Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN WHO KEPT THE LAST PIECE OF EVIDENCE
Sophie had lied about one thing.
She still had the ledger.
She told Renard only after Barrot attacked the construction site.
“It’s in my apartment.”
Renard stared at her.
“The apartment we already searched?”
“No.”
She looked ashamed.
“Inside the wall behind Camille’s bed.”
Julien wanted to scream at her.
Instead, he looked at Élise.
The child was sitting in a police safe room drawing a house.
A yellow house.
His house had once been yellow inside.
Maybe memory was returning one piece at a time.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Julien asked.
“Because it was the only reason I thought they might keep me alive.”
“Or the reason they’d kill you.”
“I know.”
Renard rubbed both hands over his face.
“Everybody in this case has terrible instincts.”
Julien almost agreed.
Gabriel had been arrested at the construction site.
Vautrin was taken into protective custody.
Barrot escaped through a lower service tunnel after shooting one officer in the shoulder.
Police immediately moved Élise again.
This time to Julien’s own country house outside Lyon—a location not used in years and guarded by national police.
Julien refused to leave her.
So did Sophie.
That created another problem.
Élise wanted them both.
At breakfast the next morning, she pushed a piece of bread toward Julien.
“Eat.”
He smiled faintly.
“Yes, boss.”
She looked confused.
“I’m not boss.”
“You are today.”
Sophie laughed from across the table.
The sound faded when Julien looked at her.
“What happens now?”
“To Gabriel?”
“To you.”
She lowered her eyes.
“I don’t know.”
“You kidnapped my daughter.”
“I rescued her.”
“You also kept her.”
“Yes.”
“That matters.”
“I know.”
“But so does the rest.”
Sophie looked at him.
Julien continued.
“If you hadn’t taken her, what would Barrot have done?”
Sophie swallowed.
“I heard him arguing with Vautrin.”
“What did he say?”
“That a child who could identify faces was a problem.”
Julien stopped breathing.
“He wanted to kill her?”
Sophie nodded.
“I couldn’t leave her.”
Julien looked toward Élise, who had moved to the window.
“Then whatever happens legally, I’ll tell the truth.”
Sophie’s eyes filled.
“I don’t want your money.”
“I know.”
“I don’t want a reward.”
“I know.”
“I only want to see her.”
There it was.
The real terror inside Sophie.
Not prison.
Losing Élise.
Julien finally understood.
For three years, Sophie had been the one waking after nightmares.
The one checking fevers.
The one making cheap soup stretch two nights.
The one tying those battered shoes.
She had done something legally wrong.
She had also become a mother without ever asking permission.
“I won’t erase you,” Julien said.
Sophie stared.
“What?”
“I know what it feels like to have someone erase you from your child’s life.”
Her face crumpled.
“I won’t do that to you.”
Sophie began crying silently.
Élise turned.
“Why Sophie cry?”
Julien smiled sadly.
“Adults are complicated.”
Élise nodded as though this confirmed something she had long suspected.
By noon, Renard’s team recovered the ledger.
It was worse than anyone expected.
Barrot had worked for years as an unofficial fixer for wealthy clients.
Abductions.
Threats.
Staged burglaries.
False medical records.
Gabriel had hired him once.
That single choice destroyed multiple lives.
But buried in the ledger was something Julien did not expect.
A second Morel name.
Henri Morel.
Julien’s uncle.
His father’s younger brother.
Henri sat on the company board.
He had been among the people who encouraged Julien to give Gabriel executive control.
Julien stared at the payment records.
“Henri knew.”
Renard nodded.
“Looks that way.”
“Why?”
“Financially, he benefited from the waterfront sale.”
Julien’s stomach turned.
The betrayal widened.
Gabriel had not acted alone.
Henri had provided board votes.
Company access.
Security authorizations.
And, according to one handwritten notation, details about Élise’s routine.
Julien called him.
No answer.
Police went to Henri’s home.
Empty.
His passport was gone.
So was his wife.
Another phone call came.
This time from an unknown number.
Julien answered.
“Hello?”
Barrot.
“You should have stopped digging.”
Julien stood.
“Where’s Henri?”
A laugh.
“Running.”
“What do you want?”
“The ledger.”
“You know police have it.”
“I want the original.”
Julien looked at Renard.
The original had been placed in evidence storage forty minutes earlier.
Barrot continued.
“You bring it to me.”
“And then?”
“I disappear.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No.”
A pause.
“But maybe you believe this.”
A child screamed in the background.
Julien’s blood stopped.
He turned toward the window.
Élise was still there.
Safe.
Then he recognized the scream.
Not Élise.
Another child.
Renard whispered, “Who?”
Barrot spoke.
“Sophie has a sister.”
Sophie went white.
“No.”
“She has a seven-year-old son.”
Sophie grabbed Julien’s arm.
“Mathis.”
Barrot had taken her nephew.
“Bring me the ledger,” he said. “Or this boy becomes what Élise almost became.”
The call ended.
Sophie collapsed into a chair.
“No, no, no.”
Julien crouched.
“We’ll get him.”
“He’s seven.”
“I know.”
“My sister doesn’t know anything.”
“I know.”
Sophie grabbed his coat.
“You have to give him the ledger.”
Renard interrupted.
“We can’t hand over evidence.”
Sophie rounded on him.
“That is my nephew!”
Julien stood.
“We’re not choosing between children.”
Both looked at him.
He thought of architecture.
Structures.
Load paths.
Weak points.
Every building revealed how it could fail if you understood where weight traveled.
People were not so different.
Barrot’s weakness was not money.
It was control.
He needed to know everyone moved because he commanded it.
Julien looked at Renard.
“Give him what he wants.”
Renard frowned.
“Julien.”
“Not the real thing.”
Understanding entered Renard’s face.
Julien continued.
“He expects desperate people.”
Sophie wiped her tears.
“We are desperate.”
“Yes.”
Julien looked toward his daughter.
“But this time, desperation isn’t making the decisions.”
His phone buzzed.
A photograph arrived.
Mathis tied to a chair.
Behind him stood an unfinished building.
Concrete walls.
Exposed beams.
Julien stared.
Then zoomed in.
A steel connection detail was visible behind the boy.
Julien knew it.
He had designed it himself.
“Found you.”
Renard leaned closer.
“Where?”
Julien smiled without humor.
May you like
“A building Gabriel stole from me.”
And for the first time since Élise disappeared, Julien Morel was about to use the life he abandoned to save someone else’s child.
