Chapter 9 - Box H-17
Ruth refused to let them rush into the building.
She sent the location, the message, and the threat against Owen to the federal investigator.
Then she made Adrian explain every entrance he knew.
Nora stood beside the car with her arms folded so tightly her shoulders hurt.
“They’re waiting for us,” she said.
“Yes,” Ruth replied. “Which is why we stop giving them what they expect.”
An investigator on the phone asked them to remain outside.
Adrian agreed.
Then his phone rang.
Video call.
Elaine appeared in a room Nora recognized from foundation advertisements.
Cream walls.
Sailboat painting.
A woman comfortable inside other people’s money.
Beside her sat Owen.
The boy wore a red sweatshirt.
His hands were in his lap.
“Hello, Adrian.”
“Let him leave.”
“He’s visiting family.”
Owen looked toward someone outside the frame.
His face tightened.
Elaine smiled.
“You’ve frightened Celia. Now you’re upsetting her child.”
Ruth held another phone near the speaker, recording.
Nora crouched beside Adrian.
“Owen, your mom’s getting help.”
Elaine’s expression changed.
“Is that the waitress?”
“Nora,” she said.
“How enterprising.”
“Let him talk.”
Elaine leaned toward the camera.
“You have something that belongs to me.”
“We have copies,” Adrian said.
“Copies can be argued over.”
“The book can’t.”
For one second, her smile disappeared.
Then she held up a lighter.
Behind her, Nora saw the corner of a blue ledger.
H-17.
“You have fifteen minutes.”
The call ended.
Ruth relayed everything.
The response team was coming.
Not here yet.
Nora looked at the foundation building.
A basement window glowed.
The loading door stood open.
Adrian’s face was pale.
“She brought Owen here.”
“Or she wants us to think that,” Ruth said.
Then a child cried out from inside.
Nora moved before she thought.
Adrian caught the door as she slipped through.
“Nora!”
The corridor smelled like bleach and hot wiring.
The cry came again.
Thin.
Identical.
A recording.
Nora stopped.
The steel door slammed behind them.
Martin stood at the far end of the archive.
“No one ever waits.”
Adrian stepped in front of Nora.
Outside, someone shouted.
The investigator.
A heavy bolt scraped into place.
Martin lifted a small speaker from a shelf and switched it off.
Then Adrian’s phone rang.
A voice came through.
May you like
A voice Nora had buried eight months earlier.
“Nora. Listen to me. Don’t let him move you into the back room.”
