Chapter 5 - THE MAN VICTOR TRUSTED
Victor didn’t reach for his weapon.
Gabriel’s finger rested on the trigger.
Sadie could hear the bank manager breathing behind the desk.
“Eleven years,” Victor said. “You stood beside me for eleven years.”
“Twelve,” Gabriel corrected. “And I saved your life four times.”
“So this is how you collect?”
Gabriel’s eyes moved to Sadie.
“I need the tapes and the key.”
“The box is open,” Sadie said. “The key means nothing now.”
“It opens more than this box.”
Victor gave Sadie a warning look.
Gabriel stepped closer.
“Put the tapes in the bag.”
Sadie obeyed, but when she reached for the third cassette, she knocked the player off the table.
It crashed against the floor.
Gabriel glanced down.
Victor moved.
He slammed Gabriel’s gun hand against the wall. A shot exploded into the ceiling. Sadie grabbed the metal cassette player and swung it into Gabriel’s wrist.
The gun fell.
Victor drove Gabriel to the ground.
Two bank guards rushed in, but Victor’s men disarmed them before they could react.
Gabriel laughed as Victor pressed a pistol against his cheek.
“You think I betrayed you?” Gabriel said. “I just saved you from hearing the wrong tape.”
Victor hit him.
“Who sent you?”
“Your father.”
“My father is dead.”
“That doesn’t mean his orders died with him.”
Victor’s face hardened.
Sadie picked up the third cassette. A crack ran through its plastic case, but the tape appeared intact.
“What does this contain?”
Gabriel looked at her.
“The truth about why your father’s house burned.”
Sadie stepped closer.
“Did you set the fire?”
“No.”
“Did Victor’s father?”
Gabriel said nothing.
Victor pulled him up by the collar.
“Take him downstairs.”
As the guards dragged Gabriel away, he called back to Sadie.
“Ask Victor where he was the night your father died.”
The vault went silent.
Sadie turned slowly.
“Where were you?”
Victor lowered his gun.
“At your house.”
Her chest tightened.
“You told me you met my father twice.”
“I did.”
“Were you there when he died?”
Victor looked toward the broken cassette player.
“I arrived before the fire department.”
“Did you see who started it?”
“No.”
“Then what did you see?”
Victor’s silence was an answer.
Sadie grabbed his arm.
“What did you see?”
He finally faced her.
“I saw my father’s car leaving your street.”
Sadie slapped him.
Every guard in the room reached for a weapon, but Victor raised one hand.
“Let her go.”
Tears burned in Sadie’s eyes.
“You knew your father murdered mine, and you let me scrub your floors.”
“I hired you under another name. I didn’t know who you were.”
“But once you found out?”
“I found out fifteen minutes ago.”
Sadie wanted to believe him.
That frightened her most.
A phone rang inside the open bank box.
There hadn’t been a phone there before.
Victor reached in and found a small black device taped beneath the metal shelf.
It displayed a live video.
Sam was no longer in his hospital bed.
He sat tied to a chair in an empty operating room.
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Dr. Bell stood behind him with a syringe.
“Bring me the tapes,” Bell said, “or the boy won’t survive the next ten minutes.”
