Chapter 5 - THE BEAUMONT THEATER
The Beaumont Theater had been dark for more than a decade, but the red vertical sign still burned above the alley as if somebody had been paying to keep one word alive.
BEAUMONT.
Nathan watched it through the windshield from half a block away.
Only the final three letters had reflected in the vehicle window behind Grace.
MOT.
That tiny mistake by whoever had taken her had given Nathan the first advantage he had felt all day.
Marcus sat beside him in the rented sedan with Charles's recorder in his lap.
A police detective named Owen Mercer sat in the back seat.
He was not related to Grace.
Nathan had asked the district attorney's office for someone with no Cole or Vale connection, and Marcus had quietly confirmed that Owen had spent most of his career in another county.
Nathan still did not trust him completely.
Trust had become expensive.
"No visible guards at the front," Owen said.
"That means they are not using the front," Nathan replied.
Marcus checked his phone.
"Dana Ruiz is safe."
Nathan looked over.
"Where was she?"
"Locked in the bathroom of the apartment."
"And the driver?"
"Found unconscious in the parking garage."
Nathan's jaw tightened.
"So tell me again why we are waiting."
Owen leaned forward.
"Because if Grace and Lily are inside, rushing the building could make them hostages instead of witnesses."
"They are already hostages."
"Then we do not make them more useful as hostages."
Nathan hated the answer because it was correct.
His phone buzzed at eleven fifty-two.
A message appeared from an unknown number.
ENTER ALONE THROUGH STAGE DOOR.
BRING LOCKER FILES.
NO POLICE.
Nathan showed it to the others.
Owen gave a humorless smile.
"They always write no police."
Nathan reached for the door.
Marcus caught his sleeve.
"You are not carrying the originals."
"I know."
The canvas bag contained copies made at a twenty-four-hour print shop on the way over.
The originals had been split among three sealed evidence bags.
One was with Owen's lieutenant.
One was in Marcus's law office safe.
One was on its way to a federal prosecutor Marcus knew from an old corruption case.
If Nathan disappeared, the files would not.
That fact made him feel only slightly better.
"Keep the phone line open," Owen said.
Nathan slipped a small wireless microphone beneath his collar.
"If I say the word lighthouse, come in."
"If I hear anything that sounds like immediate danger, I am not waiting for a word."
Nathan opened the car door.
The alley smelled like rain and old brick.
A steel stage door stood beneath a broken lamp.
Nathan knocked once.
The door opened by itself.
He entered.
The corridor beyond was lit by bare utility bulbs.
Dust coated old theater posters along the walls.
Nathan followed a strip of fresh footprints toward the stage.
The auditorium opened before him like a black cavern.
Hundreds of seats disappeared into darkness.
A single work light burned at center stage.
Grace sat beneath it in a wooden chair.
Lily was on her lap.
Nathan's heart lurched.
"Grace."
She looked up sharply.
"Nathan, stop."
He stopped at the edge of the aisle.
A man stepped from behind the curtain.
Nathan recognized him.
Caleb Rourke had been Charles Cole's director of corporate security for seventeen years.
After Charles died, Nathan had kept him on as a consultant out of habit.
Rourke smiled as if they were meeting for drinks.
"Mr. Cole."
Nathan's hands curled.
"You turned off my kitchen camera."
Rourke tilted his head.
"Your father's kitchen camera."
"My father is dead."
"Some systems last longer than the men who build them."
Nathan walked down the aisle.
"Let them go."
"The files first."
Nathan held up the canvas bag.
"They leave before you get this."
Rourke laughed softly.
"You sound like Charles."
"Do not compare me to him."
"You will change your mind when you inherit the full problem."
Nathan climbed the stage steps.
Grace watched him with a warning in her eyes.
Her crossed fingers had not only given him the location.
Now her shoe tapped twice against the floor.
Then once.
Then twice again.
Nathan recognized a pattern from security briefings.
Two-one-two.
Multiple persons.
Rourke was not alone.
Nathan let his gaze move casually toward the wings.
He caught the outline of one man behind a curtain and another near the loading door.
"Who ordered this?" Nathan asked.
Rourke shrugged.
"I follow the standing directive."
"Whose directive?"
"Your father's."
Grace's voice cut through the theater.
"Your father did not order Victoria to hit me today."
Rourke looked at her.
"Victoria is emotional."
"Victoria tried to make sure Lily could never speak."
Nathan's eyes went to Rourke.
"Did you know?"
"I know Ms. Vale panicked."
"That was not my question."
Rourke sighed.
"Mr. Cole, the Vales have made mistakes."
"Kidnapping a four-year-old is a mistake?"
"This is not kidnapping."
Lily looked up at him.
"We wanted to go home."
Rourke's face tightened.
The child had punctured his language with five words.
Nathan almost smiled.
"She seems to disagree."
Rourke held out his hand.
"The bag."
Nathan did not move.
"Tell me what my father ordered."
"He ordered Lily's existence contained."
Grace closed her eyes.
Nathan felt sick.
"Contained how?"
"Financially."
"Try again."
Rourke looked at Lily.
"The child was to remain outside the Cole family structure until the Vale consolidation became irreversible."
"And after that?"
Rourke's pause told Nathan there was more.
"After that, a trust would support her privately."
Grace laughed bitterly.
"A trust."
"It was generous."
"It came with a new identity and a threat that I would lose her if I ever said Nathan's name."
Nathan looked at Rourke.
"Is that true?"
Rourke's jaw flexed.
"Your father believed separation was necessary."
"My father believed a lot of disgusting things."
Nathan stepped closer.
"I asked if it is true."
"Yes."
The microphone beneath Nathan's collar caught the answer.
He hoped Owen was smiling.
"And Sebastian Vale?"
"He funded part of the arrangement."
"Eleanor?"
Rourke looked surprised.
That was useful.
"So you did not know about her."
Rourke's expression hardened.
Nathan continued.
"I have a photograph from Harbor House."
Grace looked at him.
Rourke's eyes narrowed.
"What photograph?"
"One showing Eleanor Vale holding Grace's arm while my father and Sebastian watched."
For the first time, Rourke looked genuinely unsettled.
"That was not in the locker."
Nathan heard the mistake.
Marcus would hear it too.
"How do you know what was in the locker?"
Rourke said nothing.
Nathan smiled coldly.
"You opened it."
Rourke's face went blank.
"You broke the seal and took something."
Grace stared at him.
"What did you take?"
Rourke took one step forward.
"The bag, Nathan."
"What did you take?"
One of the men in the wings moved.
Grace tapped her shoe again.
Nathan heard Owen's voice faintly through the earpiece hidden under his collar.
"We are moving."
Nathan kept his attention on Rourke.
"You are finished."
"No."
Rourke's voice became almost gentle.
"You are only beginning to understand why your father chose us over you."
The sentence hit harder than Nathan expected.
Rourke continued.
"Charles knew you would choose emotion."
Nathan looked at Lily.
"You mean my daughter."
"I mean weakness."
Grace stood suddenly, shifting Lily behind her.
"Do not call her that."
Rourke glanced toward her.
That was when Nathan moved.
He threw the canvas bag across the stage.
Rourke turned instinctively.
The bag struck the floor and spilled photocopies everywhere.
The men in the wings rushed toward it.
Nathan grabbed Grace's chair and shoved it sideways, creating a barrier between Lily and the nearest man.
"Lighthouse!"
The loading doors burst open.
Owen entered with four officers.
"Police."
Rourke froze.
One of his men ran.
Another reached inside his jacket.
Owen's officers shouted at him to show his hands.
The theater filled with commands and footsteps.
Nathan pulled Grace and Lily behind a heavy scenery flat.
Lily clung to his leg.
It was the first time she had touched him voluntarily.
He almost stopped functioning.
"Stay behind me," he said.
Grace looked at him.
"Do not get sentimental now."
Nathan gave a short breath that might have been a laugh.
"Noted."
Within two minutes, Rourke and one man were handcuffed.
The third escaped through a basement exit.
Owen approached Nathan.
"We have the recording."
"Enough to arrest Sebastian?"
"Enough to ask very uncomfortable questions."
Rourke heard him.
"You think Sebastian is the problem?"
Owen turned.
Rourke smiled.
"You are arresting a messenger while the people who wrote the message are having dinner."
Nathan walked toward him.
"Who are the people?"
Rourke looked at Grace.
Then at Lily.
"Ask your board."
Owen guided him away.
Nathan watched until the doors closed.
Grace sank onto the edge of the stage.
"He is right about one thing."
Nathan crouched beside her.
"What?"
"Sebastian did not do this alone."
Nathan thought of Charles's letter.
Do not trust the company board.
His phone rang.
This time it was the chairman of Cole Industrial, Frederick Sloan.
Nathan answered.
"Frederick."
The older man's voice was formal.
"Nathan, the board has called an emergency meeting for eight tomorrow morning."
Nathan looked at Marcus, who had just entered the stage.
"On what grounds?"
"Material reputational risk, potential undisclosed heirship, and concerns about your judgment."
Nathan's anger became very still.
"My judgment."
"The board believes temporary leadership may be appropriate while the scandal is assessed."
Nathan looked at Lily in Grace's arms.
The war had moved again.
This time it was coming for the company.
"Who requested the meeting?"
Frederick hesitated.
Nathan already knew the answer before he heard it.
May you like
"Victoria Vale."
