Chapter 2 - THE MAN IN THE BLACK COAT
Daniel was moving before anyone else understood what they were seeing.
“Lock the gates.”
Noah looked up from the monitor.
“Daniel—”
“Now.”
Daniel was already through the office door.
He crossed the west hallway at a run, something almost nobody in the Caruso organization had ever seen him do.
Men like Daniel did not run.
They made other people run.
Tonight, none of that mattered.
Lucy mattered.
Behind him, Noah shouted orders into his radio.
Claudia followed.
“Lucy!”
Daniel ignored her.
He reached the kitchen first.
Mrs. Alvarez was breathing.
He dropped beside her for half a second, touched two fingers to her throat, and smelled something faintly chemical on the cloth near her shoulder.
Alive.
Drugged.
Not beaten.
That distinction mattered.
It meant whoever had taken Lucy had planned carefully enough not to create unnecessary noise.
Which made him more dangerous.
Daniel rose.
From the garage came the sound of an engine.
Claudia grabbed his arm.
“Please.”
Daniel looked at her.
Her face had become almost gray.
“You know who that is.”
It was not a question.
“I don't.”
“You're lying.”
“I swear to you.”
Daniel pulled free.
The garage doors were beginning to rise when he entered.
Cold December air flooded beneath them.
A black sedan waited near the far wall.
Beside it stood the man from the camera.
Black wool coat.
Gray hair at the temples.
Broad shoulders.
Lucy was in his arms.
She was not struggling.
That stopped Daniel for exactly one second.
“Put her down.”
The stranger turned.
Lucy saw Daniel.
“Uncle Danny.”
The fear in her voice came rushing back.
Daniel raised the pistol he had taken from the hallway safe.
“Now.”
The man carefully lowered Lucy to the concrete.
She ran.
Daniel caught her against his chest with one arm while keeping the gun steady with the other.
Lucy buried her face against his coat.
The stranger lifted both hands.
“I wasn't taking her from you.”
“You were carrying her toward a car.”
“I was getting her away from the person who drugged your housekeeper.”
Noah entered behind Daniel with two security men.
The stranger glanced at him.
Something changed in his face.
Not fear.
Recognition.
“Noah Grant.”
Noah froze.
Daniel noticed.
“You know him?”
Noah stared at the man.
“I haven't seen Gabriel Russo in twelve years.”
Claudia reached the garage.
Her hand flew to her mouth.
Gabriel looked at her.
“You should've told him sooner.”
Daniel's gun did not lower.
“Somebody begins explaining in the next five seconds.”
Gabriel slowly reached inside his coat.
Three weapons rose toward him.
“Easy.”
He withdrew an old silver wristwatch.
Daniel recognized it immediately.
He had given it to Rachel on her twenty-first birthday.
The crystal had been cracked near the number four ever since she dropped it in Navy Pier.
Daniel's face changed.
“Where did you get that?”
“Rachel.”
“When?”
“This morning.”
Claudia whispered, “Gabriel…”
Daniel looked at his sister.
“You know him too.”
Claudia's eyes filled.
Gabriel answered instead.
“I worked for your father.”
Daniel remembered now.
Gabriel Russo had been one of Angelo Caruso’s security men in the final years before Angelo died.
He had disappeared shortly after the funeral.
Daniel had assumed his father had paid him to leave Chicago.
Apparently not.
Gabriel nodded toward Lucy.
“Rachel asked me to watch her.”
“From where?”
“Outside.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“My property has twelve-foot fences.”
“And three of your guards still use the smoking area behind the maintenance barn.”
Noah muttered a curse.
Gabriel continued.
“When the interior feed disappeared, I came inside.”
“You drugged Mrs. Alvarez?”
“No.”
Lucy lifted her face from Daniel's chest.
“The other man did.”
Everyone looked at her.
Daniel crouched.
“What other man, sweetheart?”
Lucy pointed toward the open garage doors.
“He had the same coat.”
Gabriel slowly turned.
“A black coat?”
Lucy nodded.
“He smelled funny.”
“Funny how?”
She thought about it.
“Like Grandpa’s church.”
Claudia's eyes widened.
Daniel understood a second later.
Incense.
Someone who had been near the chapel.
The Caruso estate had a private family chapel connected to the north garden.
Only relatives and senior staff used it during Christmas.
Gabriel looked at Daniel.
“I saw a man leave the kitchen. When I went after him, I found Lucy behind the pantry door.”
Lucy whispered, “He said Mommy wanted me.”
Claudia made a broken sound.
“I never—”
“I know,” Lucy said.
Everyone turned toward her.
The child's small fingers tightened around Daniel's lapel.
“Mommy doesn't call me Lucille.”
Daniel looked at Claudia.
She covered her mouth.
Gabriel nodded once.
“Smart kid.”
Lucy stared at the floor.
“He called me Lucille.”
Daniel's anger became colder.
Someone had impersonated Claudia badly.
Someone who knew enough about the family to try.
But not enough about Lucy.
Noah spoke into his radio.
“Search the chapel, garden, north hall. Nobody leaves.”
Daniel handed Lucy to Claudia.
Lucy immediately resisted.
“No.”
Claudia went still.
It was only one word.
But it hurt more than shouting would have.
Daniel saw it.
So did Claudia.
“It's okay,” Claudia whispered.
Lucy tightened her arms around Daniel.
“No.”
Daniel held her.
Claudia stepped back.
Gabriel watched them with an expression Daniel could not read.
Then he said, “Rachel told me this might happen once Lucy spoke.”
Daniel looked at him.
“How would Rachel know?”
“Because the recorder under the chair wasn't Eric's idea.”
Eric, standing in the doorway now, stiffened.
Daniel turned.
“You knew?”
Eric's face changed.
“That isn't what he said.”
Gabriel gave a humorless smile.
“No. It isn't.”
Eric looked toward Lucy.
Then Claudia.
For the first time that evening, he seemed genuinely afraid.
Daniel walked toward him.
“Who put it there?”
Eric said nothing.
Daniel stopped inches away.
“You have one daughter.”
“Don't threaten me.”
“I don't need to.”
Daniel lowered his voice.
“Look at her.”
Eric did.
Lucy looked away.
Something in Eric's expression collapsed.
“I planted the recorder.”
Claudia stared at him.
“What?”
Eric's eyes remained on his daughter.
“But I didn't order anyone to take her.”
Daniel felt his hands tighten.
“Why was the recorder there?”
Eric swallowed.
“Because I needed to know what Lucy remembered.”
“About Rachel?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Eric closed his eyes.
“Because somebody told me that if Lucy remembered the road that night, we were all finished.”
Daniel heard Claudia whisper his name.
But his attention remained on Eric.
“Who told you?”
Eric opened his eyes.
Before he could answer, Noah's radio crackled.
A guard's voice came through.
“We found something in the chapel.”
Daniel looked at Noah.
“What?”
A pause.
Then:
“Mr. Caruso… somebody burned papers in the votive stand.”
Gabriel's expression changed.
The guard continued.
“One piece didn't burn.”
Daniel carried Lucy with him to the chapel.
Inside, the smell of incense was strong.
Beside the candles, Noah lifted a half-burned photograph with gloved fingers.
Three people stood outside the blue house.
Rachel.
Eric.
And Daniel's longtime attorney, Martin Sloan.
But that was not what made Daniel stop.
Someone had drawn a red circle around Rachel's face.
On the back were four handwritten words.
Daniel recognized the handwriting.
He had been seeing it on contracts for twenty years.
SHE SHOULD HAVE DIED.
Martin Sloan had written it.
May you like
And Daniel suddenly remembered something else.
Martin had been one of only four people who possessed Daniel's master security credentials.
