Chương 7
“Why would you think that?”
“Because grown-ups get mad when kids find things.”
I almost smiled.
It was such a Lucy answer.
Honest.
Simple.
Painful.
“He’s not mad at you.”
“He looked scared.”
I looked at her.
“Yes.”
She sat beside me.
“Rich people get scared?”
The question was innocent.
But it made me think.
Everyone assumed money removed fear.
It did not.
It only changed what people were afraid of losing.
“Yes,” I said.
“Everyone gets scared.”
She looked at the floor.
“Dad was scared.”
I put my arm around her.
“I think he was.”
“Why didn’t he tell us?”
There it was.
The question I had avoided.
The question I had asked myself.
Why did Thomas carry something alone?
Why did he leave us with questions instead of answers?
I searched for something that would not be a lie.
“Maybe he thought he was protecting us.”
Lucy frowned.
“Did it work?”
I had no answer.
That hurt more than anything.
Because sometimes the things people do to protect you still hurt you.
A few minutes later, I came downstairs.
Gabriel was waiting by the front door.
Nolan stood beside him.
Two men who looked completely different from each other.
Gabriel looked like someone who had spent his life being watched.
Nolan looked like someone who had spent his life watching others.
“I’m coming,” I said.
Both men looked at me.
Gabriel shook his head.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“This could be dangerous.”
“So could staying home.”
He did not have an answer for that.
I continued.
“My husband left something connected to your company.”
I pointed at the notebook.
“My daughter found it.”
My voice tightened.
“I’m done standing outside the door while men decide what I’m allowed to know.”
Nolan looked at Gabriel.
“She’s right.”
Gabriel glanced at him.
“Don’t make this easier.”
“I’m not.”
Nolan picked up his coat.
“I’m saying she has more reason to be there than either of us.”
Gabriel studied me.
Then he nodded once.
“Stay close.”
It was not permission.
It was a warning.
The drive to Warehouse Fourteen took forty minutes.
Nobody spoke much.
The city moved around us in fragments.
Traffic lights reflecting on wet streets.
People carrying groceries.
A couple arguing outside a restaurant.
A man walking a dog that clearly wanted to go home.
Ordinary things.
That was the strange part.
The world looked normal.
My life did not.
Gabriel drove himself.
No security.
No assistants.
No convoy.
I noticed.
“You usually travel alone?”
“No.”
“Then why now?”
He kept his eyes on the road.
“Because if someone inside my company is involved, I don’t know who I can trust.”
The answer should have frightened me.
It did.
Warehouse Fourteen sat near the river behind a chain-link fence.
The building looked abandoned.
Not destroyed.
Just forgotten.
The kind of place where people stopped looking because everyone assumed someone else was responsible.
Gabriel parked nearby.
Nolan stared at the building.
“I haven’t been here in years.”
“Why?”
Nolan did not answer.
Gabriel turned off the engine.
“Nolan.”
“I came here with your father.”
The words changed the air.
“When?”
“Six years ago.”
I looked at him.
“With Vincent Hale?”
He nodded.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Nolan looked at the dark warehouse.
“Because your father thought Vincent was stealing.”
Gabriel waited.
“And what did you find?”
Nolan’s hand rested on the door handle.
“We found out he wasn’t stealing.”
The wind moved through the empty lot.
“Then what was he doing?”
Nolan looked at Gabriel.
“He was trying to prove your father was.”
The sentence should have sounded impossible.
A man accusing his own father.
A man admitting his family built something on a lie.
But standing there in the darkness outside Warehouse Fourteen, nobody looked surprised.
Maybe because everyone in that parking lot had already suspected something was wrong.
They just had different versions of what the wrong thing was.
Gabriel opened the car door.
“Inside.”
Nolan did not move.
“Gabriel.”
“No.”
“You need to think.”
“I’ve been thinking for six years.”
The words came out sharper than he intended.
For a second, he looked almost embarrassed by his own anger.
Then it disappeared.
“My father died believing he was untouchable.”
Gabriel looked at the warehouse.
“I spent years believing I was better because I inherited the damage instead of creating it.”
Nobody spoke.
“Maybe I was wrong.”
I watched Nolan closely.
He looked like he wanted to argue.
He did not.
That was the first thing that made me believe he was telling the truth.
People who lied usually fought hardest when they felt cornered.
People who carried guilt often just got tired.
We walked toward the building.
The fence had been cut and repaired several times.
Not professionally.
Someone had forced their way through and covered it afterward.
Gabriel noticed.
“Recent?”
Nolan shook his head.
“Could be years old.”
“You don’t know?”
“I was not the person watching this property.”
The answer bothered Gabriel.
It bothered me too.
Because a company like Rourke Freight did not leave things unattended by accident.
Someone had decided this place was unimportant.
Or someone wanted everyone to believe that.
The warehouse door was locked.
Gabriel reached for his phone.
Nolan stopped him.
“Wait.”
Gabriel looked back.
“What?”
“Thomas found something here.”
“How do you know?”
Nolan stared at the door.
“Because this was where Vincent hid things.”
A cold feeling moved through me.
“Things?”
“Records.”
“What kind of records?”
Nolan looked at me.
“The kind that can ruin people.”
Nobody moved for a moment.
Then Gabriel pulled a small flashlight from his car.
I noticed.
“You carry that around?”
He glanced at it.
“My father taught me to expect problems.”
“Useful lesson?”
He looked at the warehouse.
“Depends who creates the problems.”
The door was not difficult to open.
That almost bothered me more.
A place containing something valuable should have been protected.
May you like
Unless the people who wanted it hidden assumed nobody would come looking.
Inside, the air smelled like old paper, metal, and water damage.
