Chapter 2 - The Photograph Through the Window
Claire read the message twice.
Her expression shifted from disbelief to something harder.
“Your daughter is in that apartment right now?”
“Yes.”
“We call the police.”
“No.”
Grant stared at Mason.
“No?”
“The message arrived less than a minute after the box opened. Whoever is watching Lily is communicating with somebody watching us.”
“That is exactly why we need law enforcement.”
Mason looked at Claire.
“If I were running this operation, I would expect that.”
Grant laughed without humor.
“You think every cop in Seattle is compromised?”
“No. I think we don’t know who is.”
Claire folded her arms.
“And your alternative?”
Mason pointed toward the box.
“We make them think they’re getting what they want.”
His phone buzzed again.
TEN MINUTES. ANSWER.
Then another message.
YOU KNOW THE RULES, REED.
Mason went still.
Claire noticed.
“You recognize the language.”
“Yes.”
“From Vienna?”
Mason nodded.
Grant pulled out his phone.
Mason immediately caught his wrist.
“Put it down.”
Grant’s eyes hardened.
“Take your hand off me.”
“Which phone are you using?”
“My phone.”
“Company issue?”
“Yes.”
“Then it stays off.”
“You don’t give me orders.”
“No,” Mason replied. “But the person threatening my daughter does.”
That silenced him.
Mason called Lily.
“Dad?”
“I need you to listen carefully.”
Her voice was lower now.
“Okay.”
“Take your backpack.”
“Why?”
“Put your laptop in it. Charger. Shoes. Jacket.”
“Mason,” Claire whispered, “you’re moving her?”
Mason raised one finger.
Lily asked, “Where am I going?”
“You remember Mrs. Alvarez on three?”
“Yes.”
“Go there.”
“That’s downstairs.”
“Exactly.”
“Why?”
“Because whoever took the picture thinks you’re still upstairs.”
Lily hesitated.
“How do I leave without being seen?”
Mason’s chest hurt.
This was the conversation he had spent seventeen years hoping never to have with his child.
“Service stairwell.”
“You told me never to use it.”
“Tonight you use it.”
Lily was quiet.
Then she surprised him.
“Someone has been opening that door lately.”
Mason frowned.
“What?”
“Three nights this week. Around two in the morning.”
Mason closed his eyes.
Surveillance had started before the delivery.
Much earlier.
“Go now.”
“Dad?”
“Yes?”
“Are you coming home?”
He wanted to say yes.
Instead:
“I’m coming for you.”
They disconnected.
Claire was watching him.
“You’ve done this before.”
It was not a question.
“A long time ago.”
Grant crossed his arms.
“Corporate travel security doesn’t teach counter-surveillance.”
Mason looked at him.
“Neither does executive protection at an aerospace company.”
The words landed.
Grant’s jaw tightened.
Claire noticed.
The balance between the three of them shifted again.
Mason copied the encrypted drive onto the table.
“Do you have anything that looks similar?”
Claire removed a small silver USB device from her portfolio.
“Conference presentation backup.”
“Good.”
They placed Claire’s USB inside the black box and closed it.
The real drive went into Mason’s jacket.
The brass key stayed with Claire.
“What now?” she asked.
“We answer.”
Mason typed.
WHERE?
The reply came instantly.
PIER 47. LOCKER 118. MIDNIGHT. COME ALONE.
Grant looked at his watch.
“Three hours.”
Mason thought about the key.
“Claire, does Pier 47 mean anything to your company?”
“No.”
Grant answered too quickly.
“Old freight terminal.”
Mason’s eyes moved toward him.
Grant realized his mistake.
Claire spoke softly.
“You know it.”
“I worked waterfront security before Halston.”
“Did I know that?”
“It’s on my résumé.”
Mason asked, “What was at Pier 47?”
Grant looked irritated.
“Storage.”
“What kind?”
“Freight archives. Customs documents. Old route manifests.”
Mason looked at Claire.
Trust the route.
Not the board.
Daniel Hart had not sent them only a drive.
He had sent them somewhere.
The brass key was not random.
Claire whispered, “The locker.”
Mason nodded.
Grant said, “You’re making assumptions.”
“So are you.”
Claire stood.
“We go to Pier 47.”
“No,” Mason said.
Grant smirked.
“At least we agree on something.”
Mason continued.
“You go somewhere secure and get your daughter.”
Claire stared at him.
“You’re telling me to walk away from this?”
“I’m telling you they threatened my daughter because I carried the box. They watched yours before the box ever reached me. This is bigger than a delivery.”
Claire’s face became pale.
“My daughter’s name is Zoe.”
Mason waited.
“She has asthma,” Claire said. “She forgets her inhaler whenever she’s nervous. She thinks nobody notices.”
A strange, painful understanding passed between them.
Single father.
Single mother.
Different worlds.
Same terror.
Claire picked up the brass key.
“I’m not leaving you alone.”
Grant objected.
“Claire.”
She turned on him.
“My employee disappeared. Someone followed my child. A courier’s daughter is being threatened because of something connected to my company. I am done sitting in the back of an SUV while other people decide what I’m allowed to know.”
Mason almost told her leadership was not the same thing as running toward danger.
Then he remembered Elena.
She had said something similar in Vienna.
If you don’t know what you’re protecting, Mason, you don’t know who the threat is.
He had ignored her.
Never again.
“Fine,” he said. “But first we move both girls.”
Grant looked from Claire to Mason.
“And me?”
“You’re staying with us.”
“You think I’m the leak.”
Mason met his eyes.
“I think Daniel Hart wrote ‘not the board’ for a reason, and you knew what was on a drive nobody had opened.”
Grant stepped closer.
“I have protected Claire for nine years.”
Mason did not move.
“That doesn’t answer anything.”
For a moment Grant looked ready to hit him.
Claire intervened.
“Enough.”
She glanced at the market crowd.
“Where do we take Lily and Zoe?”
Mason thought.
Not police.
Not company security.
Not a hotel.
Not family homes.
He knew one place that had not appeared anywhere in his life for twelve years.
A place only two people had known.
One of those people was dead.
Mason called an old number.
It rang five times.
Then a gravelly voice answered.
“You better be calling to apologize for disappearing for a decade.”
Mason closed his eyes.
“Elias.”
Silence.
The voice changed.
“What happened?”
“I need somewhere safe for two teenage girls.”
A longer silence.
Then:
“Vienna?”
Mason looked down at the message threatening Lily.
“Yes.”
Elias swore quietly.
“How long?”
“I don’t know.”
“You never did know how to make small problems.”
“I’ll explain when I can.”
“You bringing them?”
“Someone else.”
“Who?”
Mason looked at Grant Mercer.
He made his decision.
“Claire.”
Not Grant.
Claire understood.
Grant did too.
“You’re cutting me out?”
Mason handed Claire a location.
“Take Lily. Pick up Zoe yourself. No driver. No security detail. Use a rental, cash if possible.”
Claire nodded.
Grant stepped forward.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
Grant looked at Claire.
“You cannot seriously trust him more than me.”
Claire’s answer came slowly.
“I don’t know who I trust anymore.”
Something flashed behind Grant’s eyes.
Pain?
Anger?
Fear?
Mason couldn’t tell.
Then Grant reached inside his jacket.
Mason’s body moved automatically.
He twisted Grant’s arm against the table.
Claire gasped.
A phone dropped to the floor.
Not the company phone.
A second phone.
Cheap.
Unregistered-looking.
The screen lit when it hit the floor.
One incoming message appeared.
DID REED TAKE THE BAIT?
Nobody moved.
Grant stared at the phone.
Claire stared at Grant.
Mason released his arm and stepped back.
The crowd continued moving around them, unaware that nine years of trust had just shattered on a dirty market floor.
Claire’s voice broke slightly.
“Grant?”
Grant looked at her.
And for the first time since Mason met him, the security chief looked afraid.
“It isn’t what you think.”
Mason picked up the phone.
Another message appeared.
VOSS WANTS CONFIRMATION BEFORE MIDNIGHT.
Mason felt Vienna open its doors again.
Grant Mercer had a direct line to the man who had destroyed Mason’s life.
May you like
And midnight was getting closer.
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