Chapter 5 - The Room Behind the WallVictor Hale was gone before Elias reached the foyer.
A broken window remained.
So did blood.
Not much.
Just enough to prove he'd been injured.
Elias crouched beside the broken glass.
“He wanted us to find him.”
“Why?”
“To prove he can get inside my house.”
I looked at him.
“Or to get something.”
His eyes lifted toward the upper floor.
My stomach tightened.
The board.
Daniel.
The evidence.
We ran upstairs.
The steel office door was open.
Nothing looked disturbed.
Except one thing.
The photograph of Daniel was missing.
Elias moved to the wall.
“What's wrong?”
“Someone opened the panel.”
“What panel?”
He pressed his palm against the wood.
A section clicked.
The wall opened inward.
Behind it was a narrow room.
Dust.
Boxes.
A desk.
And a children's drawing taped to the wall.
I stepped inside.
The drawing showed a family.
A mother.
A father.
A little girl.
And one tall man standing apart.
Underneath, in crooked handwriting, were four words.
Daniel said he would return.
I stared.
“This isn't our family.”
“No.”
Elias picked up a stack of folders.
“These belong to Black Harbor.”
He opened the first.
Payments.
The second.
Shipping manifests.
The third.
Military transfers.
Then he opened a fourth folder.
His face changed.
It was Daniel's handwriting.
I recognized it immediately.
Elias handed me the page.
Victor Hale is not the leader.
Below that:
He reports to someone inside the Baron organization.
I looked at Elias.
“You have a traitor.”
“I know.”
“How long?”
“Three years.”
There was another page.
Elias suspects his own men, but he is looking in the wrong direction.
Elias's jaw tightened.
“Who?”
Daniel had written one name.
Gabriel Knox.
I looked at Elias.
“Who is Gabriel Knox?”
He didn't answer.
That was the problem.
“Elias.”
“He's dead.”
“Everybody in this story is dead.”
His eyes met mine.
“Gabriel Knox was my closest friend.”
“How did he die?”
“Two years ago.”
“Did you see his body?”
“No.”
My stomach dropped.
“You see the pattern now.”
He looked away.
Another paper fell from the folder.
It contained a photograph.
Daniel.
Gabriel.
Elias.
Three friends standing outside a bar.
On the back, Daniel had written:
If one of us dies, assume the other two are being watched.
Elias sat down.
For the first time, I saw how tired he was.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because nobody had any reason to believe Gabriel survived.”
“Except your own experience.”
He looked up.
“Gabriel was the only man who knew my father's vault combination.”
“What vault?”
He didn't answer.
Instead, he searched through the room.
A floor safe appeared beneath a loose board.
He opened it.
Inside was a single black notebook.
And a bloodstained wedding ring.
I stared.
“Whose?”
Elias picked it up.
“Gabriel's wife.”
“She was killed?”
He nodded.
“When?”
“The week Gabriel disappeared.”
I felt a chill.
“So Black Harbor killed his family.”
“We thought they did.”
“You're saying you don't know.”
“No.”
He placed the ring down.
Then we heard footsteps.
Not upstairs.
Inside the hidden room.
I turned.
Nobody was there.
The footsteps came again.
Behind the wall.
Elias pulled his gun.
“Stay behind me.”
He pressed against the hidden doorway.
Then something slammed into it from the other side.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
The wall burst open.
A man stumbled through.
Blood soaked his shirt.
He fell to his knees.
Elias raised his weapon.
Then froze.
The man looked up.
I didn't recognize him.
Elias did.
“Gabriel.”
The man smiled weakly.
“Still pointing guns at your friends, Elias?”
Elias lowered his weapon.
For one impossible second, he looked like he'd seen a ghost.
Gabriel coughed blood onto the floor.
“Don't let Victor Hale leave the city.”
“Why?”
Gabriel grabbed Elias's wrist.
“Because he already found Daniel.”
My heart stopped.
“Daniel is alive?”
Gabriel looked at me.
May you like
Then smiled.
“He was.”
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