Chapter 10 - THE NIGHT BEN DIED
The lights died.
Mom heard the lock turn upstairs.
Vincent grabbed Claire.
“Who followed you?”
“No one.”
“You sure?”
“Yes!”
Smoke began leaking under the basement door.
Mom's heart slammed.
“They're setting another fire.”
Vincent called Marco.
No signal.
Concrete walls.
Claire panicked.
“We're trapped.”
Vincent looked around.
“There's always another exit.”
“There isn't.”
“You built a secret room beneath a restaurant.”
“David built it.”
“Then David built an escape route.”
Mom searched.
Heat increased.
Smoke thickened.
Then she saw a vent.
Too small for adults.
Big enough for something else.
Vincent followed her eyes.
“No.”
Mom said,
“Rory could fit.”
Vincent stared.
“Rory isn't here.”
Mom's face changed.
“Thank God.”
They searched.
Claire coughed.
“There!”
Behind a server rack was a steel hatch.
Vincent kicked it.
Nothing.
Again.
Again.
The frame cracked.
They crawled into a maintenance tunnel.
Behind them, flames entered the hidden room.
They came out in the alley three buildings away.
Marco found them.
Vincent grabbed his jacket.
“Who was outside?”
“Black sedan.”
“Plate?”
“Fake.”
“Vale?”
“Maybe.”
Mom turned toward Claire.
“You're telling me about Ben now.”
Claire shook.
“Not here.”
“Now.”
“Emily—”
Mom slapped her.
Hard.
Everyone froze.
Mom looked at her own hand.
Claire touched her cheek.
“You deserved that,” Mom whispered.
Claire nodded.
“I know.”
Mom was crying.
“Tell me.”
Claire did.
Ben had worked as an accountant.
Three months before he died, a restaurant client asked him to review unusual transfers.
That client was David Sterling.
David claimed he suspected an employee of stealing.
Ben discovered the opposite.
David was moving money through fake employees.
He confronted him.
David offered him fifty thousand dollars.
Ben refused.
Then one hundred thousand.
Ben refused again.
He began collecting evidence.
Claire knew because David asked her to get close to Ben.
“You were already jealous of me,” Mom said.
Claire looked down.
“Yes.”
“So you helped him.”
“Yes.”
Vincent's face hardened.
“What happened the night Ben died?”
Claire began shaking.
“Ben called me.”
Mom stopped breathing.
“What?”
“He said he had enough evidence.”
“Why call you?”
“Because he knew I'd been involved.”
Claire cried harder.
“He gave me one chance to do the right thing.”
Mom's voice went quiet.
“And did you?”
“No.”
The word destroyed something.
“I called David.”
Mom stepped back.
Claire rushed on.
“I told him Ben had the files.”
Vincent stared at her.
“You warned Sterling.”
“I didn't know what he'd do.”
“You knew exactly what kind of man he was,” Mom said.
Claire sobbed.
“I thought he'd scare Ben.”
Mom's voice became almost inaudible.
“Then Ben drove home.”
Claire nodded.
“David sent someone after him.”
Mom covered her mouth.
“The truck.”
“Yes.”
Ben's car had been struck on Lower Wacker Drive.
Police called it a hit-and-run.
The driver was never found.
Mom stared at Claire.
“You helped kill my husband.”
“No.”
“You called the man who had him followed.”
“I didn't know—”
“You helped kill him!”
Mom lunged.
Vincent caught her.
“Emily.”
“Let me go!”
“Not like this.”
“She killed him!”
Claire collapsed against the wall.
“I know.”
Mom stopped fighting.
Not because she forgave her.
Because the words were worse than anger.
Marco approached Vincent.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“We pulled traffic cameras from the restaurant.”
He held out his phone.
A black sedan.
Driver visible for half a second.
Vincent enlarged the frame.
His expression changed.
Mom looked.
“Who is that?”
Vincent said nothing.
“Vincent.”
He finally answered.
“The man who worked for David three years ago.”
Mom stared.
“The one who hit Ben?”
Vincent nodded.
Claire looked at the photo.
Then screamed.
Because she knew him too.
“That's impossible.”
Mom turned.
“Who is he?”
Claire whispered,
“That's David's brother.”
Mom frowned.
“David doesn't have a brother.”
Claire's eyes stayed on the screen.
“Yes, he does.”
She swallowed.
“His name is Thomas.”
Vincent's face went cold.
“Thomas Sterling died twelve years ago.”
Claire shook her head.
May you like
“No.”
Then a bullet shattered the alley window behind them.
