Chapter 7 - Beneath the Locked House
I did not trust Daniel.
That did not mean I thought he was lying.
Those were different things.
We moved upstairs to my office.
Elena sat near the fireplace.
Daniel stood.
I kept the distance between us.
“Start talking.”
He did.
Raymond Sloane built his reputation protecting wealthy families, corporations, and executives.
What nobody saw was how he made himself necessary.
He collected weaknesses.
Financial problems.
Affairs.
Arguments.
Addictions.
Security vulnerabilities.
People trusted him with their secrets because he promised protection.
Then he quietly used those secrets to control them.
“My father?” I asked.
“One of his largest clients.”
“Michael?”
Daniel nodded.
“He started asking questions.”
“About what?”
“Shell companies.”
I almost smiled.
Michael always had a talent for looking where people told him not to.
“Raymond used security contracts to move money,” Daniel continued. “Some legitimate. Some not. When clients became difficult, he pressured them.”
“Blackmail.”
“Yes.”
“And Michael found evidence.”
“Yes.”
“How do you know?”
Daniel looked toward Elena.
“Because fifteen years ago, Raymond ordered my team to follow him.”
Elena inhaled sharply.
“You followed my brother?”
“I was twenty-four. I believed Michael was stealing from his own family.”
“And when did you realize that wasn’t true?”
“Too late.”
The night Michael died, Daniel’s team tracked him to an industrial building near the river.
Michael met someone there.
Raymond arrived later.
Daniel was instructed to stay outside.
“What happened?”
“I heard shouting.”
My hands tightened.
“And?”
“Then Raymond came out alone.”
“Michael?”
“I never saw him leave.”
“But he did.”
“Apparently.”
“What body did I identify?”
“I don’t know.”
I walked toward Daniel.
“You were there.”
“Outside.”
“You worked for the man who staged my brother’s death.”
“Yes.”
“And you never told me.”
“I didn’t know it was staged.”
“You knew something was wrong.”
“Yes.”
“Yet twelve years later you applied to work for me.”
“I applied because I thought Raymond was watching you.”
“Why?”
“Because three years ago, he asked me questions about your estate.”
I stared at him.
“What questions?”
“Whether the original service tunnels still existed.”
Elena closed her eyes.
“Why didn’t you tell Vincent?”
“I wanted proof.”
I laughed coldly.
“Apparently everyone in my life is collecting proof while keeping me completely uninformed.”
Daniel didn’t argue.
Fair.
The hidden room gave us more than my father’s letter.
There were ledgers.
Photographs.
Old contracts.
Correspondence.
Enough evidence to show Raymond had been connected to my father for nearly twenty-five years.
But one folder was missing.
An empty space on the shelf carried a handwritten label.
R.S. — COMPLETE RECORD
Michael had taken it.
Or someone else had.
“What did Michael find?” Elena asked.
“Something important enough to hide fifteen years.”
I looked at the papers.
“And important enough that he’s still being hunted.”
A knock came at the office door.
Maria entered.
“Vincent?”
Her face worried me.
“What?”
“Clara wants you.”
I found her sitting on the stairs.
Rabbit beside her.
Silver watch in her hand.
She looked smaller than before.
“Hey.”
She looked up.
“Is Dad coming?”
I sat beside her.
“I’m trying to find him.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
Children had an irritating way of finding the exact hole in an adult answer.
“I don’t know.”
She nodded slowly.
“He said he might not.”
My throat tightened.
“What did he tell you?”
“That if I got scared, I should think about something normal.”
“What’s normal?”
She considered.
“Pancakes.”
I smiled.
“That’s a good one.”
“Nico says your cook makes chocolate-chip ones.”
“She does.”
Clara looked at the watch.
“Dad said you were angry at him.”
“I was.”
“Are you still?”
“Yes.”
She absorbed that.
“But you still want him back?”
More than she could understand.
More than I wanted to admit.
“Yes.”
She nodded.
“That’s what he said.”
“What?”
“He said you could be really mad and still love somebody.”
Michael.
That sounded exactly like him.
Clara picked up the rabbit.
“Can I show you something?”
“Of course.”
She turned it over.
Inside one ear, stitched beneath the fabric, was a small symbol.
A circle crossed by three lines.
I recognized it.
I had seen it among my father’s documents downstairs.
“What is that?”
“Dad draws it when someplace is safe.”
“Did he tell you what it means?”
“No.”
“Where else have you seen it?”
She thought.
“On a door.”
“What door?”
“The place where we stayed.”
My pulse increased.
“Can you describe it?”
“Brick building. Near water.”
“Chicago?”
She nodded.
“Anything outside?”
“Big red letters.”
“What letters?”
She closed her eyes.
“M…A…”
Luca appeared at the top of the stairs.
“MARLOWE.”
I looked up.
“What?”
“The building said MARLOWE.”
Nico came behind him.
“It was old.”
Daniel heard us from the hallway.
“Marlowe Storage.”
I stood.
“You know it?”
“Closed warehouse district south of the river. Raymond’s company used property there years ago.”
Elena turned pale.
“Michael would never hide somewhere Raymond owned.”
“Unless he wanted Raymond to think exactly that.”
I looked at Clara.
“Was your dad there when you left?”
“Yes.”
“What was he doing?”
“He was opening a floor.”
“A floor?”
“There was a metal door under it.”
Daniel and I exchanged a look.
“Did he go inside?”
“Yes.”
“What did he say before you left?”
Clara tightened her grip on the rabbit.
“He told Arthur that if he wasn’t upstairs in ten minutes, Arthur had to take us away.”
“And did he come back?”
She shook her head.
“Arthur waited fifteen.”
My stomach dropped.
“Then what?”
“We left.”
“When?”
“Last night.”
Michael had gone underground in a warehouse connected to Raymond Sloane.
And he had never come back out.
I looked at Daniel.
“Get the car.”
Elena stood.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“He’s my brother too.”
“And somebody needs to stay with the kids.”
“You don’t get to decide—”
“Yes, I do.”
She stepped toward me.
“So you can disappear next?”
I stopped.
The anger on her face wasn’t about control.
It was fear.
For fifteen years, she had carried the knowledge that Michael was alive.
Now she might lose him for real.
I softened.
“Stay with Clara.”
Elena looked at the little girl.
After a moment, she nodded.
I walked toward the door.
Clara ran after me.
“Uncle Vincent.”
I turned.
She held out the silver watch.
“Take it.”
“It’s yours.”
“Dad said it always finds its way back to him.”
I closed her fingers around it.
“Then you keep it safe.”
She looked uncertain.
I crouched.
“I’ll bring him back to it.”
For the first time, Clara smiled at me.
“Promise?”
Promises had already cost this family fifteen years.
Still, I answered.
“Promise.”
Then Daniel and I drove toward Marlowe Storage.
May you like
Toward the place my brother had vanished for the second time.
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