Chapter 4 - The Cousin Who Knew Too Much
Adrian stared at the photograph until the screen dimmed.
Daniel Bennett was unmistakably alive.
The scar beside his eyebrow matched the one in Nora's envelope. His hair was shorter, his face thinner, and his expression carried the exhausted alertness of a man who had spent years expecting danger from every passing car.
But the photograph had been taken outside Vale Meridian Tower on Tuesday evening.
Daniel had been there when Nora arrived.
Which meant someone had watched them both.
“Show me,” Nora whispered.
Adrian turned the phone toward her.
She made a sound that was barely audible.
Then she reached for the screen.
“That's him.”
“I know.”
“No, you don't.” Her voice broke. “That's my brother.”
She touched the image with two fingers, as if he might disappear if she pressed too hard.
“Where is he?”
“I don't know.”
“Then find out.”
Adrian studied her face.
For the first time, she wasn't trying to hide how badly she was hurting. Her hands trembled. Tears gathered behind her glasses, but she refused to let them fall.
“I spent seven years wondering whether he was dead,” she said. “Seven years wondering whether he hated me enough to leave without saying goodbye. And now you show me a photograph proving he was standing outside your building, and you tell me you don't know where he is?”
“I didn't take the photograph.”
“But someone sent it to you.”
“Yes.”
“Someone who knows where he is.”
“Possibly.”
She laughed once, without humor.
“You really do talk like a man who has never had to beg anyone for an answer.”
Adrian absorbed the accusation without reacting.
He had learned long ago that anger was often the last thing people could afford to show him. Nora's anger was different. She wasn't trying to manipulate him. She was trying to keep herself from falling apart.
He called Mason.
His cousin answered on the second ring.
“Finally.”
“Where did you get the photograph?”
“Good morning to you, too.”
“Answer me.”
“I received it from an anonymous number. It was attached to a warning about your auditor.”
“Who sent it?”
“If I knew that, I wouldn't be calling you.”
“Where are you?”
“My office.”
“Stay there.”
Mason laughed.
“You sound upset.”
“Someone shut down my security network, entered my restricted archive, and threatened a woman working for my company. You have a photograph of her missing brother, and you're asking why I sound upset?”
The laughter stopped.
“Adrian, listen carefully. This isn't about an accounting discrepancy anymore.”
“I know.”
“No, you don't. Seven years ago, your father ordered something moved through Warehouse 19. I told you then that the shipment was wrong. You told me to leave it alone because he had handled it.”
Adrian felt the familiar chill of an old memory.
He had been twenty-seven when his father died, old enough to understand the business but young enough to believe loyalty could substitute for judgment.
“What was in the shipment?” he asked.
“I never saw the contents.”
“Then how do you know it was wrong?”
“Because the manifest listed industrial pumps, but the insurance policy covered medical equipment. The declared weight didn't match either.”
“Why didn't you tell the investigators?”
“Because your father was dead, two men were dead, and somebody had already made it clear that the next person asking questions would join them.”
Adrian said nothing.
Mason lowered his voice.
“I'm not your enemy.”
“Then help me prove it.”
“Meet me at the old hotel. Alone.”
“No.”
“Then bring Caleb. But leave the woman out of it.”
Adrian looked at Nora.
She had heard every word.
“Too late,” he said.
He ended the call.
The old hotel stood near the East River, a property Adrian's father had purchased decades earlier. It had been renovated into luxury apartments, but the basement still contained a service corridor used by the family's private security team.
Adrian chose it because there were no public cameras inside the old service entrance.
He also chose it because Mason had no reason to suspect Adrian would bring Nora there.
Twenty minutes later, they arrived in a black SUV.
Caleb met them at the entrance, having arranged a second security detail. He looked at Nora, then at Adrian.
“She's staying with us?”
“She is.”
“That's going to complicate things.”
“Everything is already complicated.”
Inside, Mason paced beside a conference table. He was thirty-eight, two years younger than Adrian, with the same dark hair and sharp cheekbones but a more restless expression. He had inherited their grandfather's charm and none of Adrian's patience.
When he saw Nora, he stopped.
“So this is the auditor.”
“Nora Bennett,” Adrian said.
Mason's face changed.
It was a small reaction, but Nora caught it.
“You know my brother,” she said.
Mason looked at Adrian.
“Did you tell her about Warehouse 19?”
“Enough.”
“Then you haven't told her enough.”
Nora stepped closer.
“Where is Daniel?”
Mason rubbed a hand across his mouth.
“I don't know where he is now.”
“But you knew he was alive.”
“I suspected.”
“You saw him?”
“Seven years ago, yes.”
The words landed heavily.
Nora gripped the edge of the table.
“You saw my brother seven years ago, after he disappeared?”
“He came to me because he was afraid. He said he'd found evidence of a shipment being diverted through one of our warehouses. He believed your father—” Mason stopped and corrected himself. “He believed Adrian's father was involved.”
“Was he?”
Mason looked at Adrian.
“I don't know.”
“Everybody keeps saying that,” Nora snapped. “You all know enough to be afraid, but nobody knows enough to tell the truth.”
Mason flinched.
Adrian noticed.
“Continue.”
Mason explained that Daniel had arrived at the hotel on the night of the warehouse fire. He had carried a small metal case and claimed it contained original shipping records. He said someone inside Vale Meridian had been selling confidential cargo information to a private security network.
Before Mason could examine the documents, a group of men arrived.
Daniel escaped through a service entrance.
Mason never saw him again.
“Why didn't you tell me?” Adrian asked.
“Because the next morning, your father was dead. Your uncle was dead. And I found a message on my desk saying Daniel Bennett had been dealt with.”
“Who wrote it?”
“I don't know.”
“Where is the message?”
“Gone.”
Adrian stared at his cousin.
“You expect me to believe you kept this from me for seven years?”
“I expected you to believe your father couldn't have been involved.”
“My father was not a saint.”
“He was your father.”
“And that made him innocent?”
Mason looked away.
For a moment, Adrian saw the frightened young man who had stood beside him at the funeral, both of them wearing black suits too expensive for the grief they couldn't express.
Then the moment passed.
Nora placed the photograph on the table.
“Why did someone send this to you now?”
Mason examined it.
“Because the old accounts are being reopened. Somebody wants us looking at Daniel.”
“Or somebody wants us to stop looking,” Caleb said.
Mason nodded slowly.
“There's something else.”
He reached into his jacket and placed a small brass key on the table.
“My father gave me this before he died. He said it belonged to a safety deposit box that should never be opened unless the family was in danger.”
Adrian stared at the key.
“Why are you showing it to us now?”
“Because I found a note in my father's old files this morning. It said the box was registered under Daniel Bennett's name.”
Nora reached for the key.
Mason caught her wrist.
“Wait.”
She looked at him with disbelief.
“Don't touch me.”
He released her immediately.
“I wasn't trying to hurt you. I was trying to warn you.”
“About what?”
Mason's face had gone pale.
“The box was opened yesterday.”
Adrian's phone vibrated.
An alert from the building's security system showed a single image: a man entering the Vale Meridian executive garage.
The man wore a maintenance uniform.
His face was partially hidden.
But Adrian recognized the ring on his right hand.
It belonged to Victor Hale.
The records director who had vanished from the tower.
May you like
And beneath the photograph was a message from an unknown number.
ASK MASON WHAT HE DID WITH THE SECOND BODY.
