Chapter 5 - The Ghost at the Door
The woman outside the apartment building knew exactly where the camera was.
She smiled into it.
Then she turned and walked away.
Dominic reached for his coat.
Claire caught his arm.
"Don't."
He looked down at her hand.
"She knows where we are."
"That's why you shouldn't follow her."
Miles was already checking the building's secondary cameras.
"She's heading toward the alley."
Dominic made a decision.
"Call the police. Tell them someone connected to the homicide is outside."
Miles looked surprised.
Dominic didn't explain.
He was tired of letting his enemies decide which rules applied.
Evelyn moved beside Claire.
"You're doing the right thing."
Dominic looked at the screen.
"That remains to be seen."
Minutes later, the woman disappeared into a waiting sedan.
The license plate was obscured.
But Miles captured enough footage to identify the vehicle's make and color.
Dominic returned to the table.
Claire was staring at the photograph displayed on the monitor.
"My mother knew her."
He turned.
"What?"
"The woman in the blue dress. I've seen her before."
Claire closed her eyes, searching her memory.
"When I was little, there was a woman who visited our house. She always brought expensive gifts. My mother hated her."
"Do you remember her name?"
Claire shook her head.
"Only what my father called her."
"What?"
"The Sparrow."
Evelyn went still.
Dominic noticed.
"You know that name."
Evelyn slowly lowered her phone.
"Years ago, Richard Vale employed a private intelligence contractor. She specialized in corporate impersonation and financial fraud."
"Name?"
"Rebecca Shaw."
Dominic looked toward the security image.
"Find her."
Evelyn hesitated.
"Dominic, Rebecca Shaw supposedly died eight years ago."
Claire laughed once, without humor.
"Apparently nobody in this city stays dead."
No one answered.
At three in the morning, Evelyn received confirmation that Thomas Reed had died from a single gunshot wound. Investigators had recovered the weapon near the records-room entrance.
The security system had also captured the woman in blue entering the building using a valid employee credential.
Claire's credential.
Evelyn immediately instructed Claire not to touch her phone or laptop until the digital records could be preserved.
"Someone may have cloned your access," she explained.
Claire nodded.
But her attention remained fixed on the brass key in her hand.
At dawn, Dominic finally persuaded her to rest.
He showed her a bedroom at the end of the hall.
Fresh sheets.
A locked window.
A small lamp beside the bed.
Claire stood in the doorway.
"Did your mother sleep here?"
"Sometimes."
"Was she afraid of your father?"
Dominic didn't answer immediately.
Then he said, "She was afraid of what he could become."
Claire looked at him.
"Are you?"
"Every day."
The admission surprised them both.
She stepped closer.
"You're not him."
Dominic gave a faint, humorless smile.
"You don't know everything I've done."
"No," she whispered. "But I know what you did tonight."
He looked at her.
"You came."
Two words.
Nothing more.
Yet Dominic felt them more deeply than any accusation he had ever faced.
Claire touched his sleeve.
"When I called, I didn't know if you'd answer."
"I always answer when it's you."
For a moment, the distance between them disappeared.
Then Claire stepped back.
"Good night, Dominic."
"Good night."
He waited until her door closed.
Then he returned to the living room.
Miles was standing beside the window.
"Boss, there's something you should know."
Dominic poured coffee.
"Go on."
"I found an old Northstar employee directory."
"And?"
"Daniel Bennett wasn't an accountant."
Dominic set down the cup.
"What was he?"
"Chief financial investigator."
Dominic frowned.
"Northstar had one?"
"Not officially."
Miles handed him a printed page.
"Daniel was working undercover for a federal task force investigating port corruption."
Dominic read the document.
The task force had been investigating Richard Vale and Silas Harrow.
But one paragraph stood out.
Daniel Bennett had identified a third participant.
An unnamed individual inside the Vale family.
Dominic looked up.
"Who?"
Miles shook his head.
"The file's redacted."
Dominic turned the page.
A handwritten note had been copied into the margin.
The evidence is stored where Margaret Vale kept her promises.
Margaret.
Dominic's mother.
He looked toward the hallway where Claire slept.
Then he remembered something he hadn't thought about in twenty years.
His mother had owned a small music box.
She kept it locked inside a cabinet in the apartment.
And whenever Dominic asked what was inside, she gave him the same answer.
"Something I promised to protect."
Dominic crossed the room.
The cabinet stood beside the fireplace.
He opened it.
The music box was still there.
Inside its velvet lining, he found a narrow metal compartment.
And inside that compartment was an envelope.
May you like
On the front, written in his mother's handwriting, were five words.
FOR CLAIRE BENNETT. NOT DOMINIC.
