Chapter 7
Simon Vale did not look like a ghost.
Ghosts were supposed to be pale.
Soft around the edges.
Things made of memory.
Simon looked solid.
Heavy.
Real.
He stood at the bottom of the basement stairs with a flashlight in one hand and a pistol in the other.
The scar along his cheek pulled when he smiled.
“Give me the locket.”
Detective Bennett moved first.
“Police. Drop the weapon.”
Simon laughed.
“Rosa Bennett.”
Her face changed.
He knew her.
“That badge still crooked on the left?”
She raised her weapon.
“Gun down.”
“You always did follow procedure.”
Adrian looked at her.
Bennett did not take her eyes off Simon.
“You know me?”
“Your father did.”
A tiny silence.
Then Bennett’s expression hardened.
“My father was a cop.”
“Yes.”
Simon smiled.
“That is what made him useful.”
Bennett’s jaw clenched.
I understood immediately.
The ledger.
Bought police.
Bought judges.
Bought doctors.
The corruption had not been abstract.
It had names.
Families.
Children who grew up believing stories.
Simon looked at me.
“The locket.”
I closed my fist around it.
Adrian stepped in front of me.
“You’re not getting near her.”
Simon tilted his head.
“Vittorio’s youngest.”
“Adrian.”
“I know who you are.”
“Then you know I’m not my father.”
Simon’s smile faded.
“No. You’re worse.”
Adrian’s eyes narrowed.
“You got to inherit everything and pretend the money became clean when the old man died.”
The accusation landed.
Adrian did not deny it.
Instead he said, “You profited from him.”
“For a while.”
“You threatened Nora.”
“For a purpose.”
“You tried to kill Evelyn.”
Simon’s eyes flicked.
There.
A reaction.
Small.
But real.
Bennett saw it too.
“Evelyn Shaw survived,” she said.
Simon looked at her.
“Did she?”
“You know she did.”
His smile returned.
“I know many things.”
A sound came from upstairs.
A door slamming.
Simon’s eyes moved toward the ceiling.
He had not come alone.
Thomas whispered into his radio.
No response.
Jammed.
Simon said, “I have six men upstairs.”
Mrs. Keller made a frightened sound.
“Please,” she whispered. “This is a library.”
Simon looked at her.
“Then stay quiet and you may get to keep it.”
Adrian’s body shifted slightly.
Shielding me.
I hated it.
Not because I did not want protection.
Because Simon noticed.
His eyes went from Adrian to me.
Then back.
“Well.”
His smile sharpened.
“That is interesting.”
Adrian said nothing.
Simon continued.
“Does Marcus know?”
My stomach tightened.
Adrian’s voice became cold.
“Know what?”
“That you look at his daughter like that.”
Heat rose into my face despite everything.
Simon laughed softly.
“Romano men. Always making inheritance more complicated.”
Adrian moved one step forward.
Bennett snapped, “Stay where you are.”
Not clear which man she meant.
Maybe both.
Simon raised the pistol.
Adrian stopped.
“Locket,” Simon said again.
I opened my phone.
Typed one sentence.
Then held it up.
WHY?
Simon read it.
“Because it is mine.”
I typed again.
MY MOTHER STOLE IT.
“Yes.”
WHY DID SHE NEED IT?
Simon’s eyes hardened.
“She thought information made her powerful.”
I typed:
DID IT?
A faint smile.
“For twenty-six years.”
He had answered me.
Nora had kept him away.
For twenty-six years.
Not through money.
Not weapons.
Information.
My fear shifted.
It did not disappear.
But it made room for something else.
Understanding.
Simon was not here because he was powerful.
He was here because he was desperate.
I held up the locket.
Adrian turned.
“Hannah, no.”
Simon’s attention locked on it.
I typed:
LET MRS KELLER LEAVE.
He laughed.
“No.”
I closed my fingers around the locket.
Then I held it over the open drain beside the basement utility sink.
Simon’s smile vanished.
“Do not.”
There it was.
I looked at Bennett.
She understood.
Simon needed the physical key.
He could not afford to lose it.
I typed:
HER FIRST.
Simon stared at me.
Then nodded toward the stairs.
“Old woman goes.”
Mrs. Keller did not move.
Bennett said quietly, “Go.”
She hurried upstairs.
We listened.
Footsteps.
A door.
Silence.
Simon said, “Now give it to me.”
I typed:
THOMAS TOO.
“No.”
I lowered my hand closer to the drain.
Simon’s gun rose.
Adrian stepped between us.
“Shoot me and she drops it.”
Simon glared at him.
For several seconds, nobody breathed.
Then Simon said, “Security man goes.”
Thomas hesitated.
Adrian nodded once.
Thomas went upstairs.
Two people out.
Four remaining.
Me.
Adrian.
Bennett.
Simon.
At least in the basement.
Simon extended his free hand.
“Enough.”
I looked at Bennett.
Then at Adrian.
He understood what I was thinking.
He shook his head.
Very slightly.
Do not try it.
I dropped the locket.
Simon lunged.
Not toward me.
Toward the drain.
Adrian hit him.
Hard.
The gun fired.
The sound exploded in the concrete room.
Bennett tackled Simon from the side.
I dropped to the floor.
The bullet struck a pipe behind us.
Water burst across the wall.
Adrian and Simon crashed into a shelving unit.
Boxes fell.
Simon swung the pistol.
Adrian caught his wrist.
Another shot.
Ceiling.
Bennett kicked the weapon away.
I crawled toward it.
A boot came down on my hand.
Pain shot through my fingers.
One of Simon’s men.
He had come down the stairs without anyone hearing.
He grabbed my hair.
I could not scream.
That was the worst part.
My mouth opened.
Nothing.
He pulled me up.
Adrian saw.
“Hannah!”
Simon hit him in the stomach.
Bennett turned.
The gunman pressed a weapon beneath my jaw.
“Everybody stop.”
They did.
My breath came fast.
My throat burned.
Simon wiped blood from his mouth.
Then he smiled.
“Good.”
He walked toward me.
“Now where is the locket?”
I looked toward the drain.
Empty.
Simon’s face changed.
The locket had not fallen inside.
Because I had never dropped it.
I had dropped the black button from Adrian’s coat.
The locket was still inside my fist.
Simon realized it one second too late.
A shot sounded from upstairs.
The man holding me jerked.
His grip loosened.
Thomas appeared on the stairs.
He had circled through an exterior service entrance.
The gunman collapsed.
Bennett hit Simon behind the knees.
He went down.
Adrian grabbed the pistol.
Within seconds, Simon was face-first on the wet concrete with Bennett’s handcuffs around his wrists.
He laughed.
Even then.
Even bleeding.
Even captured.
“You think this matters?”
Bennett pulled him up.
“It matters to me.”
He looked at her.
“Your father said the same thing once.”
She struck him with a look that could have cut steel.
“My father is dead.”
“So are many useful men.”
Bennett pushed him toward the stairs.
I stood shaking.
Adrian came to me.
He looked at my hand.
“Are you hurt?”
I opened my fist.
The locket was there.
His face changed.
Then he laughed.
A short, shocked sound.
“You dropped my button?”
I looked at his coat.
One button was missing.
I nodded.
For the first time in more than twenty-four hours, I smiled.
It hurt my cheek.
But I did it anyway.
Adrian stared at me.
Something softened in his face.
Then Bennett called from the stairs.
“You two need to see this.”
Outside, daylight had arrived fully.
Police vehicles filled the street.
Two of Simon’s men had been arrested.
Three had fled.
One had been wounded.
Mrs. Keller was safe.
Thomas was safe.
And Simon Vale sat inside a cruiser looking almost bored.
Bennett held a phone.
“We ran the Swiss number.”
My heart sped up.
“Elise Martin exists. Sixty-one. Swiss resident. Former hospital administrator.”
Adrian stared.
“Photograph?”
Bennett turned the screen.
Evelyn Shaw.
Older.
Gray at the temples.
But clearly her.
Alive.
Adrian sat down on the library steps.
For the first time, the enormity hit him.
A woman his family had mourned for twenty-six years had been living another life.
Bennett continued.
“We contacted Swiss authorities. They’re going to approach carefully.”
My phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
Marcus.
Of course.
The message read:
SIMON ARRESTED?
I did not answer.
Another appeared.
GOOD.
Then:
NOW HE CAN’T KILL EVELYN BEFORE I FIND HER.
My stomach dropped.
I showed Adrian.
He stood.
“Bennett.”
She read it.
Her face hardened.
“We need protection on Evelyn immediately.”
Then Simon began laughing from the cruiser.
We all turned.
He was watching us through the window.
Bennett walked over and opened the door.
“What is funny?”
Simon looked at me.
“You think Marcus wants to save Evelyn?”
Nobody answered.
Simon leaned forward.
“Marcus has been hunting her for eleven years.”
Adrian’s face changed.
“Why?”
Simon’s smile disappeared.
“Because Evelyn has the ledger.”
We already knew that.
Then Simon added:
“And because she has his son.”
The world stopped again.
Adrian stared.
“Hannah isn’t Marcus’s only child?”
Simon laughed.
“No.”
He looked directly at me.
“Your brother is twenty-five.”
My heart pounded.
“Evelyn never lost her baby.”
Bennett frowned.
“The medical report said no heartbeat.”
“Forged.”
Simon sat back.
“Vittorio paid for it.”
Adrian went pale.
Simon continued.
“Marcus thought the child died. Later he learned the truth.”
“When?” Adrian demanded.
“Eleven years ago.”
The timing hit everyone at once.
The year Marcus disappeared.
Simon smiled.
“He didn’t vanish because Vittorio paid him.”
Adrian stepped closer to the cruiser.
“Then why?”
Simon’s voice dropped.
“Because he found Evelyn.”
My phone buzzed again.
This time a photograph.
A young man standing outside an airport.
Dark hair.
Blue-gray eyes.
A scarless face.
Underneath:
MEET YOUR BROTHER, HANNAH.
May you like
Then another message.
HE JUST LANDED IN NEW YORK.
