Chương 11
“He was consulting on Hawthorne’s legacy properties.”
Victoria’s hands went cold.
She had met Julian at a redevelopment dinner.
He told her he was representing a lender.
He had joked about hating rubber chicken and asked whether she was as bored as he was.
She had liked him because he seemed uninterested in impressing anyone.
It had never occurred to her that he had known exactly who she was.
“He approached me because of Hawthorne?”
“I don’t know why he approached you.”
“But he knew my company.”
“Yes.”
Chloe whispered, “Oh, God.”
Victoria looked at her.
Chloe’s eyes were fixed on the floor.
“What?”
“Julian used to talk about Bellweather before he met you.”
Victoria’s chest tightened.
“How long before?”
“A year, maybe more.”
“What did he say?”
“He said it was sitting on buried liabilities.”
Mara said sharply, “What liabilities?”
Chloe looked toward the phone.
“I don’t know.”
“Try to remember.”
“He said whoever owned Bellweather didn’t know what they had inherited.”
Victoria felt another contraction begin.
This time she barely breathed through it.
Chloe continued.
“He and Dad used to talk about land records.”
“Your father was alive then?”
“No.”
Chloe corrected herself.
“Sorry.”
She rubbed her forehead.
“Julian talked about things Dad had said.”
“What things?”
“Old property transfers.”
Mara’s voice changed.
“Victoria, Hawthorne owned a storage facility in 1999.”
Victoria looked at the phone.
“So?”
“It was outside Laredo.”
Nobody moved.
Chloe whispered, “Where the car was found.”
Mara said, “Near where the car was found.”
Victoria felt the contraction tighten.
Then a warm sensation spread beneath her.
She looked down.
The sheet beneath her was wet.
Chloe stood abruptly.
“What happened?”
Victoria stared at the bed.
The nurse came in at once.
“Did your water break?”
“I think so.”
Everything changed pace.
The nurse pressed a button.
Another nurse entered.
Then Dr. Shah appeared in the doorway pulling on gloves.
Victoria handed the phone toward Chloe.
“Don’t hang up.”
Chloe took it.
Mara’s voice came faintly through the speaker.
“Victoria?”
Dr. Shah examined her quickly.
“Your membranes ruptured.”
Victoria looked at her.
“At thirty-four weeks?”
“Yes.”
“Is she okay?”
“Her tracing still looks good.”
Victoria gripped the bed rail.
Another contraction hit.
This one took her voice.
Dr. Shah waited until it passed.
“We’re moving you to labor and delivery.”
“Can you stop it?”
“Not if labor is progressing after rupture.”
Victoria looked at Chloe.
Chloe had gone pale.
“You don’t have to stay.”
Chloe stared at her.
“I’m staying.”
The nurses unlocked the bed and began moving it.
Mara said through the phone, “I’m coming to the hospital.”
Victoria shook her head.
“No.”
Chloe relayed it.
“She says no.”
Mara said, “I heard her.”
Victoria looked toward Chloe’s phone.
“Go to the police first.”
There was a pause.
Then Mara said, “Why?”
“Tell them about Hawthorne.”
“Victoria.”
“Tell them everything.”
Mara’s voice dropped.
“If I do that, I may expose privileged material.”
“Mine?”
“Some.”
“Waive it.”
Chloe stared at Victoria.
Mara said, “You need to understand what that means.”
Victoria gripped the rail as they rolled into the hallway.
“I understand enough.”
“Not all of it.”
“Then explain later.”
Mara went quiet.
Victoria’s voice hardened.
“For once, stop protecting information and protect me.”
Mara inhaled sharply.
Then she said, “All right.”
The call ended.
Chloe lowered the phone.
They passed a security desk.
Two officers stood nearby.
One of them was speaking into a radio.
Victoria caught only part of the message.
Julian Vance had left the estate.
She lifted her head.
“Wait.”
The nurses kept moving.
“What?”
The officer looked over.
“Did you say Julian left?”
The officer hesitated.
“Yes.”
“How?”
“He was not under arrest.”
Chloe swore.
“Where did he go?”
“We don’t know.”
Victoria’s heart rate climbed on the monitor.
Dr. Shah said, “Victoria, focus on your breathing.”
Victoria looked at the officer.
“My husband has access to company properties all over Central Texas.”
The officer took out his phone.
“Which ones?”
“Dozens.”
Chloe suddenly grabbed Victoria’s arm.
“Hawthorne.”
Victoria looked at her.
Chloe’s face had changed completely.
“What?”
“He’s going to the storage property.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Yes, I do.”
“How?”
Chloe swallowed.
“Because three weeks ago, Julian asked me to overnight him a key.”
Victoria stared at her.
“What key?”
“He said it was for an old family storage unit.”
“Where?”
“I didn’t ask.”
“Where did you get it?”
“Mom’s desk.”
Victoria felt cold.
“What did it look like?”
“Brass.”
Chloe’s voice shook.
“Number stamped on it.”
“What number?”
Chloe closed her eyes.
“317.”
The officer beside them typed something into his phone.
Victoria turned toward him.
“Find out whether Hawthorne’s old Laredo facility has a unit 317.”
The officer looked at her.
“We will.”
Another contraction came.
Victoria cried out before she could stop herself.
The nurses pushed the bed through double doors.
Chloe ran beside them until a staff member stopped her at the threshold.
Victoria reached out.
Chloe caught her hand.
For one second they held on.
Then the doors began to close.
Chloe called through the narrowing gap.
“I’ll find out where he went.”
Victoria shook her head.
“No.”
Chloe stopped.
Victoria tightened her grip once before their hands separated.
“Stay where people can see you.”
The doors closed.
Minutes later, Victoria lay beneath bright delivery-room lights while monitors surrounded her and strangers prepared for a premature birth.
She stared at the ceiling and tried not to think about Julian driving south through the darkness.
She tried not to imagine what might be inside a storage unit that had survived twenty-seven years.
She tried not to imagine Camille at seven years old.
Then Victoria’s phone vibrated on the table beside the bed.
A message from an unknown number appeared.
She opened it.
There was no text.
Only a photograph.
A little girl stood beside a blue Oldsmobile, squinting into sunlight.
On the back of the photograph, someone had written a date.
October 14, 1999.
May you like
Below the date was a sentence in Eleanor’s handwriting.
Richard says she can never be allowed to tell Leah what she saw.
