Chapter 4 - THE MAN WHO LEFT EARLY
Adeline read the four words until the letters stopped looking like language.
He is still alive.
No signature appeared beneath them.
No explanation.
No proof.
Just the sentence she had begged the universe to give her for three years.
Enzo took the paper from her before hope could become certainty.
"Do not believe this yet."
She looked at him with fury.
"You don't get to tell me what to believe."
"I am telling you what whoever sent it wants."
"And what is that?"
"For you to move before you think."
She hated the answer because she had already been ready to run into the hallway.
Detective Quinn sealed the envelope in a clear evidence sleeve.
"The handwriting matches the first envelope?"
Adeline shook her head.
"The first looked like Daniel's."
"This one doesn't."
Quinn glanced at Enzo.
"Someone wanted the first message to feel personal and the second to feel urgent."
Luca returned from the stairwell.
"Nobody."
"Rear exit?" Enzo asked.
"Fire door was propped open."
"Camera?"
"Broken last week according to the landlord."
Adeline laughed without humor.
"Every camera in Chicago breaks exactly when I need it."
Quinn's phone rang.
She stepped into the kitchen.
Enzo walked through the apartment without touching anything.
His gaze moved over the open cabinets, the overturned books, the empty cashbox.
Then he stopped beside the small table near the window.
"They were searching for something specific."
"How do you know?"
"Because they did not destroy the place."
Adeline looked around.
It looked destroyed to her.
Enzo pointed toward the television, laptop charger, and jewelry dish.
"They ignored anything easy to sell."
"They found the notebooks."
"Maybe."
She frowned.
"What does that mean?"
He crouched beside the cashbox.
"If I stole the notebooks, I would take the box too."
"Why?"
"So you wouldn't know exactly what I knew you had."
Adeline stared at him.
"You think they left the box empty on purpose."
"I think whoever did this wants you frightened and moving."
"Toward box 214."
"Yes."
Quinn returned.
"We have a witness from the party."
Enzo straightened.
"Who?"
"Judge Pike."
Adeline remembered the gray-haired man who had admitted seeing Camilla strike her three times.
"He wants to talk?"
Quinn's face tightened.
"He did."
The word did chilled the room.
"What happened?"
"His driver found him unconscious in the back seat outside his house."
"Alive?"
"Yes."
Adeline exhaled.
"Barely."
Quinn continued.
"Doctors think he was sedated."
Enzo's jaw hardened.
"Who knew he was willing to give a statement?"
"He called my office from the party."
"Anyone else?"
"His wife."
"Staff?"
"Possibly."
Luca's phone buzzed.
He read a message.
"Pike's driver is named Malcolm Reed."
"He left the Marchetti estate at nine forty-six."
"Security logs show he entered through the west gate at eight twelve."
Enzo looked at him.
"And?"
"He was not on tonight's approved driver list."
Quinn's eyes narrowed.
"Then how did he get in?"
"Guest credential."
"Whose?"
Luca hesitated.
"Camilla's."
Adeline's stomach tightened.
Every road led back to the same woman.
Too neatly.
Enzo seemed to think the same thing.
"No."
Luca frowned.
"No?"
"Camilla is arrogant."
"She is not stupid."
"If she had Pike sedated, she would not leave her own credential on the entry log."
Quinn folded her arms.
"Unless she wanted us to think exactly that."
Enzo looked at her.
"Then we are finally agreeing on something."
Adeline stared at the empty cashbox.
"What if Camilla is not hiding that she did it?"
They looked at her.
"What if the point is to show us she can?"
The room went quiet.
Camilla had struck Adeline in front of two hundred guests.
She had not hidden then.
She had wanted an audience.
Maybe the cameras had not been disabled to conceal the assault.
Maybe they had been disabled to control which version survived.
Quinn's phone rang again.
This time she answered and listened for less than ten seconds.
"We need to go."
"Where?" Adeline asked.
"St. Vincent's."
"Pike?"
"Yes."
"He woke up."
The hospital floor was nearly empty when they arrived.
Two officers stood outside Judge Pike's room.
His wife sat beside the bed holding his hand.
Pike looked smaller without the tuxedo and courtroom authority.
A clear oxygen tube rested beneath his nose.
Quinn approached first.
"Judge Pike, do you remember calling my office?"
He nodded weakly.
"I wanted to correct the record."
Adeline stood near the door.
Pike saw her.
Shame moved across his face.
"Ms. Croft."
"You don't owe me anything," she said.
"I owe you what I saw."
His voice was thin.
"I watched because I was afraid of the Ashfords."
"That is something I will live with."
Camilla's power depended on men like Pike believing their silence was temporary.
Tonight, one of them had learned silence could become evidence.
Quinn took out a recorder.
"Tell me what happened after you left the estate."
Pike closed his eyes.
"My driver gave me water."
"I remember the bottle tasting metallic."
"Then nothing."
"Did you see who opened the car door when you left?"
Pike frowned.
"Not my driver."
Quinn leaned closer.
"Who?"
"A man from the party."
Enzo's eyes narrowed.
"Name?"
Pike looked toward him.
"Arthur Bellamy."
Adeline remembered the name.
Bellamy was the senior household manager who had told her Camilla had already had too much champagne.
He was also the man whose instruction caused Adeline to remove the glass.
The entire confrontation had begun because of him.
"Why would Bellamy be at Pike's car?" she asked.
Enzo said nothing.
Luca did.
"He shouldn't have been."
Quinn looked at Enzo.
"Where is he now?"
Luca checked his phone.
His face changed.
"He left the estate."
"When?"
"Nine thirty-two."
"Before the guests were released?"
"Yes."
Enzo's voice became very quiet.
"Who authorized it?"
Luca scrolled.
"Gabriel."
Adeline remembered Gabriel Stone.
Enzo's deputy security chief.
The man who had brought them the camera access list.
Pike's hand tightened weakly around his wife's fingers.
"There was something else."
Quinn turned back.
"What?"
"Bellamy leaned into the car."
"He said something to the driver."
"I could not hear all of it."
"Only the end."
"What did he say?"
Pike looked at Adeline.
"He said, 'The girl took the bait.'"
The words settled heavily.
Adeline's mind raced backward.
The glass.
Camilla's rage.
The disabled cameras.
The envelope.
The ring.
The bank transfer.
Her apartment.
Box 214.
What if the entire night had not been designed to destroy her?
What if it had been designed to make her search?
Enzo's phone vibrated.
He looked down.
A photograph had been sent from an unknown number.
It showed the old Marchetti Trust building downtown.
The timestamp was nine minutes old.
In front of the building stood Arthur Bellamy.
Beside him was Gabriel Stone.
And between them was a thin man with a beard Adeline had not seen in three years.
She grabbed Enzo's wrist.
May you like
"That's Daniel."
ENZO MARCHETTI & ADELINE CROFT
