Chapter 6 - THE HOUSE WITH TOO MANY EYES
The Kavanaugh estate locked down for the second time that day.
This time, nobody argued.
Renick moved Brinley and Micah into a windowless security room beneath the west wing.
Belle went with them.
So did Maeve.
Two guards remained outside.
Three more monitored cameras.
Renick disappeared with Sully.
Belle sat beside Micah on a narrow leather bench.
Brinley had stopped speaking.
The little girl held her rabbit against her face and watched the reinforced door.
Micah leaned toward her.
“You can have my dinosaur.”
He pulled a tiny green plastic dinosaur from his backpack.
Brinley looked at it.
“You like dinosaurs?”
“They’re okay.”
“You carry one.”
Micah shrugged.
“It helps.”
Belle had never asked him why.
Brinley took it.
“Thank you.”
Maeve watched the children.
Then she looked at Belle.
“Your son is unusual.”
Belle stiffened.
“In a good way.”
“That depends who notices.”
Maeve’s words landed oddly.
“What does that mean?”
Maeve hesitated.
Then the reinforced door opened.
Renick entered.
“Declan’s gone.”
Belle stared.
“What?”
“His room is empty.”
“Your estate was locked down.”
“He left before the basement attack.”
“Convenient.”
Renick’s jaw tightened.
“He says he drove to Providence.”
“He says?”
“He called.”
“And you believe him?”
“No.”
Belle stood.
“What about the phone?”
“Burner. Not Declan’s primary.”
“But it was in his room.”
“Yes.”
“Then arrest him.”
Maeve gave a humorless laugh.
Belle looked at her.
“What?”
“You think this family solves things with arrests?”
Renick’s eyes cut toward his sister.
“Maeve.”
She shrugged.
“It’s a fair observation.”
Belle rubbed both hands over her face.
“I want my son out of this.”
Renick looked at Micah.
“I know.”
“No, you keep saying that, then another person shoots at him.”
His expression tightened.
Belle stepped closer.
“You have guards. Cameras. armored cars. You have enough money to build a fortress, and somehow someone locked your daughter outside on a balcony and photographed both children from inside your own library.”
Renick did not defend himself.
That almost made her angrier.
“What do you want me to say?”
“The truth.”
“I don’t know who’s doing this.”
“Then maybe start with why someone cared about Owen seven years ago.”
Renick glanced at Maeve.
Belle noticed.
“What?”
Maeve stood.
“Renick.”
“No more.”
Belle looked between them.
“No more what?”
Renick remained silent.
Maeve walked to the security console.
She typed a code.
A wall monitor changed.
An old photograph appeared.
Cormac Kavanaugh.
The man Belle had seen behind Owen in the first photo.
Beside him stood four younger people.
Renick.
Maeve.
Declan.
And a fourth man Belle had never seen.
Patrick.
Cormac’s hand rested on a wooden box.
“After my father died,” Maeve said, “he left control of the organization to Renick.”
Renick looked annoyed.
Belle ignored him.
“Declan hated that?”
“Declan believed he deserved it.”
“Because?”
“He was the eldest son.”
Belle glanced at Renick.
“You’re younger?”
“By eleven months.”
Maeve smiled faintly.
“Our father had complicated years.”
Renick said, “Get to the point.”
Maeve tapped the screen.
Another image appeared.
A ledger.
Old leather.
Black.
Stamped with a lighthouse.
Belle’s pulse jumped.
“The lighthouse.”
Maeve nodded.
“My father kept records that could destroy half the people who ever did business with him.”
Renick said, “We don’t know that.”
“We know enough.”
Belle stared at the ledger image.
“Owen found it?”
“No,” Maeve said. “Owen found evidence that someone had been copying it.”
“Who?”
“That’s what got him killed.”
Silence.
Renick’s phone buzzed.
He ignored it.
Belle asked, “Where is the ledger now?”
Maeve smiled without humor.
“If we knew, nobody would be shooting at your apartment.”
Belle thought about Owen’s note.
Find the ledger before Kavanaugh does.
Trust no brother.
B.A. knows where the first key goes.
“Who is B.A.?”
Maeve’s face changed.
Renick noticed.
“You know.”
“No.”
“You reacted.”
Maeve looked away.
“Maeve.”
She sighed.
“There was a woman.”
“What woman?” Belle asked.
“Bianca Arlen.”
Renick went still.
Belle saw it.
“Who was she?”
Maeve looked at her brother.
“Tell her.”
Renick’s expression hardened.
Maeve turned back to Belle.
“Bianca was our father’s accountant.”
“An accountant.”
“She was also Renick’s fiancée.”
Belle looked at him.
Renick said nothing.
Maeve continued.
“She disappeared eight years ago.”
Belle absorbed that.
“One year before Owen died.”
“Yes.”
“Did they know each other?”
Maeve’s voice softened.
“They worked together.”
Renick finally spoke.
“Not closely.”
“You don’t know that,” Maeve said.
“I know enough.”
Maeve laughed.
“That phrase appears frequently in this family.”
Belle looked at Renick.
“Did Bianca betray you?”
His eyes became distant.
“She stole money.”
“How much?”
“Eight million.”
“And disappeared?”
“Yes.”
“Convenient.”
His gaze sharpened.
Belle did not apologize.
Micah, who had been listening quietly, asked, “What does the key open?”
Every adult looked at him.
He pointed toward the silver key resting in an evidence pouch on the table.
“Dad wrote that B.A. knows where it goes.”
Belle nodded slowly.
Maeve stepped closer.
“I recognize it.”
Renick turned.
“You do?”
“It’s a station key.”
“What station?”
“South Station.”
Belle frowned.
“For a locker?”
“Old luggage lockers used keys like that before they switched systems.”
Renick immediately called Sully.
Within five minutes they had compared photographs.
The key likely belonged to a discontinued bank of storage lockers once located below South Station.
Most had been removed years ago.
One section remained sealed in an unused maintenance corridor.
Renick wanted to send men.
Belle said no.
“If Owen left it, I’m going.”
“Absolutely not.”
“He was my husband.”
“It could be a trap.”
“Then why did someone try to steal the key instead of letting us walk into it?”
Renick had no answer.
Maeve smiled slightly.
“I like her.”
Renick ignored that.
Two hours later, Belle sat in the rear of an armored SUV with Renick.
Micah remained at the estate with Brinley and Maeve under enough protection to defend a small embassy.
Boston blurred past outside.
Belle watched Renick.
“You were engaged?”
“Yes.”
“Did you love her?”
He looked at the window.
“Why does that matter?”
“People do strange things when they’re betrayed.”
“So do people when they’re curious.”
Belle almost smiled.
Almost.
South Station was crowded despite the rain.
Renick’s men cleared the maintenance corridor quietly.
The old lockers were hidden behind a temporary wall.
Key 317 opened on the first turn.
Inside was no ledger.
Only a cassette recorder.
And an envelope addressed in Owen’s handwriting.
ISABELLA.
Belle’s hands shook.
She opened it.
Inside was a single sentence.
If Micah is old enough to ask who I really was, tell him I was trying to become someone worthy of being his father.
Belle covered her mouth.
Renick looked away.
Beneath the letter sat a cassette.
A guard found an old player from a nearby office.
The tape crackled.
Then Owen’s voice filled the corridor.
Belle nearly collapsed.
“If you’re hearing this,” he said, “Cormac is dead, or I am.”
Static.
Then:
“Bianca didn’t steal the money.”
Renick froze.
“She found the person who did.”
The tape hissed.
A scraping sound.
Then Owen said the name.
“Declan.”
Renick’s face went white.
May you like
But the tape continued.
“And if Renick still trusts Sullivan Byrne, he’s already lost.”
