Chapter 6 - THE OLD MAN
Diane grabbed Ravi's jacket.
“Where did he take her?”
“I don't know yet.”
“You said Marcus was protecting her!”
“He was.”
“Apparently not!”
Ravi didn't defend himself.
That frightened her.
They reached the safe apartment twelve minutes later.
Marcus had blood on his lip.
Diane rushed toward him.
“Where is she?”
“I'm sorry.”
“What happened?”
“She saw him downstairs.”
“Your father?”
Ravi asked it.
Marcus nodded.
“He called her name. She recognized him.”
Diane stared.
“Recognized?”
Marcus handed her Sadi's sketchbook.
Several pages back was a drawing of an older man with a cane.
Underneath:
THE MAN WHO GIVES ME BOOKS.
Diane felt sick.
“No.”
“How long?” Ravi asked.
Marcus looked furious with himself.
“According to the doorman, he's visited the building three times this year.”
Diane remembered Sadi bringing home used books.
She had said Mrs. Alvarez found them.
Another lie.
Ravi looked at Diane.
“My father has known where she was.”
“For months?”
“Maybe longer.”
“Then why hasn't he hurt her?”
That question changed everything.
If Ravi's father wanted Sadi dead, he'd had opportunities.
Instead, he'd brought books.
Ravi saw the same contradiction.
“He doesn't want her dead.”
“Then what does he want?”
Catherine entered behind them.
“Forgiveness.”
Everyone turned.
“You know him better than I do now,” Ravi said coldly.
“No. But I know guilt.”
She looked at the drawing.
“An old man secretly visiting the granddaughter he helped erase?”
Diane stiffened.
“Granddaughter.”
The word was true.
She hated how dangerous it sounded.
Marcus received an address.
“The old Greedy house.”
Ravi's childhood home.
Forty minutes later, Diane stood before a stone mansion overlooking the river.
No guards stopped them.
The front door was open.
Ravi noticed immediately.
“He wants us here.”
Inside, an old man sat beside a fireplace.
Sadi sat across from him eating ice cream.
Diane almost cried.
“Sadi.”
The child jumped up.
“Di!”
Diane hugged her.
“You cannot leave without telling me.”
“I left a note.”
“A note is not permission.”
“I know.”
“Then why?”
Sadi glanced at the old man.
“He said he knew Dad.”
Diane froze.
Daniel Harper.
The father who raised them.
Ravi stepped forward.
“Hello, Father.”
Vincent Greedy looked at his son.
“Ravi.”
No warmth.
No open hatred.
Something sadder.
“You've become difficult to invite home.”
“You could have called.”
“You don't answer.”
“You could try not arranging murders.”
Diane looked between them.
Vincent's eyes sharpened.
“I did not kill the Harpers.”
Ravi laughed once.
“Convenient.”
“It is also true.”
Diane moved Sadi behind her.
“Did you order Adrian killed?”
Vincent looked at her.
“You must be Diane.”
“Answer me.”
“I ordered Victor to bring Adrian home.”
“Home?”
“He was frightened and behaving recklessly.”
“You mean disobeying you,” Catherine said from the doorway.
Vincent saw her.
For the first time, his composure cracked.
“Catherine.”
She walked in.
“You told my father my baby died.”
“No.”
“You helped him.”
“I told Richard the child had been moved.”
“My father told me she was dead.”
Vincent's face changed.
“That was not my instruction.”
Catherine laughed bitterly.
“Men like you always believe the difference between the order and the outcome makes you innocent.”
Vincent absorbed it.
He didn't argue.
Diane looked at him.
“Why were you visiting Sadi?”
“Because I discovered she was alive eight months ago.”
“How?”
“Daniel Harper contacted me.”
Diane's knees nearly weakened.
“My father?”
“He wanted to meet.”
“When?”
“Three weeks before the crash.”
Ravi stepped closer.
“Why?”
Vincent looked at Sadi.
“Not in front of her.”
Sadi groaned.
“Everybody keeps doing that.”
Diane almost smiled.
“Go with Marcus.”
“Pizza?”
“You had pizza.”
“I was kidnapped.”
Vincent said dryly, “Technically, you accepted a ride.”
Sadi considered that.
“Still feels worth pizza.”
Marcus led her away.
Vincent walked to a cabinet.
He removed a wooden box.
Inside lay a black watch.
Identical to Ravi's.
Diane stared.
“The drawing.”
Ravi picked it up.
“Adrian's.”
Vincent nodded.
“After Adrian died, Victor took it.”
“How did you get it?”
“Daniel gave it to me.”
Diane's breathing changed.
“My father knew Victor?”
“He had been investigating him.”
“Why?”
“Because Victor had begun watching Sadi.”
Diane looked toward the hallway.
“Two years ago?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Vincent opened the watch.
Hidden beneath the back plate was a tiny compartment.
Inside sat a microfilm strip.
“Adrian collected records of payments made through my charitable foundation.”
Ravi stared.
“Evidence.”
“Enough to destroy several people.”
“Including you?”
“Yes.”
The admission was quiet.
Vincent looked older.
“I built an empire by convincing myself that providing for family excused what I did to other families. Adrian stopped believing that.”
Ravi's voice was cold.
“And I didn't.”
“You were nineteen.”
“You made sure I didn't.”
Vincent lowered his eyes.
For the first time, Diane saw Ravi not as the feared man from the ballroom.
He was a son standing inside the house that had taught him fear was authority.
Vincent continued.
“Adrian gave Laura part of the evidence. Victor believed she had all of it.”
“So he killed my parents,” Diane said.
“No.”
“Then who?”
“Victor caused the crash, but he wasn't trying to kill Laura and Daniel.”
Diane stared.
“You said—”
“He was trying to stop them from delivering the evidence to Ravi.”
Ravi's expression changed.
“To me?”
Vincent nodded.
“Daniel finally decided you were different from me.”
Diane thought of her father's quiet patience.
He had known.
He had been trying to end it.
“Then why did you say the crash was meant for Ravi?” she asked.
Ravi answered.
“Because I was supposed to be in their car.”
Vincent nodded.
“Daniel arranged to pick Ravi up.”
Diane looked at Ravi.
“You knew my father?”
“Only as Daniel. He contacted me anonymously.”
Another answer.
Another betrayal.
“Why didn't you get in?”
Ravi looked away.
“I didn't trust him.”
Diane felt tears burn.
“My parents died because you didn't trust them?”
“No.”
Vincent's voice cut through the room.
“They died because Victor learned about the meeting.”
Diane looked at the black watch.
“Where's the rest of Adrian's evidence?”
Vincent looked at her.
“Laura hid it.”
“Where?”
“I hoped you knew.”
Diane laughed bitterly.
“Everybody hopes I know things nobody bothered telling me.”
Then Sadi returned.
Marcus followed, defeated.
“She escaped the hallway.”
“I walked,” Sadi corrected.
She looked at the black watch.
“Oh.”
Everyone turned.
“What?” Diane asked.
“I've seen that.”
“Where?”
Sadi pointed at the compartment.
“Dad had one.”
Diane stared.
“Dad didn't own a watch like this.”
“Not a watch.”
Sadi shook her head.
“The little picture thing.”
Microfilm.
“When?”
“Before he died.”
“Where did he put it?”
Sadi thought.
“In Mom's necklace.”
Diane stopped breathing.
Their mother's necklace.
The silver locket Diane had placed around Laura's neck before the funeral.
Ravi understood at the same instant.
“Where is she buried?”
Diane's face drained.
May you like
Then Vincent spoke from behind them.
“She isn't.”
