Chapter 9 - WHAT THE CLIP PROVED
The metal clip was small enough to disappear beneath a fingernail.
But to Dr. Mercer, it changed the entire case.
He placed it beneath a magnifying lamp in Dominic’s medical room.
“This is from your original brace.”
“You’re certain?”
“The manufacturer stamps every component.”
He angled the clip.
A tiny serial code appeared.
Mercer compared it with Dominic’s records.
Match.
Vincent folded his arms.
“So whoever altered the brace dropped it.”
“Yes.”
“Fingerprints?”
“Maybe.”
Dominic looked at Vincent.
“Send it somewhere I trust.”
Vincent almost smiled.
“That list keeps getting shorter.”
Dominic did not answer.
Clare sat in the next room with Ellie.
She had refused to let her daughter out of sight.
Dominic could not blame her.
The attempted abduction changed his priorities.
He wanted answers.
But more importantly, he wanted the threat contained.
Arthur remained under guard.
When Dominic showed him the clip, Arthur stared at it.
“I’ve never seen that.”
“You touched the brace.”
“I tightened the strap. I did not take it apart.”
Dominic believed one part of that.
Arthur lacked the mechanical patience to disassemble anything smaller than a whiskey bottle.
“Who told you to tighten it?”
“The caller.”
“Exactly what did he say?”
Arthur closed his eyes, trying to remember.
“He said the lower latch might look loose.”
“And?”
“He said if I saw it open, I should push it forward until it clicked.”
Mercer looked at Dominic.
“That would increase compression.”
Arthur's face tightened.
“I didn’t know.”
“You didn't ask,” Dominic said.
Arthur had no answer.
Vincent entered carrying fresh information.
“We traced the black SUV.”
“Where?”
“Abandoned two miles west.”
“Driver?”
“Gone.”
“Anything inside?”
“A disposable phone.”
Dominic stood.
Vincent continued.
“There was one outgoing call before the abduction attempt.”
“To Arthur?”
“No.”
Arthur looked up.
“Then who?”
Vincent turned the screen.
“A holding company office.”
Dominic recognized the name.
Lakefront Meridian LLC.
An old shell company Vale Holdings had acquired nearly fifteen years earlier.
It should have been inactive.
“Who controls it?”
Vincent frowned.
“That’s the problem.”
“Meaning?”
“On paper, nobody.”
Dominic’s patience thinned.
“Vincent.”
“It was created by your father.”
That stopped him.
Dominic’s father had been dead for eleven years.
Arthur looked equally surprised.
“That company still exists?”
“You knew it?”
Arthur hesitated.
“Yes.”
Dominic stared at him.
“Why?”
Arthur leaned back.
“Your father used dozens of holding companies.”
“For what?”
Arthur’s expression became guarded.
“Things he didn’t want connected directly to the family.”
Dominic disliked the answer.
He disliked the past even more.
His father, Victor Vale, had built the foundations of their organization through methods Dominic had spent years trying to move away from.
Old debts.
Old grudges.
Old secrets.
Sometimes old enemies lasted longer than old businesses.
“Find every transaction,” Dominic ordered.
Vincent nodded.
Arthur spoke.
“Dominic.”
“What?”
“There may be records in the basement archive.”
Dominic frowned.
“I emptied that archive after my father died.”
“Not all of it.”
Arthur looked toward the floor.
“Victor kept a private ledger.”
Dominic stared at him.
“You knew?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“I never saw it.”
“Convenient.”
Arthur shook his head.
“Your father trusted paper more than computers.”
Dominic looked at Vincent.
“Search the archive.”
The mansion basement contained wine storage, mechanical rooms, and an old document vault no one had opened in years.
They searched for two hours.
Nothing.
Ellie eventually came downstairs holding Clare’s hand.
Dominic almost sent them away.
Then Ellie walked toward an antique cabinet built into the stone wall.
She touched one of the brass handles.
Click.
Her favorite sound.
Dominic watched her.
The cabinet door did not open.
Ellie frowned.
She turned the latch upward instead of downward.
A hidden catch released.
Vincent stared.
“You’ve got to be kidding.”
Behind the cabinet was a narrow compartment.
Inside sat three leather-bound ledgers.
Arthur went pale.
Dominic noticed.
He removed the first book.
Dates from seventeen years earlier.
Payments.
Properties.
Names.
The third ledger contained a section labeled Lakefront Meridian.
Dominic turned pages.
One entry repeated every month.
T.R.
A payment.
Then another.
Then suddenly—
nothing.
The payments stopped twelve years ago.
Clare, standing behind them, made a small sound.
Dominic looked at her.
She was staring at the initials.
“What?”
Clare shook her head.
“Nothing.”
“Clare.”
Her face had gone white.
“My husband’s name was Thomas Rowan.”
Dominic said nothing.
Clare looked at the ledger.
“He died twelve years ago.”
The room seemed to contract.
Ellie held her mother’s hand.
Dominic looked again at the initials.
T.R.
Thomas Rowan.
Clare had entered his household as a housekeeper.
Her daughter had exposed an attempt to cripple him.
May you like
And now her dead husband’s initials had appeared inside his father’s secret ledger.
For the first time, Dominic wondered whether Clare Rowan had come into his house by accident at all.
