Chapter 17 - What the Maid Kept

Mara's copies weren't in a safe or a bank. They were inside a battered library book she'd checked out and renewed six times.

"I took photographs of the documents," she explained to Simone. "Then I printed them and hid the pages between chapters. Sophie thinks it's a book about birds."

Officers retrieved the book from a locked church donation box. Every tenth page held payroll entries, wire transfer records, or names of workers who had asked for help.

"Why didn't you come to the police sooner?" Simone asked.

"I tried the labor department. Someone there sent my complaint right back to Northline. After that, I didn't know who I could trust."

"You can tell me who received it."

Mara did.

A task force analyst traced the leaked complaint to a contractor who had also obtained the protected apartment address by following a transport vehicle. The contractor was found and arrested that afternoon. Sophie was moved to a location not shared beyond her assigned protection team.

Then Sophie came into her mother's room.

For a second, neither moved. Mara had imagined this moment during every hour in the locked room, but imagination had not prepared her for the sight of that small face, exhausted and hopeful.

"Mommy?"

Mara opened her arms. "Come here, baby."

Sophie ran. She buried her face against Mara's shoulder, careful of the bandage only after Tessa reminded her.

"I heard the knocks," Sophie whispered.

"I know. You listened."

"I thought I was too little to help."

"You were never supposed to have to help." Mara kissed her hair. "I'm so sorry."

Nico watched from the hallway. He stayed out of the room. Some moments did not need his face in them.

Dahlia found him there and handed him a tablet. The newly recovered records showed that Gideon was preparing to sell Riverton Transfer to a shell company before the end of the week. The sale would move the assets, books, and outstanding debts beyond the reach of ordinary creditors.

"He's not running," Dahlia said. "He's trying to make the evidence disappear on paper."

Nico looked once more at mother and daughter holding each other.

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"Then we stop the sale," he said.

But the buyer named in the contract was a company Nico had founded himself.