Chapter 13 - The Camera Above the Train Door
Before leaving the hotel, Grace remembered something.
The train.
Wade.
The beginning.
The Chicago Transit Authority used security cameras.
If Wade had been paid to take her bag, the encounter might show coordination.
Someone following her.
Someone signaling him.
Something.
Grace called Rebecca.
Within an hour, they found a transit officer willing to preserve the footage before automatic deletion.
By noon, Grace, Rebecca, and Lena watched the recording from a secure office.
There was Grace.
Standing near the window.
Wade behind her.
His friend laughing.
Adrian seated farther back.
Grace watched herself carefully.
She looked smaller than she remembered.
Then Lena froze the frame.
“There.”
At the far end of the car sat a man in a gray hat.
Watching.
Not Grace.
Wade.
Thirty seconds before Wade approached her, the man touched his ear.
Wade checked his phone.
Then moved toward Grace.
Adrian did not notice because he was looking at his own phone.
“Handler,” Rebecca said.
Lena enhanced another angle.
The man exited at the same stop where Marcus later appeared.
Grace whispered, “Can we identify him?”
“Working on it.”
They followed cameras through the station.
The gray-hatted man walked toward Marcus.
But he never reached him.
Instead he turned down another corridor.
There, waiting, was someone else.
Grace leaned toward the screen.
Adrian’s driver.
The man who had waited outside the coffee shop.
Her stomach dropped.
“Stop.”
Lena froze the image.
“Who is he?”
“Samuel Price,” Grace said.
Rebecca looked at her.
“Works for Adrian?”
“Driver. Security.”
The footage showed Samuel speaking briefly to the man.
Then handing him an envelope.
Grace felt sick.
Had Adrian lied again?
Or had someone inside his organization been helping Marcus?
The message from Daniel returned.
Someone close enough to sit at Adrian’s table.
Samuel was close.
Very close.
Grace called Evelyn.
“Where does Samuel live?”
“Why?”
“Please.”
Evelyn gave her an address.
Grace sent it to Rebecca.
“Police?”
“Not yet.”
“Why?”
“If Kessler is compromised, we don’t know which officers report upward.”
Rebecca nodded reluctantly.
They checked property records.
Samuel’s apartment was rented through a company.
That company belonged to Vincent Vale.
Grace exhaled.
“The enemy inside.”
Her phone buzzed again.
Adrian’s number.
You have thirty minutes.
Grace typed:
Let me speak to Adrian.
Three dots.
Then a video call.
She answered.
Adrian sat in a chair inside the Lake Forest house.
Hands free.
No visible injuries.
But three armed men stood behind him.
Marcus entered frame.
“Hello, Grace.”
“Let him go.”
“That sounds emotional.”
“Don’t start.”
Marcus smiled.
“There she is.”
“Why Adrian?”
“Because Vincent finally decided Adrian was too difficult to manage.”
Grace’s mind raced.
“Where’s Vincent?”
“Nearby.”
“Samuel?”
Marcus’s smile disappeared for half a second.
Got you.
Grace continued.
“Your man in Adrian’s circle.”
Marcus looked impressed.
“You’ve become inconvenient.”
“Daniel made me that way.”
Mentioning Daniel changed him.
Interesting.
“You hated him,” Grace said.
“I barely knew him.”
“Lie.”
Marcus’s jaw tightened.
“He found out you were replacing Vincent.”
Silence.
“He told my mother.”
Marcus stepped closer to the camera.
“Daniel Vale was a self-righteous child who thought truth mattered more than survival.”
Adrian looked up sharply.
Grace’s pulse accelerated.
There.
Admission.
Not enough.
But something.
“What happened the night he died?”
Marcus smiled.
“Ask Adrian.”
“I’m asking you.”
“Daniel made a choice.”
“What choice?”
“To drive when he should have stayed home.”
Grace understood.
Marcus would not confess directly.
Not yet.
She needed anger.
He had always talked too much when angry.
“You were afraid of him.”
Marcus laughed.
“Of Daniel?”
“Yes.”
“He was weak.”
“He found your entire operation.”
“He found what I let him find.”
Grace watched Adrian.
He gave the slightest shake of his head.
Lie.
Grace pressed harder.
“You couldn’t control him.”
“I didn’t need to.”
“You couldn’t control me either.”
Marcus’s eyes changed.
There.
“You left because I allowed it.”
Grace nearly laughed.
Six years later, he still needed the story.
“You begged my mother to tell you where I was.”
“I gave you space.”
“You paid people to watch me.”
“To protect you.”
“You forged my identity.”
“To provide for us.”
“You killed Daniel.”
Marcus’s face hardened.
“I did what Vincent was too weak to do.”
Silence.
Grace stopped breathing.
Behind Marcus, Adrian’s expression changed.
Rebecca, listening through another phone, whispered, “We got it.”
Marcus realized.
Too late.
His face went pale.
Grace smiled.
“Thank you.”
He ended the call.
Rebecca immediately transmitted the recording to three separate federal contacts, two journalists under embargo, and an attorney in New York.
No single person could erase it now.
But Adrian was still inside that house.
Grace grabbed her coat.
Rebecca caught her arm.
“No.”
Grace looked at her.
“He is there because of me.”
“No. He is there because criminals made choices.”
Grace knew Rebecca was right.
Still.
“I’m going.”
“You promised not alone.”
“I’m not going alone.”
Grace looked at Lena.
“Can you access the property cameras?”
Lena smiled grimly.
“Already did.”
On screen, five vehicles surrounded the house.
One belonged to Marcus.
One to Vincent.
One to Samuel.
And two belonged to federal agents Rebecca trusted.
The trap was closing.
Grace looked at the same house where years of secrets had begun.
The next time she entered it, someone’s empire would end.
May you like
She intended to make sure it was Marcus’s.
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