Chapter 5 - The Brother with Two Names
The first deadbolt slid open without anyone touching it.
Mrs. Kessler stared at the lock.
“That one is mechanical.”
The second deadbolt turned.
Click.
Emily grabbed the cassette from the player and shoved it into the inside pocket of Victor’s coat.
“Back door?”
“Fire escape through the bedroom.”
The third deadbolt began to move.
Mrs. Kessler caught Emily’s hand.
“Take the green book.”
“What about you?”
“I’m seventy-eight. No one expects me to climb four floors in the rain.”
“That is not reassuring.”
“It wasn’t meant to be.”
The last lock released.
Emily ran toward the bedroom.
The front door opened behind her.
Daniel said, “Em, stop.”
She stopped anyway.
Not because he told her to.
Because the voice was exactly how she remembered it when he used to stand at the bottom of the stairs and ask if she wanted to sneak out for ice cream.
Emily turned.
Daniel stood in the doorway alone.
No gun visible.
Rain darkened the shoulders of his jacket.
His eyes moved to Mrs. Kessler, then to the coat Emily wore.
“Victor’s coat.”
Emily folded her arms.
“Good observation.”
“Take it off.”
“Interesting. Everybody in this family starts with commands.”
Daniel closed the door behind him.
Mrs. Kessler stepped between them.
“Your mother told you not to come here.”
Daniel smiled at her.
“Ruth, I missed your hospitality.”
“I didn’t miss your talent for bringing trouble into small rooms.”
Daniel’s smile faded.
“Emily, we have maybe five minutes.”
“Until what?”
“Until Victor finds a reason to move you again.”
“He already knows I’m here.”
Daniel’s eyes sharpened.
“How?”
Emily did not answer.
Daniel looked at the coat again.
“Tracker.”
He stepped forward and reached toward her collar.
Emily slapped his hand away.
“Don’t touch me.”
“Then take off the coat.”
“No.”
Daniel let out a breath.
“You were always stubborn.”
“You were always dead.”
That landed.
His face went blank.
For several seconds, only the cooking show moved on the television behind them.
A chef smiled silently while stirring soup.
Daniel looked down.
“I didn’t choose that.”
“You let me bury you.”
“There wasn’t a body.”
“There was a coffin.”
“I know.”
“I spoke at your funeral.”
Daniel’s throat moved.
“I heard the recording.”
Emily stared at him.
“You listened?”
“I couldn’t be there.”
“But you could listen.”
He closed his eyes briefly.
“Em, hate me later. Right now I need the badge chip.”
There it was again.
The key.
Emily’s anger cooled into something more careful.
“You called me tonight because of the chip.”
“I called because Victor had the file.”
“The file you planted?”
Daniel did not answer quickly enough.
Emily nodded.
“Of course.”
“The file was the only way to make him break protocol.”
“You mean the protocol where I don’t know who my parents are?”
“The protocol where Carlo’s network doesn’t know you exist.”
“Carlo is dead.”
Daniel looked at Mrs. Kessler.
Then back at Emily.
“Carlo died. His network didn’t.”
Mrs. Kessler whispered, “Daniel.”
He ignored her.
“Victor inherited a machine he claims he cleaned up. He didn’t. He repainted it.”
Emily pulled the hotel key card from her pocket.
“My father’s recording says you gave Carlo our address.”
Daniel’s face tightened.
“I gave him an address.”
“A fake one.”
His eyes flicked to Mrs. Kessler.
“You heard Sarah’s tape.”
Emily saw the calculation happen.
He now knew she had the cassette.
“You weren’t alone in the hallway,” Emily said.
Daniel’s gaze returned to her.
“No.”
“Who was with you?”
“Someone who believed I was meeting a source.”
“That is not an answer.”
“It is the only answer that keeps Ruth alive.”
Mrs. Kessler snorted.
“I’ve outlived three husbands and a gas explosion. Don’t build your strategy around me.”
Daniel almost smiled.
Then a red dot appeared on the wall behind him.
Emily saw it first.
A tiny trembling point of light on floral wallpaper.
It moved onto Daniel’s shoulder.
“Down!”
She slammed into him.
The window behind them shattered.
Glass blew across the room.
Mrs. Kessler dropped behind the sofa.
Daniel hit the floor with Emily under him.
A second shot punched into the wall where his head had been.
“Fire escape!” Daniel shouted.
Emily crawled toward the bedroom.
A black SUV screeched in the alley below.
Victor stepped out before it fully stopped.
He looked up at the broken window.
“Emily!”
Daniel reached the fire escape first and looked down.
His face hardened.
“Of course he’s here.”
Another shot cracked into the brick.
Victor fired once toward a rooftop across the street, forcing the shooter back.
“Move!”
Emily descended the wet metal stairs.
Daniel stayed behind her, shielding her with his body.
At the second-floor landing, he grabbed her arm.
“Listen to me.”
“No.”
“The chip opens the ghost ledger.”
“I don’t care.”
“You should. Your father built it to expose Carlo. Your mother modified it. Victor buried it.”
Emily yanked free.
“Then why do you need it?”
Daniel looked at her with an expression she remembered from childhood.
The face he made right before admitting he had done something stupid.
“Because I sold part of it.”
Emily froze.
“What?”
“Eight years ago. I sold access to someone I thought wanted evidence on Moretti Holdings. They wanted names. Judges. Police. Accountants. Witnesses.”
The air left Emily’s lungs.
“That’s why you disappeared.”
“I disappeared because people died.”
“How many?”
Daniel looked away.
“Enough.”
Victor reached the bottom of the fire escape.
“Emily, get in the car.”
Daniel raised his gun.
Victor raised his.
Emily stood between them on the landing.
“Stop pointing guns at my brothers!”
The word came out before she could stop it.
Both men stared at her.
A ridiculous moment.
Almost funny.
Then someone below shouted, “Federal agents! Drop your weapons!”
Victor’s expression changed.
Not fear.
Recognition.
Daniel looked over the railing.
A woman in a dark raincoat stepped from behind a sedan, badge raised.
“Emily Vale,” she called. “My name is Special Agent Nora Shaw. I need you to come with me.”
Daniel whispered, “No.”
Victor whispered the same word at the same time.
Emily looked between them.
Agent Shaw raised her voice.
“Your father Elias Vale was a federal informant. Victor Moretti is a suspect in his murder.”
Victor did not react.
Daniel did.
He turned toward Emily and said, “She’s lying about one thing.”
Agent Shaw looked up.
Daniel continued.
“Elias wasn’t your father’s real name.”
A click came from Emily’s pocket.
The black chip inside Victor’s coat activated by itself.
May you like
Her phone screen lit up with a single line.
ACCOUNT 1147 UNLOCKED.
