Chapter 3 - THE WOMAN WHO KNEW WHERE THE MONEY WENT
Nora did not stop shaking until forty minutes after the police arrived.
Derek Sloan was taken away in handcuffs.
The gun was unregistered.
The passports were in his coat.
So were Nora’s phone, Ellie’s phone, eight thousand dollars in cash, and three one-way airline tickets under false last names.
The third ticket was for Derek.
That destroyed his claim that the trip was spontaneous.
What it did not explain was why he wanted them gone.
Vincent intended to find out.
He had Nora and Ellie moved upstairs to Bellweather’s private office after speaking briefly with detectives.
Gavin was nowhere in sight.
That bothered him more than if Gavin had stayed.
Malcolm closed the office door.
Ellie sat on a leather couch with hot chocolate and her stuffed fox.
Nora sat beside her.
Vincent remained standing.
“You’re safe for tonight.”
Nora looked at him.
“That word means different things to different people.”
Vincent accepted the criticism.
“Then let me be specific. Derek cannot reach you here.”
“What about Gavin Shaw?”
Malcolm and Vincent exchanged a glance.
“You tell me,” Vincent said.
Nora pulled her cardigan tighter.
“I worked for Calder Freight for four years.”
“I remember.”
“I don’t think you do.”
“I remember your name.”
“Because you signed my termination appeal.”
That landed badly.
Vincent frowned.
“I never saw an appeal.”
“I mailed it certified.”
“To my office?”
“Yes.”
“Who received it?”
Nora laughed bitterly.
“Gavin.”
Of course.
Vincent sat opposite her.
“What did you find?”
Nora looked at Ellie.
The girl was listening.
“Sweetheart,” she said softly, “would you like Malcolm to show you the kitchen?”
Ellie immediately shook her head.
“No.”
Malcolm smiled.
“They have cheesecake.”
Ellie hesitated.
“What kind?”
“Three kinds.”
She looked at her mother.
Nora nodded.
“Stay with Mr. Reed.”
Ellie stood.
Before following Malcolm, she went to Vincent.
“You’re not leaving?”
“No.”
“Promise?”
Vincent looked at her.
Twenty-four years earlier, Angela had asked him for something much smaller than a promise.
He had failed.
“I promise.”
Ellie left with Malcolm.
The door closed.
Nora waited several seconds.
Then she said, “Someone was stealing from you.”
“How much?”
“At least twelve million when I noticed.”
Vincent did not blink.
“How?”
“Fake vendors. Duplicate payments. Construction consultants. Freight subcontractors.”
Exactly what he had been investigating.
“Why did Gavin fire you?”
“Because I asked why one trucking company had been paid for moving cargo on dates when the port records showed no cargo moved.”
“Which company?”
“Hudson Crown Logistics.”
Vincent knew it.
Gavin had personally recommended them.
Nora continued.
“I started comparing records at night. Hudson Crown shared an address with six other companies.”
“Shell companies.”
“Yes.”
“Who owned them?”
“I couldn’t prove ownership.”
“But?”
“Payments eventually moved through a private fund registered in Delaware.”
She looked directly at him.
“G.S. Holdings.”
Gavin Shaw.
Vincent leaned back.
Simple.
Almost too simple.
“What does Derek have to do with it?”
Nora’s face changed.
“He was nice when I met him.”
That sentence carried enough shame to make Vincent angry on her behalf.
Not at her.
At him.
“Eight months after I lost my job, Derek came into the bookstore where I was working.”
“You think that was accidental?”
“Now? No.”
She rubbed her wrists.
“He knew things about Calder Freight. At first he said he did corporate security consulting. Then he told me I’d made powerful people nervous.”
“He threatened you?”
“Not immediately.”
That was how men like Derek worked.
Fear was more effective when introduced slowly.
“He moved in after four months,” Nora continued. “He started asking whether I had kept copies.”
“Had you?”
She hesitated.
“Yes.”
Vincent leaned forward.
“Where?”
“I’m not telling you yet.”
He almost smiled.
“Good.”
Nora blinked.
“You’re not angry?”
“If you told me immediately, I’d question your judgment.”
She studied him.
“You really don’t trust anyone.”
“Neither do you.”
“I have better reasons.”
That one almost made Malcolm proud, had he been there.
Vincent let it pass.
“What happened today?”
Nora looked toward the door Ellie had left through.
“Last night, Derek found an email draft on my laptop.”
“To whom?”
“A federal investigator.”
Vincent’s expression hardened.
“You were going to the government.”
“I was trying to find a way out.”
“I’m not criticizing you.”
She looked surprised.
“I thought you would.”
“Why?”
“You’re Vincent Calder.”
He understood what she meant.
The alleged crimes.
The rumors.
The reputation.
The fear.
Twenty years building a name that could make men obey had also ensured innocent people assumed the worst.
Usually he considered that useful.
Tonight he did not.
“What was in the draft?”
“I said I had records showing someone at Calder Freight had laundered money through vendors.”
“Did you name Gavin?”
“Yes.”
“And me?”
Nora looked at him carefully.
“I said I didn’t know whether you knew.”
Fair.
“What did Derek do?”
“He read it.”
Her voice dropped.
“He hit me.”
Vincent’s hand tightened against the chair.
“Ellie saw.”
“He told me we were leaving the country tonight. Said if I caused trouble, Ellie would go somewhere without me.”
The office seemed to become smaller.
“That’s why she wrote the note.”
Nora nodded.
“I didn’t know she had.”
“She saved both of you.”
Tears appeared in Nora’s eyes.
“I know.”
The door opened.
Malcolm returned with Ellie and a slice of chocolate cheesecake large enough to feed four adults.
Ellie carried it proudly.
Vincent’s phone vibrated.
One message.
GAVIN SHAW.
We need to talk.
Vincent stared at it.
Then another arrived.
You’re making a mistake protecting that woman.
Vincent slowly lifted his eyes to Nora.
“Did you tell anyone tonight that you were speaking to me?”
“No.”
“Did Ellie?”
“No.”
Malcolm saw Vincent’s expression.
“What?”
Vincent handed him the phone.
Malcolm read the message.
“How does he know she’s still with you?”
Exactly.
Vincent crossed the room.
There were no visible cameras in Bellweather’s private office.
No microphones.
But Gavin had built much of the restaurant security system.
Vincent pulled the landline from the wall.
Then looked at Nora.
“You said you kept copies.”
“Yes.”
“Are they somewhere Derek knows about?”
“No.”
“Are you certain?”
“As certain as I can be.”
“Then we’re going to get them tonight.”
Nora immediately shook her head.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because if Gavin knows Derek failed, he’ll go looking.”
“Which is why we move first.”
Malcolm frowned.
“We also need to consider whether Gavin has people watching us.”
“He does.”
“How do you know?”
Vincent looked at the ceiling camera above the corridor outside.
“Because I would.”
Ellie had stopped eating.
She watched him.
“Mr. Calder?”
“Yes?”
“Is the bad man coming back?”
Vincent crouched so they were eye level.
“Derek?”
She shook her head.
“Mr. Shiny Watch.”
Vincent went still.
Nora looked at her daughter.
“Who?”
“The man Derek talks to.”
Ellie pointed toward Vincent’s phone, where Gavin’s photograph appeared beside his message.
“Him.”
Vincent felt the room change.
“You’ve seen Gavin with Derek?”
Ellie nodded.
“When?”
“At our apartment.”
Nora turned pale.
“When?”
“When you were working late.”
Vincent spoke carefully.
“What were they doing?”
Ellie frowned, trying to remember.
“Mr. Shiny Watch gave Derek an envelope.”
“What did he say?”
She thought.
Then repeated the words exactly as a child remembers sentences she does not understand.
“He said, ‘If she found the second book, Calder can never see it.’”
Vincent looked at Nora.
“Second book?”
Nora’s mouth opened.
Then closed.
“What?” Malcolm asked.
Nora whispered, “The ledger.”
Vincent waited.
She looked terrified again.
Not of Derek.
Not even Gavin.
Of what she was about to say.
“There are two sets of records.”
“One fake. One real?”
“Yes.”
“Where is the real one?”
Nora looked at Ellie.
Then back at Vincent.
“Under my daughter’s bedroom floor.”
May you like
Vincent stood.
And six miles away, in an apartment Nora Harper had not entered for forty-eight hours, someone had just switched on the kitchen light.
