Chapter 10 - The Dinner Trap
I built the trap around a lie.
At six o'clock that evening, my office sent an internal message stating that Lila had been discharged and would return home for dinner.
She hadn't.
She remained safely at the clinic.
Only five people knew.
Me.
Bianca.
Marco.
Dr. Keller.
Adrian.
Everyone else believed my daughter would be back beneath the same roof where someone had been hurting her.
Then I waited.
A useful lie is like bait.
The guilty person's urgency does the rest.
At six-forty, Marco called.
“Someone accessed the kitchen cameras.”
“From where?”
“Corporate headquarters.”
“Which terminal?”
“Executive floor.”
My office.
“Who's in the building?”
“Three senior staff.”
“Names.”
He gave them.
CFO Stephen Crane.
General counsel Patrick Wells.
And Thomas Avery.
My father's closest friend.
Uncle Tommy to Lila.
Another uncle who wasn't really family.
I closed my eyes.
Thomas had been around since before I could remember.
He had taught me how to drive.
He had attended my high school graduation.
When my father died, Thomas stood beside the grave and told me Antonio had trusted me to carry the family forward.
If he was involved—
“Don't decide yet,” Marco said.
“I haven't.”
“Yes, you have.”
“I said I haven't.”
“Then prove it.”
He was right.
We needed evidence.
At seven, I entered the darkened estate through a service entrance.
The house looked occupied.
Lights were on.
A prerecorded television program played upstairs.
Rosa had been sent to stay with relatives.
Every actual staff member was off property.
Only Marco and two security men remained hidden inside.
A covered plate sat at Lila's usual place.
A glass of water beside it.
I sat in the dining room as though waiting for my family.
At seven-fifteen, the front bell rang.
Nobody answered.
It rang again.
Then a code was entered into the side entrance.
The door opened.
Footsteps.
Slow.
Familiar.
Thomas Avery entered the dining room carrying a leather briefcase.
He stopped when he saw me.
“Vincent.”
“Tommy.”
He smiled.
“What are you doing sitting in the dark?”
“Thinking.”
“Bianca and Lila home?”
“Soon.”
His eyes moved toward the place setting.
Only for a fraction of a second.
Enough.
“What brings you here?”
“You asked for the old corporate records.”
“I did?”
“Marco did.”
He lifted the briefcase.
“I brought some.”
“Put them down.”
He did.
Then remained standing.
“Drink?”
“No.”
“You always want bourbon.”
“Not tonight.”
Thomas smiled again.
Something about him felt different now that I was looking for it.
Not sinister.
Comfortable.
That was worse.
Dangerous people who seem dangerous are easy.
The ones who helped you build your childhood tree house are harder.
“You knew Caroline Price,” I said.
The smile disappeared.
“Who?”
“Lila's nurse.”
“I've met her.”
“You recommended her.”
“No.”
“The reference number used your old office routing.”
His eyes narrowed.
“My old office?”
“My father's.”
Silence.
Then he sighed.
“You're digging in places Antonio told you never to dig.”
There it was.
No denial.
“Why?”
“Because your father understood consequences.”
“My daughter is seven.”
Thomas's jaw tightened.
“I never wanted Lila involved.”
“Then who did?”
“Voss.”
“Who works for whom?”
“That's complicated.”
“Make it simple.”
Thomas sat across from me.
“Daniel Voss works for whoever protects Daniel Voss.”
“And you?”
“I've spent twenty-five years keeping the Morettis alive.”
“By helping someone blind my daughter?”
“I didn't know the full protocol.”
My body wanted to move.
I forced it still.
“Protocol.”
He immediately knew he had chosen the wrong word.
I repeated it.
“That's what you call it?”
“I tried to stop them.”
“You hired Caroline.”
“To monitor.”
“To administer.”
“No.”
“Don't lie now, Tommy. You're too old to start being bad at it.”
He looked genuinely hurt.
That almost made me angrier.
“Antonio took something he had no right to take.”
“The Ledger.”
“Yes.”
“Where is it?”
“I don't know.”
“Everybody says that.”
“Because Antonio never trusted any of us enough to tell us.”
“What was on it?”
“Enough to erase families.”
“Then destroy it.”
“We can't find it.”
“So Voss targeted Lila because he thought I'd know?”
“He thought pain would make you remember things your father taught you.”
“My father never told me.”
“Maybe not directly.”
“What does that mean?”
Thomas leaned forward.
“Antonio never left important information in writing. He built it into memories.”
I stared.
“Games. Places. Phrases. Things only you would understand.”
I remembered childhood puzzles.
My father used to hide birthday gifts behind riddles.
Routes through the city.
Numbers disguised as baseball scores.
Stories that made no sense.
I had thought he was entertaining me.
Maybe he had been training me.
“Where is Voss?”
Thomas shook his head.
“You don't find Voss.”
“He found my daughter.”
“Which is why he already knows you're getting close.”
“How?”
“Because I'm here.”
I looked at him.
Then understood.
“You came to warn me.”
Thomas's expression changed.
“Yes.”
“By accessing the cameras?”
“I needed to see whether Lila was actually home.”
“Why?”
“Because Voss ordered Caroline's replacement to finish what she started.”
Silence.
“Who?”
Thomas looked toward the kitchen.
My muscles tightened.
“Who?”
He whispered:
“Rosa.”
I stood so quickly the chair fell backward.
“No.”
“He approached her grandson.”
“No.”
“She refused him.”
I stopped.
Thomas continued.
“She told me this afternoon. She was terrified you'd think she was involved.”
“Where is she?”
“Safe.”
“You're sure?”
“Yes.”
“Then who is the replacement?”
Thomas closed his eyes.
“I don't know.”
A sound came from upstairs.
All four of us heard it.
Footsteps.
Someone was inside the house.
Marco's voice sounded through my earpiece.
“We have movement. East hallway.”
I drew no weapon.
I didn't need one.
Security closed entrances.
The footsteps quickened.
A shadow moved at the top of the staircase.
Then a woman appeared.
Not Caroline.
One of Lila's tutors.
Emily Hart.
She saw me.
Stopped.
Turned.
Marco stepped into the hallway behind her.
“Don't.”
Emily froze.
In her hand was a small case.
The same style Bianca had received from Sal.
We took it.
Inside were sealed containers and a disposable phone.
The phone rang.
I answered.
Voss.
“You're learning,” he said.
“Slowly.”
“Where's Lila?”
“Somewhere you'll never reach her.”
“Everyone says that.”
“What do you want?”
“The Ledger.”
“You keep asking for something I don't have.”
“Then remember.”
“Remember what?”
“Your tenth birthday.”
The call ended.
My tenth birthday.
Thirty years earlier.
I had barely thought about it in decades.
Then a memory surfaced.
My father driving me out of Atlanta.
A red cabin.
A metal box.
A story he made me memorize.
I had forgotten most of it.
But not the final line.
When everything goes dark, follow the girl who can still see.
My skin prickled.
Girl.
See.
Lila?
Impossible.
She hadn't been born.
Unless it never referred to her.
I rushed to the clinic.
Lila was awake.
I sat beside her.
“Sweetheart, do you remember Grandpa Antonio?”
“A little.”
“He gave you things?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“Books.”
“What books?”
“Old stories.”
Bianca entered.
“Vincent?”
I ignored her.
“Lila, did Grandpa ever tell you something about a girl who could see in the dark?”
She became still.
“Yes.”
Everyone in the room froze.
“What did he say?”
Lila smiled slightly.
“It was our secret story.”
“What story?”
She recited the line slowly.
“When the king loses his castle, the blind princess shows him the road home.”
I stared at Bianca.
My father had died when Lila was three.
He had planted something in her memory.
And suddenly I understood why Voss's interest in Lila might have begun long before her symptoms.
He didn't simply choose my daughter because hurting her would hurt me.
He believed Antonio had given part of the Ledger's secret directly to her.
Which meant Lila wasn't collateral.
She was the key.
May you like
And if Voss realized how much she remembered, making her blind might only have been the beginning.
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