Chương 16
Nora wrote them down. “What else?”
“He asked whether I found the family account.”
“Whose family?”
“He didn’t say.”
Julian’s mother’s driver.
Nora called the laboratory. The third partition’s encryption required a phrase rather than a numeric key. Investigators had found no embedded hint.
“What was on the yellow pad?” Sophia asked herself.
Elena looked up from the couch. “What?”
“Marcus had written something.”
“What?”
“I couldn’t see all of it.”
Sophia closed her eyes.
The memory did not come as a clean image. It arrived in pieces: Marcus’s hand flattening the page, the blue edge of a printed logo, one line crossed out, numbers in groups, a name beginning with D.
Daniel.
“He wrote Daniel Cruz,” she said.
Nora’s expression sharpened.
“And a date. I saw nineteen—maybe two thousand seven. No. The crash was nineteen years ago.”
“Two thousand seven,” Elena said.
“What?”
“Nineteen years before 2026.”
Sophia looked at her.
Elena shrugged. “Chemistry is not the only subject.”
Nora called the lab again. Daniel Cruz and the date of the crash failed. So did variations using his name, the vehicle’s license plate from archived insurance records, and the street where the collision occurred.
They had four failed attempts before the drive would lock permanently.
One remained.
Nora stopped the testing.
“We need Vincent,” Sophia said.
“He has asked for counsel and refuses to answer questions.”
“Julian might know.”
Nora hesitated.
“You already told him about the message,” Sophia said.
“And he may be the reason Marcus has Pike.”
“Or Vincent is.”
“We are investigating both.”
“You don’t have time to keep them equal because it feels fair.”
Nora looked at her.
Sophia continued, “Marcus wants me at the warehouse. That means he believes I can get something Julian can’t.”
“The password.”
“Or Vincent’s cooperation.”
“You are not going.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“I can barely walk to the bathroom.”
“That has not stopped you from making dangerous plans.”
Elena raised her hand from the couch. “She does that.”
Sophia ignored her. “Let me speak to Vincent.”
Nora’s answer was immediate. “No.”
“He came to buy me off. He thinks I’m beneath him. He may say something because he wants me to know I never mattered.”
“That is not a strategy.”
“It is more than you have.”
Vincent agreed to the call after his attorney arrived.
He appeared on a secure video screen in a gray interview room, wearing the same clothes from the safe house. His silver hair had lost its shape. A bruise darkened one cheek where Thomas had pushed him against the wall.
His attorney, a woman with red glasses, sat beside him.
Nora introduced the purpose of the conversation. Vincent said nothing until Sophia leaned toward the screen.
“Marcus has Owen Pike.”
Vincent’s eyes changed.
Only slightly.
Enough.
“You care about him,” Sophia said.
Vincent’s attorney touched his sleeve. “Do not respond.”
“Pike kept your accounts,” Sophia continued. “He also knew about Daniel Cruz.”
Vincent looked at Nora. “You opened the drive.”
“Two partitions,” Nora said. “The third requires a phrase.”
His gaze returned to Sophia. “And you think I know it.”
“Marcus does.”
“Then ask Marcus.”
“He wants me at the warehouse.”
“That is unfortunate.”
“He’ll kill Owen at midnight.”
Vincent’s attorney spoke. “My client has no verified knowledge of this alleged abduction.”
Sophia kept her eyes on Vincent. “You brought pastries to the safe house.”
His mouth tightened.
“You said Julian’s mother liked them.”
“Do not discuss family,” Vincent said.
“Why? Because Marcus built the password from it?”
“I have no idea what Marcus built.”
“You knew the drive was dangerous before Julian retrieved it. You watched the office. You told him to destroy it. You knew about the message.”
“No.”
“Daniel Cruz was your friend.”
Vincent’s face went still.
It was a guess.
Nora saw it land.
Sophia pressed. “Not Julian’s mother’s driver. Yours.”
Vincent’s attorney began, “This is speculative and—”
“You got him the job,” Sophia said. “You trusted him to drive her. Then something happened.”
Vincent looked away from the screen.
His attorney told him again not to answer.
The red glasses reflected the interview room lights. Sophia focused on Vincent’s hands. They lay flat on the table now. No gloves to smooth.
“What was her name?” Sophia asked.
“Whose?”
“Julian’s mother.”
Nora glanced at her notes. “Beatrice Reeves.”
Vincent closed his eyes.
Sophia heard Marcus’s peppermint breath.
Ask Vincent what happened to your mother’s driver.
Not ask what happened to the driver.
Ask Vincent.
The password did not belong to Daniel. It belonged to what Vincent had refused to say.
“Beatrice knew Daniel wasn’t drunk,” Sophia said. “She knew because she was with him.”
Vincent opened his eyes.
“Where were they going?”
No answer.
“Who were they trying to get away from?”
“Stop,” Vincent said.
His attorney leaned close. “Do not speak.”
Sophia’s heartbeat quickened.
“Was Julian’s father in the car that hit them?”
Vincent stood so suddenly his chair struck the wall.
“No.”
The denial came from somewhere below discipline.
Nora leaned forward. “Who was?”
Vincent looked at the screen, but he was no longer seeing Sophia.
“Beatrice was leaving,” he said.
His attorney rose. “This interview is over.”
“She took documents,” Vincent continued. “She believed her husband had ordered a man killed over a union contract. Daniel agreed to drive her to a federal office.”
Julian’s father.
Nora signaled to someone outside the camera view to keep recording.
“Who caused the crash?” she asked.
Vincent’s face folded inward, age arriving all at once.
“I told them the route.”
“Who?”
“Julian’s father.”
His attorney gripped his arm. “Do not say another word.”
Vincent sat again.
“Daniel survived the crash,” he said quietly. “For six hours.”
Sophia forgot the pain in her ribs.
“What happened?” she asked.
Vincent looked directly at her.
“I made sure it was only six.”
The room around Sophia became silent.
Even Elena stopped moving.
Nora’s voice remained steady. “How?”
May you like
Vincent’s attorney stepped in front of the camera. “This interview is terminated.”
The screen went dark.
