Chapter 5 - The Price of a Mother's Silence
Valerie Whitmore had always believed humiliation was most effective when delivered in public.
Murder, however, was better handled privately.
That was what Dominic realized when the archive's ventilation system began pumping a bitter-smelling vapor into the locked office.
He grabbed Norah's wrist.
"Stay low."
"What is that?"
"I don't know."
He pulled his coat over her nose and mouth.
The intercom crackled.
Valerie laughed softly.
"Don't worry. It's not poisonous. Just enough to make you both sleepy."
Dominic crossed to the emergency exit.
Locked.
He tried the office door.
Also locked.
Norah's eyes watered.
"She's trying to knock us unconscious."
"Yes."
"Why not just kill us?"
"Because she wants something."
Valerie's voice returned.
"The original settlement, Dominic. Your father kept it. I know he did."
Dominic glanced at the papers.
"What settlement?"
"The real one."
Norah crouched beside the filing cabinet, struggling to breathe through the fabric.
"Tell her we have it."
Dominic looked at her.
"We don't."
"She doesn't know that."
He pressed the intercom button.
"Open the door, Valerie. We'll talk."
"Where's the document?"
"Safe."
"You're lying."
"Then come find out."
Silence.
Norah noticed an old maintenance panel behind the desk.
Its screws were rusted, but the lower edge had come loose.
She pulled at it.
A narrow service shaft lay behind the wall.
"Dominic."
He turned.
She pointed.
"Can we get through?"
He examined the opening.
"Maybe you can."
"What about you?"
"Don't worry about me."
She stared at him.
"That wasn't a suggestion."
He almost smiled.
Together, they forced the panel wider.
Norah crawled inside first.
Dominic followed, pulling the panel back into place.
The shaft was cramped and dusty, but it connected to a maintenance stairwell.
They emerged on the third floor.
Below them, footsteps echoed.
Dominic motioned for silence.
Two men passed beneath the stairs carrying compact firearms.
One spoke into a radio.
"Office is sealed. Nobody comes out until Ms. Whitmore says."
Norah's fingers tightened around Dominic's sleeve.
He waited until the men disappeared.
Then guided her down another stairwell.
They reached the alley behind the building just as a black SUV pulled away from the entrance.
Dominic watched its taillights vanish.
"She's getting desperate."
Norah leaned against the wall.
Her lungs burned.
"Good."
He looked at her.
"Good?"
"Desperate people make mistakes."
Dominic considered that.
Then nodded.
"You're right."
At the hospital, Samuel Parker had been moved to another room.
Two uniformed officers stood outside.
Dominic stopped when he saw them.
"Who authorized police protection?"
A nurse looked confused.
"Detective Cross."
Dominic's face hardened.
He turned toward Norah.
"Stay behind me."
Inside, Samuel lay unconscious.
A clear IV line ran into his arm.
Dominic checked the medication label.
Then called for a physician.
Within minutes, the hospital staff discovered that someone had substituted a sedative for Samuel's prescribed treatment.
The dose was not immediately fatal.
But it was enough to prevent him from speaking.
Norah watched the nurse disconnect the line.
"How long until he wakes?"
"Several hours, hopefully."
Dominic looked at the officers.
"Where's Detective Cross?"
One officer hesitated.
"He left."
"When?"
"About ten minutes ago."
Dominic walked away without another word.
Norah followed him into the corridor.
"Valerie has the police helping her."
"Some of them."
"And your brother."
"Yes."
"And Marcus."
Dominic stopped.
"Maybe."
"How many people do you have left?"
He looked at her.
The answer was written on his face.
Not many.
Norah lowered her voice.
"Then we stop trying to fight this like you still have an army."
"What do you suggest?"
"We find Lily."
Dominic rubbed his jaw.
"We've been trying."
"No. You've been looking for where powerful people would hide her."
"And?"
"Samuel said Lily hid the key somewhere nobody important would look."
Norah met his eyes.
"I know exactly where she meant."
The restaurant's employee break room had twelve lockers.
Nine were assigned to permanent staff.
Two were broken.
The last belonged to Lily.
Leo had changed the lock after she disappeared.
Norah stood before it at 1:17 in the morning.
Dominic waited beside her.
"Are you sure?"
"No."
"Comforting."
Norah borrowed a screwdriver from the maintenance closet.
She removed the back panel rather than breaking the lock.
Behind a loose strip of metal, she found a small envelope.
Inside was a storage key.
And a photograph.
Norah stared at it.
The image showed Lily standing beside a woman in a hospital corridor.
The woman was middle-aged, pale, and dressed in a hospital gown.
On the back, Lily had written:
She says she knew Norah's mother.
Norah felt her pulse quicken.
"Who is she?"
Dominic took the photograph.
His expression changed.
He sat down.
For the first time since Norah had met him, he looked genuinely shaken.
"Dominic?"
He examined the woman's face.
"That's impossible."
"Who is she?"
He looked up.
"My mother."
Norah stared at him.
"Your mother?"
"She died twenty-three years ago."
Norah looked again at the photograph.
The woman was alive.
And the image had been taken less than a month earlier.
Dominic's hands began to tremble.
"My father told me she died in a hotel fire."
Norah slowly turned the photograph over.
May you like
Below Lily's handwriting was another message, written in a different hand.
Tell Dominic I never stopped waiting for him.
