Chapter 9 - SOMEONE HAD BEEN WATCHING
The envelope held six photographs.
Léa at preschool.
Claire outside a grocery store.
Their apartment entrance.
Aunt June’s car.
On the back of one picture was a handwritten note.
CONTACT EXPECTED BEFORE GENEVA VOTE.
Gabriel handed everything to the officer.
Vivienne reached for the envelope.
“That is private property.”
The officer moved it out of reach.
“Ma’am, please step back.”
For the first time Gabriel could remember, his mother had nothing ready to say.
At Daniel’s office, June arrived carrying an overnight bag and enough fury to fill the conference room.
She hugged Claire, then Léa.
Finally, she looked at Gabriel.
“You got taller.”
He almost smiled.
“You always said I slouched.”
“You still do when you’re ashamed.”
“June,” Claire warned.
“No. He can take it.”
Gabriel nodded.
“She’s right.”
June studied him, then put her bag down.
“Good. We can skip that part.”
Daniel arranged temporary accommodations at a small hotel near his office. Claire refused Gabriel’s penthouse.
“I need somewhere I can leave without asking you.”
“You wouldn’t have to ask.”
“I need to know that for myself.”
He accepted it.
That evening, Léa fell asleep beside June while Claire and Gabriel sat at opposite ends of the sofa.
“Why the airport?” he asked.
Claire twisted a tissue in her hands.
“A woman at the foundation still liked me. She heard you were flying to Geneva.”
“Why not come to my office?”
“I tried last week.”
He looked up.
“Security said you were out of the country. Then that man came to my apartment.”
Gabriel stared at his hands.
He had been upstairs.
“What did he want?”
“My work laptop. The copies. He said they could make the theft charge disappear.”
“Did you give them to him?”
“No.”
“Where are they?”
Claire glanced toward the bedroom.
“In Léa’s stuffed rabbit.”
He looked at her.
She gave a tired shrug.
“Nobody ever checks the rabbit.”
For a second, they both laughed.
Then Claire’s phone lit up.
A message from an unknown number.
YOU HAVE UNTIL MORNING.
Below it was a photograph of their hotel entrance.
May you like
Gabriel stood so quickly the coffee table shifted.
Across the street, a dark sedan pulled away from the curb.
