Chapter 7 - THE DEAD MAN
Anthony Calder was alive.
For seven years, Dominic had visited an empty grave.
For seven years, Eleanor had allowed her son to believe his father was dead.
Dominic turned slowly toward his mother.
“Explain.”
Eleanor sat down.
She suddenly looked every one of her seventy years.
“I thought he was dead.”
“Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not.”
“Then why is my father sitting in a restaurant three weeks ago?”
“I don’t know.”
Dominic’s voice rose for the first time Evelyn had ever heard.
“You buried him!”
“I buried a sealed coffin after a hospital fire left three bodies impossible to identify!”
“You identified his ring.”
“It was on the body!”
Dominic paced away.
Evelyn understood what was happening before he did.
“Victor staged it.”
Everyone looked at her.
She pointed to the screen.
“If Anthony was preparing to expose Victor, killing him creates a martyr and an investigation. Making everyone believe he died while secretly keeping him alive gives Victor leverage.”
Dominic stared at the frozen image.
“Seven years.”
Molly whispered, “Why keep him alive that long?”
Evelyn knew.
“For information.”
Dominic’s expression hardened.
“Passwords. Accounts. Contacts.”
Eleanor covered her mouth.
“Oh, Anthony.”
The video metadata gave them a location.
A private restaurant in Milwaukee.
The security footage had been copied by Thomas’s automated archive system after recognizing Victor’s face through a connected investigative account.
Dominic traced Victor’s vehicle afterward to an abandoned lakeside estate north of the city.
He wanted to go immediately.
Evelyn stopped him.
“That is exactly what Victor expects.”
“My father is there.”
“Maybe.”
“He’s alive.”
“Maybe.”
Dominic stared at her.
She stepped closer.
“You told me revenge solves a problem for thirty seconds. Running into Victor’s property because you saw your father on a screen isn’t strategy.”
His jaw tightened.
“You’re quoting me to myself?”
“Yes.”
“I dislike that.”
“I’m discovering I enjoy it.”
A tense silence passed.
Then Dominic exhaled.
“What would you do?”
The question surprised everyone.
Evelyn looked at the map.
“Make Victor believe we don’t know.”
Dominic understood immediately.
The next morning, Calder Freight announced Anthony Calder’s grave had been disturbed during an attempted robbery and that nothing valuable had been recovered.
Victor called within forty minutes.
Dominic put him on speaker.
“Nephew.”
“Uncle.”
“I heard about the cemetery.”
“Then you heard I’m having a terrible week.”
Victor laughed.
“You always did inherit your father’s talent for attracting trouble.”
Dominic’s hand tightened.
Evelyn touched his wrist beneath the table.
A reminder.
Stay calm.
Dominic glanced at her.
Then said, “Dinner tonight.”
Victor paused.
“Why?”
“I’m tired of guessing who’s behind this.”
“You think I can help?”
“I think you know everyone worth asking.”
Victor accepted.
At eight, he arrived at the mansion.
Gray-haired, elegant, smiling.
He kissed Eleanor’s cheek.
Then saw Evelyn.
His smile barely changed.
“So this is the famous maid.”
Evelyn felt Dominic stiffen.
She remained calm.
“Mr. Calder.”
Victor looked at Dominic.
“You’ve developed unusual taste in advisers.”
“She notices things.”
“So I hear.”
Dinner became a chess match.
Victor denied everything.
Dominic pretended to believe half of it.
Then Evelyn deliberately placed Thomas Reed’s folder on a side table where Victor could see it.
His eyes flicked toward it.
Once.
Enough.
After dinner, Victor excused himself to take a call.
He returned three minutes later.
When he left the mansion, Dominic checked the folder.
A tiny tracking device had been attached beneath it.
Dominic smiled coldly.
“He wants us to lead him to the copy.”
“No,” Evelyn said.
“He wants to know where we go when we think we have something important.”
Dominic looked at her.
“Then we give him somewhere to follow.”
They planted the tracker inside a courier case and sent it to an empty warehouse.
Victor’s men followed.
Meanwhile Dominic, Evelyn, Warren, and two trusted guards drove north.
The lakeside estate appeared abandoned.
They entered through the service wing.
No guards.
No alarms.
Too easy.
Evelyn hated it.
They reached the basement.
A light burned beneath one door.
Dominic opened it.
An elderly man sat at a table.
Thin.
Gray.
A scar ran along his neck.
But Dominic knew him instantly.
“Dad?”
Anthony Calder lifted his head.
His eyes filled.
“Dominic.”
Dominic did not move.
Seven years of grief seemed to strike him at once.
Anthony stood shakily.
“My son.”
Dominic crossed the room and caught his father before he fell.
For several seconds neither man spoke.
Then Anthony whispered something into Dominic’s ear.
Dominic’s entire body stiffened.
He pulled back.
“What?”
Anthony looked toward Evelyn.
Fear filled his face.
“Victor didn’t keep me alive for information.”
“Then why?”
Anthony pointed toward Evelyn.
“Because Thomas Reed hid one final account.”
Evelyn frowned.
“What account?”
Anthony swallowed.
“An account worth eighty-four million dollars.”
“I don’t have eighty-four million dollars.”
“No.”
May you like
Anthony’s voice trembled.
“But legally, you own it.”
