Chapter 13 - The Man in Two Places.
Detective Ortiz called the hospital.
Vincent Crowe was still unconscious in a guarded room.
The man behind Marisol could not be him.
Victor enlarged the photograph.
The scar was correct.
The build was almost identical.
Then Elena noticed the left hand.
Crowe had lost the tip of his index finger years earlier.
The man in the photograph had all ten fingers.
"Someone wants us to think Crowe is still controlling this," Ortiz said.
Victor looked at Miles.
"Who else worked with him?"
Miles hesitated.
"His brother."
Victor had never known Vincent Crowe had a brother.
Caleb Crowe had spent twelve years as a private military contractor and had worked unofficially for Beatrice whenever Vincent's face became too recognizable.
Building records showed a maintenance contractor named Caleb Cross had serviced the penthouse ventilation system three months earlier.
The microphone in Elena's room.
The camera.
The hidden access.
It all fit.
Ortiz traced the photograph to a warehouse near the Hudson River.
This time Victor obeyed police and stayed behind with Nino.
It was the hardest thing he had done in years.
He wanted action because action prevented thinking.
Instead, he sat on the nursery floor while his son arranged toy cars in a line.
"Nino," Victor said quietly.
The boy looked up.
"Can I ask about Mommy?"
Nino's body tensed.
Victor forced himself not to push.
"You can say no."
The boy stared at him, surprised.
Then he whispered, "Ask."
Victor's eyes burned.
"What happened after Grandma came into Mommy's room?"
Nino picked up a red toy car.
"Mommy sleep."
"Did Grandma give her something?"
Nino shook his head.
"Grandma cry."
Victor frowned.
That was not what he expected.
"Grandma was crying?"
Nino nodded.
"Grandma say sorry."
Victor leaned forward.
"Then what happened?"
Nino took a black toy car and placed it beside the red one.
"Man come."
"Which man?"
The boy touched his cheek where Crowe's scar would be.
"Vee man."
Victor's heart raced.
"And Grandma?"
Nino pushed the white toy car away.
"Grandma go phone."
"Then the man hurt Mommy?"
Nino did not answer.
He reached for a plastic doctor's kit.
He took out the toy syringe.
Victor stopped breathing.
Nino pressed it against the stuffed bear's arm.
"Man say sleep now."
Victor stood.
Claire had not been killed by Beatrice.
She had been killed by Vincent Crowe or his brother after Beatrice left the room.
Then his phone rang.
Ortiz had found Marisol alive.
Caleb had escaped.
More importantly, Marisol had confessed why Beatrice was crying.
Claire had forced Beatrice to choose.
Expose the fertility fraud publicly or sign over control of the Hale trust to Victor permanently.
Beatrice had agreed to sign.
Crowe killed Claire because someone else could not allow that transfer.
Victor looked at Miles.
"Who loses everything if my mother signs those shares to me?"
Miles lowered his eyes.
"I do."
Victor stared.
Miles whispered, "But I did not order the murder."
From the nursery doorway, a voice answered for him.
"No, you didn't."
Beatrice stood there with a gun in her hand.
Police evacuated the residential floor while they searched for Caleb.
Victor refused to send Nino away with a guard the boy did not know, so the nursery became a temporary safe room.
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Elena stayed beside the child while Victor watched the hallway camera feeds.
Each empty frame tightened the fear in him because an unseen enemy had become more frightening than an obvious one.
