Chapter 7 - THE SECOND CAR
Adrian moved so quickly that Nora barely saw it.
One moment Grant stood near the desk.
The next Adrian had him by the front of his shirt.
“You gave Malcolm the address?”
Grant did not fight back.
“Yes.”
Nora stepped forward.
“Adrian.”
He ignored her.
“My sister trusted you.”
“I know.”
“You stood beside me at her funeral.”
“I know.”
“You watched Maya grow up.”
Grant’s face twisted.
“I know.”
Adrian released him.
Not gently.
Grant stumbled backward against the desk.
Nora expected him to defend himself.
He didn’t.
“I gave Malcolm the address because Vincent ordered me to.”
Adrian laughed once.
There was nothing amused in it.
“So everybody obeyed my father.”
“No.”
Grant shook his head.
“That’s what I told myself for years.”
He looked at Adrian.
“I gave him the address because I was afraid.”
The room quieted.
“Vincent knew I helped Elena contact Wells. He told me that if I didn’t cooperate, he would make sure my younger brother lost everything.”
Nora knew Grant had a brother in Baltimore.
A schoolteacher with three children.
Nothing about that family belonged to Adrian’s world.
Grant continued.
“I convinced myself Malcolm would frighten Elena and take the book. That was all.”
“And the second car?” Adrian asked.
Grant looked confused.
“I never sent one.”
Malcolm stood.
“You called me fifteen minutes after Elena left.”
“I called to ask whether you found her.”
“You said, ‘I’m sending somebody.’”
“I said, ‘I’m sending somebody to get Maya.’”
Adrian turned.
“What?”
Grant’s eyes filled.
“Elena called me from the road.”
The confession came painfully now.
Not easy.
Not convenient.
Dragged out after four years.
“She knew Malcolm was following her. Maya was in the back seat. Elena was terrified.”
“So you sent someone.”
“Marian.”
Nora’s hand went to her mouth.
Grant looked at her.
“Your mother was the only person Elena trusted who wasn’t tied to security.”
Nora’s knees weakened.
“My mother went after Maya.”
“Yes.”
“Then who drove the second car?”
“I don’t know.”
Malcolm spoke.
“I saw Marian’s station wagon pull in behind me near the intersection.”
Grant nodded.
“She found them.”
“But there was another sedan,” Malcolm continued.
“Dark blue. It came from the opposite direction.”
Adrian asked, “Did you see the driver?”
“No.”
“Plate?”
“No.”
“What happened?”
Malcolm stared at the floor.
“Elena stopped at the light. I pulled behind her.”
He swallowed.
“Marian pulled beside us. She got out.”
Nora could suddenly picture her mother in the rain.
Small.
Stubborn.
Terrified.
“Marian opened Maya’s door. Elena told her to take the child.”
Malcolm’s voice cracked.
“Maya was screaming.”
Adrian’s eyes closed.
“The blue sedan came through the intersection.”
Nora whispered, “And hit my mother.”
“Yes.”
“Then Elena?”
“She pulled away.”
Malcolm rubbed both palms down his face.
“I followed.”
“You still followed?” Nora demanded.
Malcolm looked ashamed.
“Vincent had my son’s medical bills in his safe and my loyalty around my throat.”
He met her eyes.
“I made the wrong choice.”
There was no excuse in it.
Only fact.
“Two blocks later, Elena lost control on wet pavement. She hit the stone barrier.”
Adrian turned toward the window.
For four years he had believed one accident took his sister.
Now the accident had a line of frightened, compromised adults behind it.
Grant.
Malcolm.
Vincent.
Benjamin Wells.
Marian.
Every one of them pulled into the same tragedy for a different reason.
Nora asked, “Did my mother reach Maya?”
“Yes,” Malcolm said.
“She carried her away before the car caught fire.”
Adrian turned sharply.
Fire had never been mentioned.
Malcolm nodded.
“The engine ignited.”
Adrian’s face collapsed.
“Maya was not pulled out by emergency crews.”
“No.”
“Marian saved her.”
“Yes.”
Silence.
Nora began crying before she realized it.
Not loudly.
She covered her face.
For four years, she had believed Marian came home bruised and bleeding because some careless driver hit her.
Instead, her mother had run into a street to save a little girl whose own family had failed her.
Adrian crossed the room.
He stopped in front of Nora but did not touch her.
“Your mother saved Maya.”
Nora lowered her hands.
“And lied to me for the rest of her life.”
“She was protecting you.”
“You don’t know that.”
“No.”
He nodded.
“But I know what fear makes people hide.”
Behind them, Malcolm said, “There’s something none of you understand.”
Adrian turned.
“The red book was not in Elena’s car.”
Grant frowned.
“How do you know?”
“Vincent sent men to search the wreck before police finished processing it.”
Adrian’s face darkened.
“They found nothing.”
Nora thought of Marian’s note.
The brass key.
The housekeeping cabinet.
“Elena gave it to my mother.”
Malcolm looked at her.
“Probably.”
“Then where is it?”
Nobody knew.
Nora suddenly remembered something.
A detail so ordinary she had never attached importance to it.
“My mother kept one box I wasn’t allowed to touch.”
Adrian looked at her.
“The shoebox?”
“No.”
Nora shook her head.
“A red cedar recipe box.”
Grant stared.
“Where?”
“In storage under my bed.”
They returned to Nora’s apartment.
The cedar box was exactly where she remembered.
Inside were recipes.
Chicken soup.
Apple cake.
Biscuits.
Her mother’s meatloaf.
Nothing else.
Adrian looked disappointed.
Nora kept searching.
Then she realized the recipe cards were too shallow for the box.
She removed them.
Beneath them lay a red leather notebook.
Adrian stopped breathing.
Nora lifted it carefully.
The cover was worn.
No title.
She opened the first page.
Names.
Dates.
Payments.
Judges.
Police officers.
Contractors.
Political donations.
Adrian’s father had recorded everything.
Benjamin Wells had been telling the truth about leverage.
Elena had been telling the truth about corruption.
Grant whispered, “My God.”
Adrian turned page after page.
Then stopped.
The final sheet had been torn out.
Nora checked the box.
Nothing.
Malcolm said quietly, “That page is why Vincent wanted the book.”
Adrian looked up.
“How do you know?”
“Because he told me.”
“What was on it?”
Malcolm’s eyes shifted toward Adrian.
“Something Elena discovered three days before she died.”
“What?”
“I never saw it.”
“But you know what it concerned.”
Malcolm nodded.
May you like
Adrian waited.
“It concerned you.”
