Chapter 13 - The Gunshot in the Dark
Claire dropped to the floor.
Ethan covered Lily with his body.
Police flashlights cut through the dark.
“Everybody stay down!” Ortiz shouted.
A second shot cracked from the hallway.
Then running footsteps.
Emergency lights flickered on.
Charles lay beside the chair, blood spreading across the shoulder of his white shirt.
Victoria was gone.
So was Thomas.
“Dad!” Ethan moved toward Charles.
Ortiz blocked him long enough for an officer to clear the doorway.
Claire pulled Lily close and covered the girl’s ears.
Charles was conscious.
“Mason,” he gasped. “He came for the drive.”
The microdrive from Margaret’s music box had disappeared from the table.
Ortiz cursed.
A crash sounded downstairs.
Ethan started toward it.
Claire grabbed him. “Lily needs you alive.”
He looked at the little girl in her arms and stopped.
Police chased Mason through the service corridor, but he escaped through an old tunnel once used by staff during Prohibition. Victoria had apparently followed him—or been taken by him.
Thomas reappeared three minutes later with blood on his sleeve.
Ortiz aimed at him. “Hands!”
“I was trying to cut them off.”
“On the floor.”
Thomas obeyed.
Claire noticed something in his hand.
Not the microdrive.
A small black remote.
“What’s that?”
Thomas looked at Charles. “Insurance.”
He clicked one button.
Every television in the study turned on.
Security footage filled the screens.
Mason entering through the west service door.
Mason shooting Charles.
Mason grabbing the drive.
Then another camera angle showed Victoria waiting at the end of the tunnel.
She did not look kidnapped.
She looked prepared.
Mason handed her the drive.
Victoria kissed his cheek.
Ethan stared at the screen.
“They’re working together.”
Thomas nodded. “Have been for years.”
Charles opened his eyes. “No.”
Thomas looked almost sorry for him.
“You thought Mason worked for you. He worked for Victoria.”
Charles started to shake.
“Michael’s brakes,” Ethan said.
Thomas nodded once. “Mason did exactly what Victoria paid him to do.”
Claire looked at the last frame.
Victoria and Mason were climbing into a black SUV beyond the estate wall.
Then Claire’s phone rang.
Victoria’s name appeared.
Claire answered.
Victoria said, “Put me on speaker.”
Claire did.
May you like
Victoria’s voice filled the study.
“I have the drive,” she said. “And I know what Claire hasn’t told you about the baby.”
