Chapter 7
Peter Vale looked like a man who had been dead for years.
Thin.
Gray.
Eyes always moving toward exits.
The police brought him to a protected interview room.
Julian arranged for me to watch from behind glass.
Peter held a cup of coffee with both hands and still shook.
Detective Ramirez asked, “Why did you disappear?”
Peter laughed once.
“Because Arthur’s father didn’t.”
My blood went cold.
“My father died of a stroke.”
Peter looked at the mirror.
He knew I was behind it.
“No. He was poisoned slowly. Enough to look natural.”
I gripped the ledge.
Detective Ramirez leaned forward.
“By whom?”
“Eleanor Cross.”
Vanessa’s mother.
Peter continued.
“She ran procurement through shell vendors. Your father found it. Clara found it after him. Eleanor panicked.”
“Where does Vanessa fit?”
“She was trained for it.”
“Trained?”
Peter nodded.
“Eleanor used her. Pretty face. Soft voice. She entered families, offices, charities. Found weak spots.”
My stomach turned.
Vanessa had found mine.
Grief.
Loneliness.
Two children needing a mother.
Peter said Clara copied the ledger and hid it before she died.
“Vanessa tried to get it from her.”
“Did Vanessa kill Clara?”
Peter looked down.
“She arranged the driver.”
I stopped breathing.
The room blurred.
Julian grabbed my shoulder.
Behind the glass, Detective Ramirez asked, “Who drove?”
Peter whispered, “A man named Silas Reed.”
The name meant nothing to me.
It would.
By evening, Silas Reed was on every warrant.
A former private driver.
Paid through Eleanor’s foundation.
Missing for six years.
Vanessa refused to answer questions.
Eleanor vanished.
Her phone went dead.
Her accounts began moving.
Julian said, “She’s running.”
I looked toward the living room.
Maya had fallen asleep against Ethan.
My son was awake, one arm around his sister, watching the front door.
“Find her,” I said.
Julian nodded.
“We will.”
“No,” I said. “Before she finds another way near my children.”
That night, Ethan asked if bad people always come back.
I sat beside him.
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because this time, I know who they are.”
May you like
He nodded.
But he still watched the door until sleep finally took him.
