Chapter 11 - Claire Was Never Chosen by Accident
Gabriel Kane stood beside the Northbridge railing at sunrise.
Alive.
Roman stopped twenty feet away.
For seven years that face had belonged to memory.
Gabriel was older now. Gray touched his hair. A scar crossed his left cheek.
But it was him.
Claire remained beside Roman.
Gabriel looked at her first.
“Evelyn’s daughter.”
Claire stared.
“You knew me.”
“When you were little.”
“Why don’t I remember you?”
“You saw me three times.”
“That photograph suggests more.”
Gabriel smiled sadly.
“Your mother didn’t trust me enough for more.”
Roman said, “Smart woman.”
Gabriel looked at him.
“You’ve become your father.”
Roman’s face hardened.
Claire immediately said, “That is apparently not a compliment around here.”
Gabriel almost laughed.
Roman did not.
“Why fake your death?”
“I didn’t.”
Roman waited.
“Samuel arranged the meeting at Northbridge,” Gabriel explained. “He told me Vincent intended to kill me. When your car arrived, I panicked.”
Roman remembered.
Gabriel’s vehicle accelerating.
The crash.
The fire.
“I jumped before the car went through the railing.”
Roman stared.
“Where?”
“Maintenance platform beneath the bridge.”
“And the body?”
“Samuel supplied one.”
“You knew?”
“Not until later.”
“Why disappear?”
“Because by then I believed your father controlled police, banks, everything.”
“He didn’t.”
“I know that now.”
Roman’s jaw tightened.
“Seven years.”
“I spent seven years proving I was wrong.”
“And threatening Claire helped?”
Gabriel looked at her.
“The photograph was mine.”
Roman took one step forward.
Gabriel held his ground.
“The threat wasn’t.”
Roman stopped.
“What?”
“I sent the photograph with one line: ‘She was not supposed to see him.’”
Claire remembered.
The second line had threatened her.
Gabriel said, “Samuel intercepted the message and changed it.”
Roman believed that was possible.
Not proven.
Possible.
Claire asked, “Why send my picture at all?”
“To warn Roman that someone inside Blackridge was watching you.”
“Why me?”
Gabriel looked toward the river.
“Because you were never hired by accident.”
Claire glanced at Roman.
Gabriel continued.
“Marcus recommended you because Evelyn asked him to.”
Claire frowned.
“My mother said Blackridge was safe.”
“That’s partly true.”
“What’s the other part?”
Gabriel looked at Roman.
“She wanted Claire close to Vincent’s archive.”
Roman’s expression cooled.
Claire whispered, “She used me.”
“No,” Gabriel said. “Not knowingly.”
“Explain.”
“Evelyn believed something in your childhood memories might reveal where the ledger pages were hidden.”
Claire stared.
“What memories?”
“Your mother sometimes took you to Northstar’s office when she worked late.”
“I barely remember.”
“She hid things while you were present.”
Claire’s pulse quickened.
Gabriel continued.
“You used to draw while she worked. One drawing showed the place she hid the original pages.”
Roman asked, “Where is the drawing?”
“Samuel has spent twenty years trying to find it.”
Claire suddenly remembered something.
A box.
Her mother’s old possessions.
Stored after the funeral.
Her childhood artwork.
She looked at Roman.
“My apartment.”
Roman understood immediately.
They returned to Blackridge town.
Claire’s apartment door was open.
Inside, everything had been searched.
Drawers dumped.
Mattress cut.
Books scattered.
Claire rushed to the closet.
The childhood box was gone.
Roman examined the floor.
Fresh mud.
Someone had arrived recently.
Claire whispered, “Samuel.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“Maybe.”
Roman looked at him.
“Who else?”
Gabriel answered, “Ethan.”
Roman’s eyes hardened.
Claire said, “No.”
Gabriel shrugged.
“You trust him?”
“Not completely.”
“Then why defend him?”
“Because Samuel has spent years making everyone suspect everyone else.”
Gabriel looked impressed.
“Evelyn raised you well.”
Claire’s face changed.
“For eleven years.”
Gabriel realized the mistake.
“Sorry.”
Roman stepped into the hallway.
A neighbor opened her door.
“Claire?”
Mrs. Hollis, seventy-two.
Claire approached.
“Did you see who came inside?”
“Your uncle.”
Claire froze.
“I don’t have an uncle.”
Mrs. Hollis frowned.
“He said he was your mother’s brother.”
“What did he look like?”
“Tall. Gray hair. Very polite.”
Roman showed her Ethan’s photograph.
Mrs. Hollis nodded.
“That’s him.”
Claire’s stomach dropped.
Ethan.
Roman immediately called the lodge.
No answer.
Marcus called Lena.
No answer.
They drove north.
The lodge was empty.
Ethan gone.
So was the ledger page.
On the dining table sat one envelope.
Roman opened it.
Ethan’s handwriting.
Roman,
I am sorry. Samuel contacted me after you left. He has Evelyn. He offered a trade: the page for her location. I knew you would stop me.
Do not follow me.
Claire read the note.
“He took it to save my mother.”
Gabriel looked unconvinced.
“Or to join his brother.”
Roman folded the letter.
Claire asked, “What do you think?”
Roman stared through the window.
“I think Ethan has spent his entire life trying to correct his brother’s mistakes.”
“That sounds like you believe him.”
“It sounds like I know why he went.”
Gabriel checked his phone.
Then his face changed.
“I just received something.”
A photograph.
Ethan kneeling inside an abandoned factory.
Hands tied.
Behind him stood Evelyn.
Also restrained.
Samuel had both.
A message followed.
BRING CLAIRE BENNETT TO BLACKRIDGE BY MIDNIGHT.
Roman said, “No.”
Claire read further.
Another sentence.
SHE IS THE ONLY PERSON WHO CAN OPEN WHAT EVELYN HID.
Claire looked at Roman.
Her mother had not brought her to Blackridge for protection alone.
Samuel believed Claire herself was the key.
May you like
And midnight was six hours away.
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