Chapter 15 - The Red Piano
Police traced Victoria’s SUV south toward Manhattan.
Claire remained at the estate with Lily while Ethan rode with Ortiz. Charles was taken to the hospital under guard.
Thomas, still technically under arrest, gave police everything he knew about Victoria and Mason.
At 9:20 a.m., detectives raided Victoria’s penthouse.
She wasn’t there.
Neither was the red piano music box.
But Ethan found something in her home office that hurt more than any financial record.
A wall of photographs.
Lily at school.
Claire leaving her doctor’s office.
Ethan meeting investors.
Michael on the highway the day he died.
Victoria had watched all of them.
Ortiz found a hidden safe behind the photographs. Inside were burner phones and a list of payments to Mason.
One entry was dated the morning Michael died.
BRAKE SERVICE — 25,000.
Ethan sat down.
Ortiz stood beside him without speaking.
He said, “My father ordered a delay. My sister ordered a death.”
“Looks that way.”
“And I spent three years having Christmas with her.”
Back at the estate, Claire sat on the floor with Lily.
The child had not cried since being rescued.
That worried Claire.
“You can be scared,” Claire said softly.
Lily stared at her shoes. “If I cry, bad people know they won.”
Claire’s heart broke.
She pulled Lily close. “No. Crying doesn’t mean anybody won. It just means something hurt.”
Lily finally collapsed into her arms.
Minutes later, Claire’s phone buzzed with a message from an unknown number.
A photo.
The red piano music box sat on a table beside a window overlooking the East River.
Text beneath it read:
COME ALONE IF YOU WANT THE TRUTH ABOUT ANNA’S LAST MINUTE.
Claire immediately called Ortiz.
No answer.
She called Ethan.
No answer.
Then another message arrived.
NO POLICE. NO ETHAN. BRING LILY.
Claire’s blood ran cold.
She showed the phone to the officer guarding the house.
May you like
He reached for his radio.
Before he could speak, the front gate exploded inward.
