Chapter 7 - SULLY’S SECOND LIE
For almost thirty seconds after the tape ended, nobody moved.
Belle stared at the cassette player.
Renick stared at nothing.
One of his guards shifted near the corridor entrance.
The sound of trains rumbled through the station walls.
Belle broke the silence.
“Owen said Sully betrayed you.”
Renick’s expression closed.
“That is not what he said.”
“He said if you trusted Sully, you’d already lost.”
“That could mean many things.”
Belle laughed sharply.
“You’re defending him?”
“I’m refusing to shoot a man based on twelve words recorded eight years ago.”
“Seven.”
“What?”
“Owen died seven years ago.”
Renick looked at her.
Belle hated that she had corrected him.
As if the exact number mattered.
As if grief kept accounts.
Renick took the tape.
“We’re going back.”
Belle caught his arm.
“No.”
His guards looked alarmed.
Renick looked at her hand.
Belle released him.
“We do not bring this back to Sully.”
“He already knows about the key.”
“But not the tape.”
“He knows we came here.”
“Exactly.”
Renick studied her.
“You think he’ll run?”
“I think my husband died believing he couldn’t be trusted.”
Renick’s jaw tightened.
“You knew Owen better than I did.”
“Yes.”
“But I know Sullivan.”
Belle looked at him.
“Do you?”
That question stayed between them.
Renick finally called Maeve instead of Sully.
He told her to move the children.
No explanation.
No details.
Then he contacted a security team not stationed at the estate.
Belle noticed.
“You have people Sully doesn’t control.”
“A few.”
“Why?”
“Because my father taught me never to let one man hold every key.”
“Apparently Owen learned the same lesson.”
Renick gave her a cold look.
She returned it.
On the drive back, Belle listened to Owen’s recording three more times.
Each time his voice opened a wound.
There were details she had forgotten.
The soft rasp when he was tired.
The way he inhaled before saying something serious.
The faint Boston accent he denied having.
At the end, after the warning about Sully, the tape continued for four seconds.
A child cried in the background.
Not Micah.
Belle knew Micah’s newborn cry.
This was older.
A toddler.
Then a woman whispered something too faint to understand.
Belle replayed it.
Again.
Again.
Renick leaned closer.
“What?”
“There’s somebody else.”
The guard in front increased the audio.
Static filled the vehicle.
Owen’s voice ended.
Then a woman whispered:
“Don’t let Cormac find the girl.”
Renick went still.
Belle looked at him.
“What girl?”
He did not answer.
“Renick.”
His face had changed.
“Bianca was pregnant when she disappeared.”
Belle stared.
“With your child?”
“Yes.”
The SUV suddenly felt too small.
“How pregnant?”
“Four months.”
“And you never found her?”
“No.”
Belle thought about the child’s cry.
“Then she didn’t disappear alone.”
Renick looked sick.
For the first time, Belle saw what Bianca’s disappearance had done to him.
Not anger.
Damage.
Deep and unfinished.
“You thought she stole eight million dollars and left with your baby.”
“Yes.”
“And Owen says she didn’t.”
“Yes.”
Belle looked at the cassette.
“Then someone wanted you to hate her.”
Renick’s eyes lifted.
“And someone succeeded.”
They returned through a service entrance.
Renick’s private team had already secured the lower wing.
Maeve waited in the old wine cellar.
Micah ran to Belle.
She hugged him so tightly he complained.
“Mom.”
“I know.”
“You’re crushing me.”
“I know.”
She loosened her arms.
Brinley stood beside him holding the green dinosaur.
Renick entered.
His daughter looked at him.
“Daddy?”
He crossed the room and picked her up.
Belle saw him close his eyes for half a second.
Maybe because somewhere in the world he might have another child.
Or might once have had one.
Maeve noticed the tape.
“What did you find?”
Renick looked at Belle.
Then at the children.
“Later.”
Micah frowned.
“Adults always say that when it’s bad.”
Belle almost laughed.
Renick did not.
A guard entered.
“Mr. Kavanaugh.”
“What?”
“We can’t locate Byrne.”
Renick’s face hardened.
Belle’s stomach dropped.
“When was he last seen?”
“Twenty-three minutes ago.”
“Vehicle?”
“Still here.”
“Phone?”
“In his office.”
Belle whispered, “He ran.”
Renick shook his head.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because Sully doesn’t run.”
A second guard came in quickly.
“Sir.”
Everyone turned.
“We found him.”
Sully lay in the estate chapel.
Someone had tied him to a chair.
Blood covered one side of his shirt.
A knife rested on the floor.
But he was alive.
Barely.
Renick knelt beside him.
“Sully.”
The older man opened his eyes.
“Kids?”
“Safe.”
Sully breathed out.
“Good.”
Belle stood several feet away, caught between fury and pity.
Renick touched the wound.
“Who did this?”
Sully smiled weakly.
“Your family.”
“Which one?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yes.”
Sully coughed.
“Declan.”
Renick’s jaw clenched.
“Where is he?”
“Gone.”
“Why attack you?”
Sully looked past Renick.
At Belle.
“Because I remembered where Owen put the second key.”
Belle stepped closer.
“You knew?”
“I remembered tonight.”
“Owen said not to trust you.”
Sully closed his eyes.
“I know.”
Renick stared at him.
“You heard the tape?”
“No.”
“Then how do you know?”
Sully’s eyes opened.
“Because Owen told me what he was going to record.”
Silence.
Belle’s anger returned.
“You lied again.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I deserved the warning.”
Renick’s voice became low.
“What did you do?”
Sully looked at him.
“I told your father Owen had the ledger.”
Renick stood very slowly.
Belle felt the room change.
Sully continued before Renick could speak.
“Cormac ordered me to find him.”
“And you did.”
“Yes.”
“Then Declan followed you.”
Sully nodded.
“I didn’t know.”
Belle’s eyes filled with furious tears.
“You led them to my husband.”
“Yes.”
“You killed him.”
Sully looked at her.
“I helped.”
Belle raised her hand.
This time she could not strike him.
He was already broken enough.
“Where is the second key?”
Sully’s eyes moved toward Micah.
Belle stepped between them.
“No.”
“It’s not on him.”
“Then where?”
Sully breathed painfully.
“Owen used to joke that children hide things better than criminals.”
Micah frowned.
Sully looked at Belle.
“Do you still have his baby book?”
Belle froze.
“Yes.”
“Check the spine.”
Back at the basement apartment, Belle had kept Micah’s baby book in the drawer beside Owen’s photographs.
If it had survived the attack.
Renick sent men.
Thirty minutes later they returned carrying a smoke-stained blue book.
Belle opened the back cover.
Nothing.
Micah took it.
He pressed the padded spine.
Something clicked.
A tiny brass key slid into his palm.
Attached to it was a paper tag.
Renick stared.
“Forty-two what?”
Micah turned the tag over.
There was an address.
42 Piermont Street.
Maeve inhaled sharply.
Belle looked at her.
“What is it?”
May you like
Maeve’s face had gone pale.
“That was Bianca’s apartment.”
