Chapter 5 - THE MISSING LAWYER
Gerald Knox had handled Moretti estate work for twenty-seven years.
His office was empty.
Computer gone.
Files stripped.
Assistant crying.
Car still in the garage.
Torres treated it as a missing-person case.
At 2:00 a.m., I finally took Ethan upstairs.
"Do people want me dead because of money?"
There are questions no father should answer.
"Someone did something terrible tonight."
"Because of my shares?"
"Maybe."
"I don't want them."
My chest tightened.
"They're not the problem."
"They almost got Lily hurt too."
"No."
"She ran in front of everyone."
He was right.
Lily had made herself visible.
That made her dangerous to whoever planned this.
I called Sophia.
"Keep Lily with you tonight. Security outside your room."
"Mr. Moretti—"
"Dominic."
"Dominic, I don't think Lily should stay here."
I understood.
The safest house in the city had just failed my son.
"I'll arrange somewhere else."
She softened.
"She wants to know if Ethan is okay."
I handed him the phone.
"I'm okay," Ethan said.
Lily's tiny voice came through.
"Don't eat floor cake."
It was the first normal sound of the night.
Then Vincent knocked.
"We recovered something from the deleted footage."
"How?"
"Backup buffer."
The video was damaged.
Seven seconds.
A man entered the cold room wearing a catering coat.
Face hidden.
On his hand was the black ring.
He opened the silver case.
Then the image glitched.
Before it died, the man turned slightly.
Something hung from his belt.
A security access fob.
"That's yours."
"No."
"The red stripe."
"All senior security fobs have that stripe."
"How many?"
"Four."
Torres checked the assignments.
Vincent.
His deputy Marcus Lee.
Night supervisor Paul Dean.
May you like
And one temporary executive credential issued for the party.
To Gerald Knox.
