. Blood pressure medication.”
Hannah’s mind raced.
“Who prescribed them?”
“No one.”
Daniel turned pages.
“Rebecca had worked for Claire’s mother years ago. That’s why Claire recommended her to your agency.”
Nicholas frowned.
“Claire recommended Rebecca?”
“Yes.”
“She told me the agency chose her.”
“She lied.”
Daniel showed them one page.
Rebecca had written:
C.W. reports dizziness before crash. Claims vitamins changed by household assistant.
Hannah said, “Then Claire might have been a target too.”
“Maybe.”
Nicholas shook his head.
“She slapped me.”
“I didn’t say she was innocent.”
Daniel looked at Nicholas.
“I said she wasn’t necessarily the first target.”
Hannah thought of the switched medication.
The staged public devotion.
Claire’s message after discovering the safe.
They found it.
She was involved in something.
But maybe not everything.
Nicholas asked, “Why did Rebecca contact you?”
“Because she found my name in old financial records.”
“Why?”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“Because somebody used one of my shell companies to pay for a mechanic.”
“The brakes.”
“Yes.”
Nicholas rolled closer.
“So whoever did this wanted it to look like you ordered the crash.”
“Yes.”
“Convenient.”
“I knew you’d say that.”
Daniel reached into his coat.
Hannah moved in front of Ethan.
Daniel pulled out a phone.
He opened a photograph.
A bank transfer.
Then another.
Then a photograph of a mechanic meeting a man outside a diner.
Hannah leaned closer.
The man wore a baseball cap.
Face partly hidden.
But something was visible.
A gold watch.
Nicholas went still.
“I know that watch.”
Walter had gone pale.
Hannah noticed.
“Nicholas?”
He stared at the photo.
“My father gave that watch to Walter.”
Everyone turned.
Walter said nothing.
Daniel smiled bitterly.
“Now we’re getting somewhere.”
Nicholas looked at Walter.
“Tell me that isn’t you.”
Walter’s hands tightened.
“It isn’t.”
Daniel enlarged the image.
The man’s left hand was visible.
Missing the tip of one finger.
Walter raised both hands.
All ten fingers intact.
Hannah exhaled.
Daniel frowned.
“Then who has the watch?”
Walter stared at the photograph.
“Nicholas’s father owned two.”
Nicholas looked at him.
“Who got the other one?”
Walter’s face changed.
“Nicholas’s uncle.”
Nicholas whispered:
“Frank.”
Daniel nodded.
“Frank Valenti.”
Hannah knew the name.
Nicholas’s uncle had supposedly retired from every family business after Nicholas’s father died.
He lived in Florida.
Or that was what everyone believed.
Nicholas said, “Frank hated Claire.”
Daniel shook his head.
“No.”
“He called her poison.”
“He was pretending.”
Daniel closed the notebook.
“Frank introduced me to Claire twelve years ago.”
Nicholas looked at his brother.
“And you never thought that mattered?”
“I didn’t know what he wanted.”
“What does he want now?”
Daniel’s expression darkened.
“The same thing he has always wanted.”
“What?”
Daniel looked at Nicholas.
“Everything with the Valenti name on it.”
Before Nicholas could answer, a gunshot cracked from the lower level.
A second followed.
One of Nicholas’s security men shouted.
Daniel spun.
“Get down!”
Another shot hit the SUV windshield.
Glass exploded.
Hannah threw herself over Ethan.
Nicholas reached for her.
Daniel dragged the masked man behind a pillar.
More shots.
Then an engine roared.
A black sedan tore up the ramp.
Daniel looked at Nicholas.
“They followed you.”
Nicholas stared at Walter.
Walter’s face had gone white.
“Only four people knew we were coming.”
May you like
Daniel raised his gun toward the approaching vehicle.
“And one of them just sold us out.”
