Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN IN MY ROBEVictor Shaw escaped through a maintenance tunnel beneath the parking garage.
The private elevator stopped on the second basement level, where security cameras had been disabled and a vehicle waited with stolen government plates.
Voss ordered roadblocks.
By midnight, the vehicle was found abandoned near the river.
Victor was gone.
Samuel Price survived the gunshot, but barely.
Paramedics transported him under federal protection. Before they sedated him, he repeated the same three words.
Someone from your team.
I returned to the hospital at 1:24 in the morning.
Nora was awake.
She sat against the pillows with a tray of crackers on her lap. Every cracker had been broken into four pieces and arranged in a line before she ate it.
Dr. Brennan stood near the door.
“She woke up twenty minutes ago,” she said quietly. “She asked whether you kept your promise.”
Nora looked at me.
I crossed the room.
“I came back.”
She held out both arms.
I sat carefully beside her and gathered her against me.
“Did you catch the silver man?” she asked.
“Not yet.”
Her shoulders sank.
“But we know who he is.”
“Is Daddy coming?”
The question hurt more than I expected.
“No.”
“Is he in trouble?”
“Yes.”
“Because of me?”
I turned her face toward mine.
“Nothing happening tonight is because of you. Your father made choices. Camille made choices. The people they worked with made choices.”
Nora looked at the crackers.
“I took the key.”
“You were trying to protect me.”
“I was stealing.”
“Taking evidence from dangerous people to stop them from hurting someone is not the same as stealing.”
“That sounds like something police say.”
Despite everything, I almost smiled.
“It probably is.”
At 2:10, Voss called.
Camille wanted to cooperate.
I left Nora with Dr. Brennan and Rebecca, then went downstairs to a secure consultation room.
Camille sat at the table wearing hospital scrubs provided by an evidence technician. My mother’s robe had been sealed in a bag. Without the diamonds, silk and polished confidence, Camille looked younger.
She also looked terrified.
Voss stood behind the glass wall with another agent.
I entered alone.
Camille rubbed her wrists.
“I’m not under arrest.”
“Not yet.”
She gave a bitter laugh.
“Everyone keeps saying that.”
I sat across from her.
“Where is the music box?”
“I gave it to a courier.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know his name.”
“Description.”
“Maybe forty. Dark hair. Scar near his mouth.”
“Where did you meet him?”
“In the parking garage beneath the foundation.”
“When?”
“Yesterday morning.”
“You told Nora you found what she stole.”
Camille looked down.
“I was searching her room.”
“Why?”
“Julian said she took a brass key from the basement.”
“What does it open?”
“He never told me.”
“What was inside the music box?”
“I didn’t open it.”
“Then how did you know the key was inside?”
“I shook it.”
I leaned forward.
“You locked my daughter in her room. You denied her food. You forced her to kneel on rice while holding metal trays.”
Camille’s eyes filled with tears.
They did not move me.
“You expect me to believe you obeyed Julian without asking questions?”
“No.”
Her answer surprised me.
She wiped her face.
“I knew some of it was wrong.”
“Some?”
“I didn’t think she was actually injured.”
“She has a fractured wrist.”
Camille closed her eyes.
“I never broke her wrist.”
“Who did?”
“I don’t know.”
“You were living in the house.”
“I wasn’t there every day.”
“Where were you?”
“Helping Julian prepare the custody case.”
The words turned my stomach.
“What did that involve?”
“Photographs. Statements. Videos.”
“Videos of Nora repeating lies?”
Camille nodded.
“Julian said judges always favor mothers unless there is evidence. He wanted proof that Nora feared you.”
“So you frightened her until she looked afraid.”
Camille began crying.
“Victor said it needed to look natural.”
There it was.
“Victor Shaw planned the custody case?”
“He planned everything.”
“How long have you known him?”
“Three years.”
Voss shifted behind the glass.
Camille continued.
“I worked for one of his event companies. I organized private dinners, charity auctions and political fundraisers. That’s how I met Julian.”
“You were introduced deliberately.”
“I think so.”
“You think?”
“At first, I believed Victor wanted access to foundation donors. Then Julian started talking about how unhappy he was.”
“Did he tell you he planned to leave me?”
“He said the marriage had been over for years.”
“It wasn’t.”
“I know that now.”
“How?”
“Because he watched every message you sent. He replayed your voice calls after Nora went to bed. He kept photographs of you in his desk.”
“Obsession is not love.”
Camille stared at the table.
“I thought if he still cared, I could make him choose me.”
“So you punished my daughter.”
“She looked like you.”
The honesty was monstrous.
Camille pressed both hands over her face.
“Every time she looked at me, I felt like she was laughing.”
“She is six.”
“I know.”
“You knew then.”
Camille did not answer.
I stood.
She reached across the table.
“Wait.”
I looked at her hand until she pulled it back.
“Julian didn’t know everything Victor was doing,” she said.
“I am not interested in defending Julian.”
“I’m not defending him. I’m warning you.”
“About what?”
“The foundation isn’t the real target.”
“What is?”
“You.”
I sat again.
Camille lowered her voice.
“Victor believed your mother hid something inside the trust. Something connected to government contracts from the 1990s.”
“My mother operated hospitals.”
“She also funded maritime communication systems after hurricanes. Victor said she discovered a network used to move weapons through emergency corridors.”
That possibility was not impossible.
Humanitarian routes often remained open when commercial routes closed. A criminal group controlling those corridors could move almost anything without inspection.
“What did my mother discover?”
“A list of names.”
“Whose names?”
“Officials. Contractors. People inside federal agencies.”
Someone from your team.
Samuel’s warning returned.
“Where is the list?”
“Victor believes it is encoded in the trust records.”
“My attorneys have reviewed those records for years.”
“He said the real key was hidden inside something your mother gave Nora.”
The music box.
“What recording did Samuel mention?”
Camille looked genuinely confused.
“What recording?”
“Samuel said the music box contained a recording.”
“I only heard something moving inside.”
“Who has it now?”
“Victor.”
“Then why did he need the brass key?”
“He didn’t.”
I stared at her.
Camille’s face went pale as she understood before I did.
“The courier took a fake,” she whispered.
“Explain.”
“After I found the box, Julian opened it. He removed something before telling me to deliver it.”
“What did he remove?”
“A small metal cylinder.”
“Where did he put it?”
“In his coat.”
Voss entered the room.
“Julian’s belongings were inventoried. No cylinder was found.”
“Then he gave it to someone,” I said.
Camille shook her head.
“He didn’t have time.”
Voss looked at her.
“When did he open the box?”
“At the house, around three yesterday afternoon.”
“Where in the house?”
“The library.”
The hidden basement was behind my mother’s portrait.
Voss took out his phone and called the agents searching the estate.
I turned back to Camille.
“Why did Julian need the cylinder?”
She looked toward the glass.
“Because Victor was no longer willing to wait.”
“For what?”
“Your death.”
The consultation-room door opened before I could answer.
Rebecca stood there, holding her phone.
“We have a problem.”
“What happened?”
“The hospital received an emergency custody order.”
“From which judge?”
“Judge Harold Benton.”
I knew the name.
He had attended foundation galas with Victor Shaw.
Rebecca continued.
“The order claims Nora is being held by a mentally unstable parent currently under federal investigation.”
“I am not under investigation.”
“The filing includes the fabricated security footage from the foundation.”
“Who submitted it?”
She turned the phone toward me.
The signature at the bottom belonged to Julian’s attorney.
The emergency order instructed hospital security to remove Nora from my custody and transfer her to a temporary guardian.
The named temporary guardian was Camille Rowe.
Camille stared at the screen.
“I didn’t know.”
“You signed the original application,” Rebecca said.
“I signed papers Julian gave me.”
“Congratulations,” Voss replied. “You are now officially part of the conspiracy.”
A security alarm sounded in the hallway.
Then another.
I ran from the room.
Two federal agents lay unconscious outside Nora’s hospital room.
The door stood open.
Rebecca reached it seconds behind me.
The bed was empty.
Nora’s crackers remained arranged across the tray.
On the pillow was a folded sheet of paper.
I opened it.
May you like
A single sentence had been printed across the page.
BRING JULIAN TO THE WINTER PIER BEFORE SUNRISE, OR YOUR DAUGHTER DISAPPEARS LIKE THE OTHERS.
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