Chapter 5
THE PRICE OF A WITNESS
Dominic ran through the dark corridor, calling Emily’s name. The medical suite door hung open. Her blanket lay on the floor, and the window was locked from the inside.
The doctor was unconscious beside the bed, alive but bleeding from a cut above his eyebrow. A narrow service hatch behind the wardrobe stood open.
Dominic felt a cold, unfamiliar helplessness. Gabriel had returned from the dead, Voss was in custody, and still the enemy had reached the one person who had risked herself to bring the truth home.
Marco found a small wireless transmitter beneath the bed. “They used our own security system to unlock the service corridor.”
“Who has access?”
“Six people. Me, you, the house manager, two technicians, and—”
“Vanessa,” Dominic finished.
They found her in the kitchen, hands raised, two guards watching her. A kitchen knife lay on the floor.
“I didn’t take her,” she said before Dominic spoke. “I swear it.”
“You had access.”
“So did half your staff. If I wanted to betray you, I had four years to do it.”
Gabriel stepped between them. “She’s telling the truth. The signal came from outside the property.”
Dominic forced himself to breathe. “What did they leave?”
Marco held up a phone found beside the hatch. One video was saved on it. Dominic pressed play.
Emily sat in a bare room, her wrists tied to a chair. She was frightened, but she was upright, one hand protectively curved over her belly. A masked man stood behind her.
“Mr. Moretti,” the man said, “you have something that belongs to our employer. Bring the original ledger to the old Riverside cannery by dawn. Come without police. If you bring the wrong file, the maid dies.”
The video ended with a close-up of Emily’s face. She looked directly at the camera.
“Don’t give them everything,” she whispered. “They’re afraid of what’s in the last folder.”
Dominic replayed that sentence. “What last folder?”
Gabriel frowned. “The ledger has a sealed annex. I never opened it. I thought it was just duplicate records.”
“Then they’re after more than the money.”
Voss was being held in a secure room downstairs. Dominic went to him with Gabriel at his side.
“You know where they took Emily,” Dominic said.
Voss smiled faintly. “I know where they want you to think they took her.”
Dominic slammed a hand against the table. “A woman and her unborn child are in danger because of this. If you have any humanity left, tell me what you know.”
For the first time, Voss looked uncomfortable. “The people behind Northbridge are not a single family. They’re a network. I handled the money. Someone else handled the bodies. I never met that person.”
“Name.”
“I don’t have one. I received instructions through a broker who used the name Shepherd.”
Gabriel went still. “Shepherd was the codename in my original notes.”
Voss nodded. “Your brother found the name and made the mistake of tracing it. The network decided he had to disappear.”
Dominic leaned forward. “What’s in the annex?”
“I don’t know.”
Voss’s eyes shifted to Gabriel. It was the smallest movement, but Dominic caught it.
“You’re lying.”
“I’m telling you what I can prove.”
Gabriel placed the silver key on the table. “The annex is encrypted. The key only unlocks the index. There’s one person who can decode the full file.”
“Who?”
“Daniel Whitmore.”
Dominic called the lawyer. The call went straight to voicemail. He tried again, and this time a text arrived from an unknown number.
WHITMORE IS DEAD. COME ALONE.
A photograph showed the lawyer’s glasses on a bloodstained desk.
Dominic’s face hardened. “They’re closing every door.”
Vanessa stepped forward. “My father knows the broker. He arranged my first payment. If Robert Sterling is still alive, he can lead us to Shepherd.”
Dominic stared at her. “You want me to trust your father?”
“No. I want you to use me to get close enough to him.”
Gabriel studied her, then nodded once. “It’s our only lead.”
Dominic assembled a team, but the message had demanded he come alone. He decided to send a decoy vehicle toward the cannery while Vanessa contacted her father. Gabriel would trace the phone’s location. Marco would watch the roads.
At 4:12 A.M., Vanessa’s phone rang.
She answered on speaker.
Robert Sterling’s voice sounded calm. “Darling, I heard you’ve been making trouble.”
Vanessa’s face went white. “Where is Emily?”
“Safe for now. Bring Dominic to the old cannery, and I’ll tell you how to get her back.”
Dominic leaned toward the phone. “You’ll tell me everything.”
Robert chuckled. “Of course. But bring your brother, too.”
The call ended.
Gabriel looked at Dominic. “He knows I’m alive.”
A second message appeared on the screen, with a live video attached. Emily was still tied to the chair. Behind her, someone placed a small ultrasound photograph on the table.
May you like
Then the masked man leaned close to the camera and spoke.
“Mr. Moretti, your brother isn’t the only person who survived the crash.”
