Chapter 12 - What Victoria Was Really Looking For.
Luca did not look surprised when he heard the box was missing.
That frightened Leah more than if he had reacted with anger.
"You expected this?"
"I expected Victoria to assume we hadn't removed everything."
"Did we?"
"Yes."
Luca reached into his briefcase and removed a second sealed packet.
Leah stared at it.
"You had more documents?"
"Copies."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because if I told everyone every precaution I took, they would stop being precautions."
Leah was too tired to decide whether that answer irritated her or reassured her.
Nora sat down.
"Security caught a person leaving the archive stairwell."
"Who?"
"A maintenance contractor."
Luca frowned.
"Name?"
"Caleb Morse."
The name meant nothing to Leah.
It meant something to Luca.
"Derek's former driver."
Leah stared at him.
"Of course he is."
Nora continued.
"He had the empty archive box, but no documents."
"Then he was looking for something specific."
Luca opened the copied packet.
Inside were bank records, old partnership agreements, and one page Ethan had marked with a red circle.
The page listed payments from Sloan Holdings to a consulting company called Vantage Clinical Strategies.
Leah recognized the name.
"Elaine Porter's company."
"Yes."
The payments went back five years.
"Why would Victoria pay a psychiatrist for five years?"
Luca turned the page.
Several names appeared beside coded invoice numbers.
Dr. Alan Mercer.
Two former Sloan employees.
Ethan Bennett.
Leah stopped.
"Ethan was evaluated?"
Luca shook his head.
"Not necessarily."
Nora leaned over the paper.
"These could be consulting files created about people without their knowledge."
Leah felt sick.
"Profiles."
Luca nodded.
"Pressure points."
"Meaning Victoria paid someone to figure out how to discredit people."
"That's my guess."
Luca's phone buzzed.
He read the message once.
Then he turned the screen toward Leah.
It was from Derek.
I need to talk to Leah without my mother present.
Leah laughed bitterly.
"Absolutely not."
A second message arrived.
She doesn't know I'm contacting you.
Then a third.
The crash wasn't supposed to happen.
Leah's hand tightened around the edge of the table.
Luca immediately called the number.
No answer.
He tried again.
Still nothing.
"Do you believe him?"
Leah's voice was barely audible.
"I believe he wants us to react."
"That's not an answer."
"No."
Luca looked at the message again.
"It's not."
Nora's phone rang.
She answered.
"Maternity secure wing."
Her expression changed.
"When?"
She looked at Luca.
"Derek Sloan just came through the emergency entrance."
Leah stood.
"Why?"
Nora listened.
"He says someone followed him here."
Luca moved toward the door.
Leah caught his sleeve.
"Don't leave me without telling me what you're doing."
He stopped.
For the first time since the corridor, the hardness in his face softened completely.
"I'm going downstairs to determine whether Derek is lying."
"And if he isn't?"
May you like
Luca looked toward Emma.
"Then Victoria may be more dangerous to him than he ever was to you."
