Chapter 4 - A Price for Silence.
Emma tore through the apartment while Noah checked the hallway.
The brass key was nowhere.
The front door showed no damage.
Nothing else appeared missing.
That frightened her more than a smashed lock would have.
Whoever had entered knew exactly what to take.
Noah pointed to the bookshelf.
One framed photograph had been moved.
Behind it, a small home camera blinked red.
Emma pulled the footage onto her laptop.
At 11:18 p.m., while she and Noah had been in the kitchen, the image froze for forty-seven seconds.
When it resumed, the room looked unchanged.
The key had disappeared during that gap.
Someone had jammed the camera without entering through the front door.
Noah signed one word.
Professional.
The next afternoon, Adrian Whitmore arrived at Aurelia before Emma's shift.
He sat alone at Table Twelve.
The silver dome had been removed from service.
Emma approached with her arms folded.
“Did you break into my apartment?”
Adrian's eyebrows lifted.
“If I had, you would not need to ask.”
“That isn't comforting.”
“It wasn't meant to be.”
He placed a thick envelope on the table.
Emma did not touch it.
“What is that?”
“Twenty-five thousand dollars.”
She stared at him.
“For what?”
“For your time, your discretion, and the inconvenience my grandmother caused you.”
Emma laughed once in disbelief.
“You think this is about inconvenience?”
“I think you have a brother, rent, and a job that probably pays less in a year than the money in that envelope.”
Her face burned.
“You investigated me.”
“I investigate everyone who gets close to Eleanor.”
“Then investigate the people already close to her.”
Adrian's expression shifted.
Emma leaned down.
“Ask Marcus Hale what he took from her handbag.”
The change was almost invisible, but she saw it.
Adrian had not known.
“Who told you that?”
“Your grandmother.”
He looked toward the restaurant entrance as if Marcus might appear.
“Did she say anything else?”
Emma remembered Samuel Reed's warning.
“She said you don't listen.”
Adrian exhaled sharply.
“You have no idea what happened after my grandfather died.”
“She stopped sleeping.”
“She gave money to strangers.”
“She disappeared twice without security.”
“And every time something happened, I was the one who had to find her.”
“That still doesn't make her incompetent.”
“I never said it did.”
“You signed the restriction order.”
Adrian stared at her.
Now he knew she had spoken with someone.
“Reed contacted you.”
“She contacted him through me.”
Adrian stood.
“Samuel Reed is not neutral.”
“Neither are you.”
He pushed the money toward her.
“Take it and stay away from my grandmother.”
Emma pushed it back.
“No.”
A voice behind them interrupted.
“Then perhaps you'll listen to me.”
Marcus Hale approached with a pleasant corporate smile.
His blue cuff links flashed under the chandelier.
He looked at Emma as if they had never seen each other before.
“Miss Carter, Mrs. Whitmore has invited you to her birthday gala tomorrow night.”
Adrian turned on him.
“She did what?”
Marcus smiled wider.
“She was very specific.”
Emma watched Adrian's face.
May you like
For the first time, he looked less like a jailer and more like a man realizing the keys might not be in his own hands.
The Last Translation
