Chapter 7 - THE REAL TARGET
"No."
The word came out of my mouth before Caroline's recording had finished.
"No."
On the screen, my wife looked exhausted.
Frightened.
But determined.
"Someone learned Noah may have seen something during a visit to the garage," she continued. "I don't know exactly what he understood. I only know they're afraid of what he might remember."
I stared at her face.
I wanted to reach through the screen.
To touch her.
To ask why she hadn't come to me.
Instead, I watched the last minutes of a woman I'd loved and failed to protect.
"Daniel is helping me preserve the records," she said. "Julian knows part of the truth. Dominic doesn't know enough, and I'm afraid his system has been compromised."
Dominic closed his eyes.
Caroline looked directly into the camera.
"Please don't blame yourself for everything, Vincent. But please stop believing that controlling every door means you can keep the people inside safe."
The video ended.
Silence filled the office.
I couldn't move.
My son.
Someone had wanted my six-year-old son dead.
Not because he had done anything wrong.
Because he might have seen something.
I stood so abruptly the chair struck the wall.
"Where is Rebecca Vale?"
Dominic checked his phone.
"Her townhouse in Providence."
"Bring the car."
Emma stepped into my path.
"Vincent, stop."
I looked at her.
"Move."
"No."
My entire body shook.
"Someone tried to murder my child."
"And if you go charging into Rebecca's house, the person controlling her will know exactly what you've discovered."
"Get out of my way."
Emma's eyes flashed.
"Daniel is dead. Caroline is dead. Do you want Noah to lose his father too?"
That stopped me.
I hated her for saying it.
I hated that she was right.
For several seconds, neither of us moved.
Then I turned toward Dominic.
"Secure Noah. Nobody enters or leaves without Mrs. Alvarez approving it. And I want the central surveillance system disconnected from external access."
Dominic nodded.
"I'll handle it."
"No," I said. "You'll work with Emma. Two people verify every change."
Something flickered across his face.
Relief.
Maybe even gratitude.
I turned toward Julian.
"You're coming with me."
His expression tightened.
"To Rebecca?"
"Yes."
"She won't talk."
"Then we'll listen until she does."
Forty minutes later, we parked outside a modest townhouse on a quiet Providence street.
No motorcade.
No visible security team.
Just Julian, Emma, and me.
Emma had insisted on coming.
I agreed because she knew Daniel's investigation better than anyone.
Rebecca answered the door wearing a gray sweater.
Her face was pale.
She looked ten years older than I remembered.
When she saw Julian, she stepped backward.
"No."
I kept my voice calm.
"Rebecca, we need to talk."
She looked past us toward the street.
"You shouldn't be here."
Julian spoke softly.
"Please."
Her eyes filled.
"Don't say that to me."
I noticed something on the table behind her.
A child's drawing.
A house beside the ocean.
A little girl holding a red balloon.
Rebecca saw me looking.
"My granddaughter."
I nodded.
"How old?"
"Six."
I thought of Noah.
Of his wheelchair.
Of Caroline's final recording.
"We know someone used my company to steal money from families."
Rebecca's face collapsed.
She gripped the doorframe.
"I tried to stop it."
"Who?"
She shook her head.
"Please leave."
Emma stepped forward.
"My brother was Daniel Reed."
Rebecca covered her mouth.
"Oh, God."
"He died after investigating the payments."
Tears spilled down Rebecca's cheeks.
"I know."
"Then help us understand what happened."
Rebecca looked toward the child's drawing again.
"My daughter lost her husband last year," she whispered. "I help with the mortgage. The school bills. Everything."
I understood.
Someone had found the one thing she couldn't bear to lose.
Her family.
"They threatened them," I said.
She nodded.
"At first, they only asked me to move money between accounts. They said it was approved. Then they began using signatures I knew were false."
"Whose orders?"
Rebecca's mouth trembled.
"I never met the person directly."
"Then how did you receive instructions?"
"Through internal approval packets. Everything looked legitimate."
Julian stepped closer.
"Rebecca, you told me Caroline knew."
She looked at him with such grief that I almost turned away.
"Because I wanted you to warn her."
"Instead you warned me to stay quiet."
"I was terrified."
I believed her.
That didn't erase what she'd done.
But it mattered.
Emma placed Daniel's notebook on the table.
"Did you know the payments financed access to the Calder garage?"
Rebecca nodded.
"Not until afterward."
"After Caroline died?"
"Yes."
She wiped her face.
"I found a final transfer. Someone had paid for an explosive device using a contractor account."
I felt my hands tighten.
"Who authorized it?"
Rebecca looked at me.
"The order came from an account registered to your father."
The same dead man's credentials.
"But the funds didn't remain with the contractor," she continued.
"Where did they go?"
"Most of the money was returned through a second company."
I frowned.
"Returned?"
"Yes. The contractor was paid enough to install the device. The rest was routed into a private foundation."
"What foundation?"
Rebecca crossed the room and opened a filing cabinet.
Inside was a thin envelope.
She placed it on the table.
"The Caroline Calder Children's Fund."
My stomach dropped.
Caroline had established that foundation three years earlier to help children injured in violence.
She'd poured her heart into it.
After her death, I continued funding it because it was the last thing I could do for her.
"You used my wife's charity?"
Rebecca shook her head.
"Someone used it. Then altered the charity's internal records to conceal withdrawals."
Emma opened the envelope.
Inside was a copy of a board resolution.
The foundation's trustees were listed beneath Caroline's name.
I recognized every one.
Julian Calder.
Rebecca Vale.
Dominic Shaw.
And a fourth trustee.
My father's longtime adviser.
Arthur Bell.
A man who had been present at my wedding, my son's baptism, and Caroline's funeral.
The only man outside my immediate family who knew the original location of every emergency security camera.
I felt the room spinning.
"Arthur."
Julian looked horrified.
"Vincent, he's been handling the charitable trust since Caroline died."
Rebecca nodded.
"And before that."
Emma examined the resolution.
"Look at the amendment date."
It was dated the day of the explosion.
Arthur had signed the paperwork less than two hours after Caroline was killed.
"Why would he amend the foundation that quickly?" Emma whispered.
I knew the answer before anyone said it.
Because Arthur had expected Caroline to die.
And because, with her gone, he could seize control of the money she had been tracing.
Then Rebecca reached into the envelope again.
"There is something else."
She withdrew a photocopy of a medical transport order.
Noah Calder.
Private pediatric transfer.
Destination: an unidentified long-term care facility.
Date: the day after the explosion.
Authorized by Arthur Bell.
My blood turned to ice.
Rebecca looked at me.
"Vincent, the bomb was only their first plan."
May you like
She pointed to the final line.
"If Noah survived, Arthur intended to have him transferred out of your custody."
