Chapter 2 - The Man in the Headlights
For one second, nobody moved.
The sentence remained suspended in the dining room.
The man who killed your daughter.
Gideon stared at Ava.
Ren had died in a traffic collision twelve months earlier.
That was what the police report said.
That was what witnesses had said.
That was what the coroner had said.
A delivery truck had crossed an intersection against a red light while Ren was being driven home from preschool.
The Crosswell vehicle had been struck on the passenger side.
His driver had survived.
Ren had not.
The truck driver, Daniel Hurst, had been arrested hours later.
He had been drunk.
He had confessed.
Three weeks after entering county jail, Hurst had taken his own life.
Case closed.
Gideon had hated that ending because there was no one left to punish.
Now a soaked nine-year-old was telling him the ending had been a lie.
Marcus reached under his jacket.
“Security positions. Now.”
The guards moved.
Lights from the approaching vehicle swept across the mansion windows.
Gideon crouched in front of Ava.
“Listen to me.”
She was breathing too quickly.
“Is the man in that car the person you’re talking about?”
She nodded.
“What’s his name?”
Ava hesitated.
Gideon softened his voice.
“I cannot protect you if I don’t know who I’m protecting you from.”
Sophie buried her face in her sister’s coat.
Ava whispered one name.
“Silas Kane.”
Gideon went completely still.
Marcus turned.
“No.”
Ava flinched.
Gideon rose.
Silas Kane had once been his closest lieutenant.
Not merely an employee.
A friend.
Twenty years earlier, when Gideon had owned nothing but a rented room and a secondhand car, Silas had been beside him.
They had built the early Crosswell organization together.
Silas was patient where Gideon was impulsive.
Cold where Gideon sometimes became emotional.
When Ren was born, Silas had brought an enormous stuffed bear to the hospital.
When she turned three, he had bought her a miniature piano.
Ren had called him Uncle Si.
Six months after her death, Silas had left Chicago.
At least that was what Gideon had been told.
He had supposedly moved through Europe handling investments.
Gideon had spoken with him twice since.
Short conversations.
Nothing unusual.
“Impossible,” Marcus said.
Gideon looked at him.
“Nothing is impossible tonight.”
Marcus spoke into his radio.
“Who opened the gate?”
No answer.
Then a burst of static.
A guard shouted.
The sound cut off.
Marcus’s face tightened.
Gideon turned to Ava.
“How do you know Silas Kane?”
Ava began crying silently.
“Our mother.”
“What about her?”
“She worked for him.”
“Where?”
“At a house.”
“What house?”
“Near the water.”
Gideon’s pulse changed.
He knew dozens of houses near the water.
Ava suddenly looked toward the window.
The vehicle had stopped beneath the covered entrance.
A man stepped out.
Not Silas.
Gideon recognized him anyway.
Peter Voss.
One of Silas’s security men.
He walked toward the mansion door carrying no visible weapon.
That was almost more alarming than if he had carried one openly.
Marcus looked at Gideon.
“What do you want to do?”
Gideon stared at Peter through the glass.
“Find out why he thinks he can knock on my door.”
He turned to two guards.
“Take the girls upstairs. West room.”
“No!” Ava shouted.
Sophie began sobbing.
Gideon looked back.
Ava clutched her sister.
“He said not to trust anyone here.”
“Silas said that?”
“Our mother.”
Gideon’s eyes narrowed.
“What exactly did your mother tell you?”
Ava swallowed.
“If we ever had to come here, we were supposed to find you. Only you.”
Gideon felt Marcus watching him.
“Why?”
“She said everyone else might belong to him.”
The front bell rang.
Once.
Marcus glanced toward the security corridor.
“That narrows things nicely.”
Gideon pointed toward the library.
“Take them there instead. Stay with them yourself.”
Marcus frowned.
“You want me with the kids?”
“You’re the only person in this house I know would shoot me if necessary.”
Marcus almost smiled.
“That’s touching.”
“Go.”
Marcus led the girls away.
Ava looked back twice.
Gideon waited until the library door closed.
Then he walked to the entrance.
One guard opened the inner door.
Peter Voss stood outside beneath the awning, snow melting from his shoulders.
“Mr. Crosswell.”
Gideon studied him.
“Peter.”
“I apologize for arriving unannounced.”
“You came through a locked gate.”
“There seems to have been confusion.”
“No. Confusion is ordering coffee and receiving tea. Entering my property without permission is something else.”
Peter maintained a respectful expression.
“Mr. Kane asked me to speak with you.”
“Silas is in Chicago?”
A fraction of hesitation.
“Yes.”
“Interesting.”
“He returned this afternoon.”
“Without telling me.”
“He hoped to surprise you.”
“He succeeded.”
Peter’s eyes moved briefly past Gideon into the foyer.
That was enough.
Gideon noticed.
“What are you looking for?”
“Nothing.”
“Then look at me.”
Peter did.
Gideon stepped closer.
“Why are you here?”
Peter smiled faintly.
“Mr. Kane believes two children may have wandered onto your estate.”
There it was.
Gideon felt something cold settle inside him.
“Children?”
“Two sisters.”
“I haven’t seen any children.”
Peter’s smile disappeared.
“Mr. Crosswell.”
Gideon’s voice became quiet.
“Be careful.”
Peter lowered his eyes.
“They’re frightened. Their mother worked for Mr. Kane and has become… unstable.”
“Unstable how?”
“She took something that belongs to him.”
“Money?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
Peter did not answer.
Behind Gideon, a guard entered from the east hall.
Gideon noticed the man’s hand trembling.
Only slightly.
It was Caleb Ross, part of the night detail.
Caleb had worked on the estate for three years.
Gideon looked at him.
Caleb avoided his eyes.
And suddenly Gideon understood how the gate had opened.
“Caleb.”
The guard looked up.
“Boss?”
“Come here.”
Caleb froze.
Peter Voss moved his right hand toward his coat.
Gideon saw it.
So did the guard beside him.
Everything happened quickly.
Gideon stepped backward.
“Don’t.”
Peter stopped.
The second guard drew his weapon.
Caleb turned and ran.
“Marcus!” Gideon shouted.
From somewhere inside, an alarm sounded.
Caleb disappeared down the service corridor.
Peter tried to retreat.
The exterior gate slammed shut automatically.
Gideon grabbed Peter by the coat and pulled him inside.
“You came to my house expecting help from one of my men.”
Peter said nothing.
“Where is Silas?”
Silence.
“Where is the girls’ mother?”
Still nothing.
Gideon’s anger rose.
But Ren’s face appeared in his mind.
He released Peter.
“Take him downstairs,” he ordered.
The guards moved in.
Peter finally spoke.
“You don’t know what those girls brought into your house.”
Gideon stopped.
“What did they bring?”
Peter smiled grimly.
“Your funeral.”
Upstairs, glass shattered.
A child screamed.
Gideon ran.
He reached the library in seconds.
Marcus stood near the broken side window, weapon raised.
Snow blew through the opening.
Sophie was crying beneath a desk.
Ava was nowhere in sight.
“Where is she?”
Marcus looked toward a narrow door at the rear of the library.
“She ran.”
“Why?”
“I heard something outside. When I turned, she opened that.”
Gideon stared at the narrow door.
He had not used it in years.
It led to an old servants’ passage.
One that eventually connected to the abandoned greenhouse behind the mansion.
Ren used to call it her secret castle road.
Few people knew about it.
Gideon looked at Sophie.
“How did your sister know that door was there?”
The little girl wiped her face.
“Mommy showed us on the picture.”
“What picture?”
“A map.”
Gideon crouched.
“What else did your mother tell you?”
Sophie looked toward the sunflowers visible through the open library doors downstairs.
Then she whispered something stranger than everything Gideon had heard that night.
“She said Ren would show us where to go.”
Gideon stared at her.
Before he could ask what she meant, his phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
A photograph appeared.
Ava stood in the snow beside the old greenhouse.
Behind her was a man Gideon had not seen in six months.
Silas Kane.
Then a message arrived.
May you like
COME ALONE.
IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY REN DIED, BRING THE OTHER GIRL.
