Chapter 2 - The Photograph in Her Coat
Dominic did not panic.
Men who panicked died first.
His hand immediately found Clara’s shoulder in the darkness.
“Stay down.”
“Dominic—”
“Quiet.”
The footsteps stopped outside the curtain.
Someone was there.
Dominic could see only a narrow silhouette against the dim emergency lights from the corridor.
Then the curtain moved.
Dominic stepped forward.
The figure disappeared.
By the time emergency power restored the overhead lights, Dominic was already in the hallway.
A nurse pushed a medication cart past him.
An orderly stood near the elevators.
A security guard was speaking into a radio.
No mysterious stranger.
No obvious threat.
Nothing.
Dominic returned to Bay Seven.
Clara was trying to reach the photograph.
He picked it up first.
“Start talking.”
Her face tightened.
“I can explain.”
“Good.”
He pulled the chair beside her bed.
“Explain why you have a photograph of my father.”
Clara stared at the picture.
“My mother knew him.”
“How?”
“She worked for him.”
Dominic felt the room become smaller.
“Doing what?”
“Accounting.”
“My father didn't have an accountant named Hayes.”
“Her maiden name was Mercer.”
Dominic knew that name.
Evelyn Mercer.
It had appeared in old company records.
Then disappeared.
“When?”
“Twenty-seven years ago.”
“And you decided this was information I didn't need?”
“I didn't know until last year.”
“Your mother told you?”
Clara looked toward the door.
“She told me the night before she died.”
Dominic's anger weakened.
“What did she say?”
“That your father wasn't the man everyone thought he was.”
“That doesn't exactly narrow it down.”
“She said he discovered someone stealing from the organization.”
Dominic leaned forward.
“Who?”
“She never gave me a name.”
“Why?”
“Because she was afraid.”
“Of someone who's probably seventy years old now?”
Clara met his eyes.
“No. Of his son.”
Dominic went still.
“My brother?”
Clara shook her head.
“Not your father's son.”
Before Dominic could ask what that meant, Detective Bell returned.
“Mr. Gallo?”
Dominic slipped the photograph into his coat.
Bell looked at Clara.
“We recovered something from the crash site.”
Clara visibly stiffened.
“What?”
“A second set of tire tracks.”
Dominic watched him.
Bell continued.
“The SUV didn't simply hit Ms. Hayes. It followed her for approximately four miles before the collision.”
“So it was intentional.”
“That possibility is becoming more likely.”
Bell looked toward Clara.
“Do you know why anyone would want to hurt you?”
“No.”
Again the fingers.
Thumb against index finger.
Another lie.
Dominic said nothing until Bell left.
Then he stood.
“You're leaving this hospital.”
Clara stared at him.
“I just arrived.”
“And someone may have followed you here.”
“I need observation.”
“You’ll have observation.”
“Where?”
“My home.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“You can't simply remove me from a hospital.”
Dominic looked at her.
“Watch me.”
Three hours later, after an argument involving two doctors, a discharge form, and Clara threatening to sue Dominic personally, she was transported to his penthouse with a private nurse.
The rain had stopped.
Dawn painted Manhattan gray.
Clara sat carefully on the enormous sofa while Dominic stood by the windows.
She looked absurdly out of place in his home.
Perhaps that was because no woman had been invited there in years.
“You should sleep,” he said.
“You should stop ordering me around.”
“I’m your employer.”
“Not until Monday.”
“You're not working Monday.”
She sighed.
Dominic placed the photograph on the coffee table.
“Tell me everything.”
Clara stared at it.
“My mother called me to her house eleven months ago. She was already sick.”
Dominic remained silent.
“She gave me a box. Old records, photographs, bank statements. She said if anything happened to her, I needed to destroy them.”
“But you didn't.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I recognized your name.”
Dominic looked at her.
“You already worked for me.”
“Yes.”
“How long had you known?”
“Eleven months.”
“And you never said anything.”
“I was trying to understand what it meant.”
“What did you find?”
Clara breathed carefully against her broken ribs.
“Your father discovered money disappearing from several companies in 1997. Millions of dollars.”
“Who stole it?”
“I don't know.”
“But your mother did.”
“I think so.”
“And now someone thinks she told you.”
“Yes.”
Dominic's jaw tightened.
“Why were you on Route Nine tonight?”
Clara looked away.
There it was again.
The hesitation.
“Clara.”
“I received a message.”
“From whom?”
“I don't know.”
“What did it say?”
She closed her eyes.
“Bring the ledger if you want the truth about Vincent Gallo.”
Dominic stared at her.
“What ledger?”
“I don't have it.”
“Then why go?”
“Because I thought whoever sent the message believed I did.”
“You went alone?”
“Yes.”
“At midnight?”
“Yes.”
“Without telling anyone?”
“Yes.”
Dominic stood.
“That may be the stupidest thing you've ever done.”
“Thank you.”
“You could have been killed.”
“I noticed.”
His anger was not really anger.
Clara understood that.
So did Dominic.
He walked toward the windows.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I didn't know if I could trust you.”
That stopped him.
After three years of working six feet from his office, those words should not have hurt.
They did.
Clara continued.
“Your name is all over those records.”
“My father's name.”
“Your family's name.”
“Not mine.”
“I didn't know that.”
Dominic turned.
“And now?”
She studied him.
“I called you.”
That was her answer.
Before Dominic could respond, his phone vibrated.
His head of security.
Dominic answered.
“What?”
“Boss, we checked Ms. Hayes's car.”
Dominic looked at Clara.
“And?”
“The brake line was cut.”
Silence.
“So the SUV wasn't Plan A.”
“No.”
Dominic’s expression hardened.
“Anything else?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
“What?”
“We found a tracking device underneath the rear bumper.”
Clara's face lost its color.
Dominic asked, “How long was it there?”
“Can't know yet.”
“Find out.”
He hung up.
Clara whispered, “They were watching me.”
Dominic sat opposite her.
“No. Someone was hunting you.”
Her cracked phone suddenly vibrated inside the belongings bag.
Both of them looked at it.
Impossible.
The screen had been shattered.
Yet it lit up.
UNKNOWN NUMBER.
One message.
Dominic picked it up.
You should have died in the car.
A second message appeared.
Ask Dominic what happened to Evelyn Mercer.
Clara stared at him.
Dominic's face changed.
Not confusion.
Recognition.
Clara saw it immediately.
“You know something.”
Dominic said nothing.
“Dominic.”
His eyes remained fixed on the screen.
“What happened to my mother?”
He finally looked at her.
And for the first time since she had known him, Clara Hayes saw something she had never expected to see in Dominic Gallo.
Fear.
Not for himself.
For her.
“Your mother didn't die from cancer, Clara.”
Her breath caught.
May you like
Dominic placed the phone on the table.
“She was murdered.”
