Chapter 6 - THE HOUSE WITHOUT WINDOWS
The next clue arrived from an unexpected place.
Victoria Hayes.
She requested immunity in exchange for information.
The federal agents refused.
My father didn't.
He met her in a private room.
I watched through the glass.
Victoria looked nothing like the woman who had laughed from the jet ski.
Her makeup was gone.
Her hands shook.
She looked exhausted.
“I want protection,” she said.
“You're asking the wrong man.”
“I know.”
She looked toward me.
“I want to talk to Genevieve.”
Dad refused.
I stepped forward.
“Let her.”
He didn't like it.
But he agreed.
Victoria entered.
For several seconds, she couldn't look at me.
Then she whispered:
“I'm sorry.”
I didn't respond.
“I thought Julian was going to leave you.”
“You helped him try to kill me.”
“I know.”
“Why?”
She began crying.
“Because Adrian had my brother.”
I froze.
“What?”
“My younger brother disappeared two years ago.”
“Adrian took him?”
“Yes.”
“He used me to force Julian to cooperate. He used Julian to force me to cooperate.”
“Where is your brother?”
“I don't know.”
She pulled a piece of paper from her pocket.
An address.
“That's where Adrian kept him.”
My father took the paper.
The address led to an abandoned warehouse outside Baltimore.
A building with no windows.
The raid happened that night.
Thirty minutes after midnight, federal agents surrounded the property.
My father insisted on coming.
I stayed in the armored vehicle with Rebecca.
The team entered.
Five minutes passed.
Then ten.
Gunfire erupted.
My heart stopped.
I heard shouting over the radio.
“Second floor!”
“Movement east side!”
“Clear!”
Then silence.
A federal agent emerged carrying a teenage boy.
Victoria's brother.
Alive.
Weak.
But alive.
Victoria collapsed when she saw him.
The rescue should have been the end.
It wasn't.
Inside the warehouse, investigators found dozens of files.
Photographs.
Bank records.
Shipping documents.
And a wall covered with names.
At the center was mine.
GENEVIEVE STERLING.
Underneath:
MARRIAGE — COMPLETED.
PREGNANCY — COMPLETED.
ISOLATION — FAILED.
TERMINATION — FAILED.
Then:
HEIR — ACTIVE.
My father stared at the wall.
“What the hell is this?”
A federal investigator found another room.
Inside was a desk.
On it sat an old red lamp.
Its shade rotated slowly.
Red light swept across the room.
I stared at it.
The same color.
The same pattern.
The red lighthouse.
A motif.
A warning.
A signature.
Then Rebecca found something beneath the desk.
A cassette recorder.
She pressed play.
A man's voice filled the room.
Adrian Vale.
“Genevieve will eventually understand.”
A pause.
“She always was more intelligent than her father believed.”
My father's face hardened.
The recording continued.
“The boy will become the legal center of the Sterling assets.”
Another pause.
“And when he does, the family will finally belong to me.”
The recording ended.
Then the warehouse lights turned off.
A gunshot cracked outside.
The federal agents moved instantly.
Someone had triggered the building's emergency system.
A fire began in the rear storage area.
“Get out!”
Smoke filled the hallway.
We ran.
My father grabbed my arm.
“Move!”
We reached the exit.
Then I heard a child crying.
I turned.
A small voice.
“Help!”
My father shouted:
“Genevieve, no!”
But I was already running back.
The sound came from the upper floor.
I found a little girl trapped behind a fallen metal door.
She couldn't have been more than eight.
I pulled at the door.
It wouldn't move.
My father reached me.
Together we lifted it.
The girl crawled free.
We carried her outside.
She was clutching a red plastic lighthouse toy.
I stared at it.
“Where did you get that?”
She looked at me.
“Mr. Vale gave it to us.”
“Where is he?”
She pointed toward the burning building.
“He left before you came.”
My father's expression changed.
Adrian had been there.
He had watched us arrive.
And escaped.
Before disappearing, he had left one final message.
May you like
Written in red ink on the warehouse wall:
NEXT TIME, I WON'T MISS THE CHILD.
