Chapter 5 - The Witness in His Family
Harrison refused before anyone else could speak.
“No.”
Marco nodded once. “That’s what I told him.”
The detective assigned to the case wanted to use Vanessa’s photograph to locate Daddy’s workshop. I could have saved him the trouble.
“That’s not his real shop,” I said.
Everyone looked at me.
“The walls are wrong. Daddy’s shop had gray metal walls. That one is wood.”
Harrison enlarged the image.
I pointed to a carved bird hanging behind Vanessa’s chair.
“Grandma has one like that at the cabin.”
Marco was already making calls.
Police searched the property surrounding the Galena cabin and found an abandoned sawmill two miles away. By the time they entered, Vanessa was gone. So was Victor.
But they found blood, rope, a burned phone, and a camera set on a tripod.
The photograph had been staged.
Victor wanted Harrison frightened enough to make a mistake.
For the next two days, I stayed inside the mansion while prosecutors examined Daddy’s evidence. Reporters gathered outside the gates. News vans lined the road. Every television station in Chicago showed Vanessa’s airport photograph beside Harrison’s face.
MISSING STEPMOTHER LINKED TO VALE CRIME INVESTIGATION.
ABANDONED CHILDREN MAY HOLD KEY TO DECADES-OLD EMPIRE.
Harrison turned off every television in the house.
Mrs. Bell found children’s movies for me, but I couldn’t watch them. In those movies, the adults always knew what to do. Parents made mistakes, apologized, and hugged their children before the music started.
Real life had no music to tell you when the danger was over.
Grandma Ruth was transferred to a hospital near Chicago. Harrison arranged security, but Dana insisted that official police remain in charge.
On Friday morning, I was allowed to visit.
Grandma held me and Noah for so long that a nurse finally reminded her to breathe.
“I should have come for you sooner,” she whispered.
“You tried.”
“I should have tried harder.”
I pulled back. “Did you know Vanessa hurt Mom?”
Grandma’s face crumpled.
“I suspected she had something to do with Claire’s death, but suspicion isn’t proof. Your father wouldn’t listen at first. He thought grief was making me cruel.”
“Why did he marry her?”
“Because she made herself useful when he was broken. She fed Noah. She handled the business. She told your father he didn’t have to feel guilty for surviving.”
That sounded almost kind.
Maybe that was the worst part.
Bad people didn’t always arrive looking bad.
Sometimes they brought casseroles.
Grandma told me Vanessa had worked for Victor before she ever met Daddy. When Victor learned that Daddy still occasionally spoke with Harrison, he saw an opportunity. Vanessa was supposed to watch Daddy and report whether Harrison used his woodworking business for private shipments.
Instead, Daddy discovered Victor’s operation.
“Your father was going to take you and Noah to my house,” Grandma said. “He died the night before.”
“Why didn’t Vanessa leave us then?”
“She needed to find the evidence. She searched the house, the shop, even Daniel’s truck after the police released it. When she couldn’t find anything, she began watching you.”
I remembered Vanessa asking whether Daddy had taught me any “secret games.” She had searched my backpack while I slept. Once, she cut open my stuffed bear and claimed the seam had torn.
“She thought I knew.”
“Yes.”
“But I didn’t.”
“No, sweetheart. Daniel made sure you didn’t.”
The silver key had remained hidden inside the flannel pocket because Daddy stitched it beneath the lining. Noah’s fingers had caught the one thread that eventually worked loose.
A baby had uncovered what criminals couldn’t find.
Before we left the hospital, Grandma squeezed Harrison’s hand.
“Daniel trusted you at the end,” she said.
“I didn’t deserve it.”
“Then deserve it now.”
On the drive back to the mansion, our convoy stopped at a red light near the lake.
A delivery truck struck the rear police vehicle.
Another van swerved in front of us.
Marco shouted, “Down!”
Harrison unbuckled his seat belt and threw himself across Noah’s car seat and me as the SUV’s windows cracked beneath gunfire.
The sound was enormous.
Glass sprayed across the seats.
Our driver accelerated onto the sidewalk, struck a metal newspaper box, and forced the SUV between two parked cars. Harrison’s security team returned fire only after pedestrians cleared the intersection.
The attack lasted perhaps fifteen seconds.
When it ended, Harrison remained over us.
Blood ran from a cut above his eyebrow.
“Elsie?”
“I’m okay.”
“Noah?”
He was screaming, but he wasn’t hurt.
Harrison checked every inch of him before checking himself.
One attacker was arrested. The others escaped.
Police found a burner phone in the van. The last outgoing call had been made to Vanessa.
She wasn’t Victor’s prisoner.
She was still working with him.
That night, I couldn’t sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, I heard gunshots striking the car.
I found Harrison in the mansion kitchen at two in the morning, trying to put a bandage over the cut near his eyebrow. He was doing a terrible job.
Mrs. Bell would have scolded him.
I climbed onto a stool.
“You saved us.”
“The vehicle saved us. It’s armored.”
“You covered Noah.”
“He’s a baby.”
“You could’ve been shot.”
He met my eyes in the reflection of the dark kitchen window.
“Yes.”
I opened the first-aid kit and handed him a clean bandage.
“Daddy said brave doesn’t mean you’re not scared,” I said. “It means something else matters more.”
“Your father said many irritatingly wise things.”
I almost smiled.
Harrison replaced the bandage.
“Elsie, I need to tell you something before you hear it from a reporter.”
My almost-smile disappeared.
He sat across from me.
“Years ago, Victor ran shipments through companies I owned. I knew some cargo was illegal. I told myself it was contained. I told myself I was keeping worse men from gaining control.”
“Did you know about the guns?”
“Not at first.”
“But later?”
“Yes.”
“Did Daddy know?”
“He suspected. That’s why we stopped speaking.”
“You lied to him.”
“Yes.”
The kitchen clock ticked loudly.
“Are you a bad person?” I asked.
Harrison looked toward the hallway where Noah slept.
“I’ve been one.”
“That’s different from what I asked.”
“I don’t know whether people get to decide that about themselves.”
I thought about Vanessa bringing casseroles and then leaving us beneath the DEPARTED sign.
“Maybe they decide every day.”
Harrison studied me.
“Maybe.”
A phone vibrated on the counter.
It was mine—the basic phone Dana had given me for emergencies.
The screen displayed a blocked number.
Harrison reached for it, but I answered first.
“Hello?”
Vanessa’s voice came through.
“Elsie, honey.”
I stopped breathing.
Harrison activated the speaker and signaled silently for Marco.
“Where are you?” I asked.
“I need you to listen. Harrison Vale is dangerous.”
“So are you.”
Vanessa began crying.
“I made mistakes. Terrible mistakes. But Victor forced me.”
“You bought one plane ticket.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“You left Noah with four crackers.”
Her crying stopped for half a second.
Then it returned, louder.
“I knew someone would find you.”
“You didn’t know Harrison would.”
“No,” she said softly. “I didn’t.”
That was the first honest thing she had said.
“Did you hurt my mom?”
Silence.
“Elsie, adults do complicated things when they’re afraid.”
“That means yes.”
“No. It means you don’t understand.”
“Then explain it.”
Her voice hardened.
“Put Harrison on the phone.”
I looked at him.
He nodded.
“What do you want, Vanessa?” he asked.
“A trade. Daniel made two copies. You have the ledger. Victor has the other drive. I know where he plans to use it.”
“Use it for what?”
“To destroy you.”
“He’s welcome to try.”
“He has records that implicate judges, police commanders, union officials—and you. At midnight tomorrow, everything goes to federal investigators unless you give him Elsie’s original letter and ledger.”
Harrison’s expression didn’t change.
“Why does he care about Daniel’s letter?”
“Because Daniel wrote something in invisible ink.”
I stared at the folded letter on the counter.
Harrison did too.
“What?” he asked.
“A list of account numbers and the name of the federal contact he trusted.”
“How do you know?”
“I watched him write it.”
“Where’s Victor?”
“I’ll tell you if you get me immunity.”
“You’re in no position to negotiate.”
“I’m the only person who can prove he ordered Daniel’s death.”
Harrison’s voice became dangerously quiet.
“And Claire Mercer?”
Vanessa said nothing.
“Can you prove what happened to her?”
A shaky breath crossed the line.
“I can prove Victor ordered me to switch the medication.”
My nails dug into my palms.
Harrison saw and moved the phone away, but I grabbed it.
“You did it?”
“Elsie, I didn’t know it would kill her.”
“You went into her hospital room.”
“I was supposed to change one bag. Victor said she would get sick, that Daniel would be distracted and stop asking questions.”
“My mom died.”
“I know.”
“No. You don’t get to say that like you’re sad.”
“I took care of you afterward.”
“You watched us afterward.”
Her voice sharpened.
“I fed your brother when your father couldn’t get out of bed. I kept that house running.”
“So you could search it.”
“I could have hurt you. I never did.”
“You left us at an airport.”
“You had each other.”
The words were so cruel that even Harrison flinched.
Vanessa continued quickly. “Bring the ledger to the old Saint Vincent freight terminal tomorrow at eleven. Come alone, Harrison. If I see police, Victor releases everything and disappears.”
The call ended.
Marco entered carrying tracing equipment.
“Too short,” he said. “But we narrowed it to the South Side.”
Harrison picked up Daddy’s letter.
“Invisible ink?”
Mr. Pike arrived twenty minutes later with an ultraviolet lamp. Under the purple light, faint lines appeared between Daddy’s written words.
An account number.
A phone number.
And a sentence addressed to Harrison:
Victor doesn’t know the witness is inside his own family.
At the bottom was one name.
May you like
Sofia Vale.
Harrison’s nineteen-year-old daughter.
