Chapter 15 - DANIELLE PRICE
Matthew did not try to avoid the conversation.
That would have been easier to hate.
He entered the room and closed the door behind him.
Diane was removed first.
Emily waited until they were alone with Rachel.
Then she said, “Tell me.”
Matthew sat across from her.
“Danielle Price was nineteen.”
“I know that part.”
“She worked at Ambrose’s club.”
“As what?”
“A hostess.”
Emily looked at him.
Matthew corrected himself.
“That was the title.”
“What was the job?”
“Keeping wealthy men entertained.”
His voice had gone flat.
Emily let the silence stay.
Eventually he continued.
“My father took clients there.”
“You went to get him.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“My mother had just been admitted to the hospital.”
Emily had not known that.
“My father wasn’t answering his phone. I drove to the club.”
“What did you see?”
Matthew looked at his hands.
A tiny movement.
He rubbed his thumb across an old scar near his knuckle.
“A girl on the floor.”
“Danielle.”
“Yes.”
“Overdosing.”
“Yes.”
“Did you call an ambulance?”
“No.”
Emily stared.
Matthew met her eyes.
“I should have.”
“What did you do?”
“I helped my father move her into his car.”
Emily felt something cold settle inside her.
“Why?”
“He told me an ambulance would bring police and reporters.”
“And you listened.”
“Yes.”
“How old were you?”
“Twenty-three.”
Emily was twenty-four.
She hated that fact.
“What happened next?”
“We took her to a private clinic.”
“Your clinic?”
“My father’s.”
“The place you took me last night.”
“No. Different facility.”
Emily exhaled.
“At least there’s that.”
Matthew did not defend himself.
“Danielle survived. My father paid her medical expenses, then paid her to sign a nondisclosure agreement.”
“Did she want to?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I was in the room when his attorney threatened to expose her drug use and have her charged with theft if she refused.”
Emily felt nauseous.
“And you did nothing.”
“No.”
Rachel remained silent.
Emily was grateful.
She needed no translation.
Matthew’s mistake had not been a misunderstanding.
He had made a cowardly choice because protecting his family was easier than protecting a frightened nineteen-year-old woman.
“What happened to Danielle?”
“She disappeared six months later.”
“Dead?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you look?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
Matthew hesitated.
“Two years later.”
Emily laughed once.
“Two years.”
“Yes.”
“Why not the next morning?”
“I don’t have an answer that makes me better.”
That stopped her.
She looked at him.
He continued.
“When my father died, I found copies of payments to Sheriff Price.”
“Nolan?”
“Yes.”
“For Danielle?”
“For several things.”
“What did you do?”
“I hired investigators.”
“Quietly.”
“Yes.”
“Not police.”
“No.”
“Because scandal would hurt Carter Meridian.”
Matthew looked at her.
“At first, yes.”
Emily stood.
She walked to the window.
Outside, afternoon light fell across parked police cars.
She wanted him to be clean.
That realization angered her most.
She had known him less than a day.
He had saved her life.
He had lied by omission.
He had failed someone else in a way that looked uncomfortably similar to how people had failed her.
None of those facts canceled the others.
Rachel finally spoke.
“Ambrose brought Danielle up for a reason.”
Emily turned.
“To make me distrust Matthew.”
“Yes.”
“It worked.”
Matthew did not argue.
Rachel continued.
“But it may also tell us where he is.”
“How?”
“Danielle disappeared from a clinic near North Harbor.”
Matthew looked at her.
Rachel said, “If Ambrose thinks that history gives him leverage, he may be using an old property tied to it.”
Matthew pulled out his phone.
“Marcus can search.”
Emily said, “No.”
He stopped.
“Why?”
“Because Graham said he’ll kill Peter if police are involved.”
“Marcus isn’t police.”
“That technicality won’t comfort Peter.”
Matthew’s jaw tightened.
Emily looked at Rachel.
“Where is the flash drive?”
“In federal custody.”
“Can we get it?”
“No.”
“Can we copy it?”
“Not legally without access.”
Emily thought.
Then remembered the steel box.
Three folders.
One drive.
Margaret had packed it.
“Did anyone ask Margaret what was on it?”
Rachel called her.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
Emily’s stomach tightened.
“Where is she?”
Matthew called Pike.
No answer.
Marcus checked location data.
Pike’s phone was off.
Margaret’s phone was off.
They had vanished within the same hour.
Emily looked at Matthew.
“You don’t think—”
“I don’t know.”
Rachel’s laptop chimed.
A new email had arrived from an anonymous account.
The subject line read:
SECOND CHANCE.
There was one attachment.
A photograph of Margaret and Pike sitting at a diner booth.
Both looked unharmed.
On the table between them was a copy of the flash drive.
Beside it lay a handwritten note.
EMILY MUST NOT GIVE THIS TO AMBROSE.
Then Rachel zoomed in on the diner window.
Reflected in the glass behind Margaret was the face of a woman watching them from outside.
Matthew went still.
Emily looked at him.
“You know her.”
He nodded.
May you like
His voice was barely audible.
“That’s Danielle Price.”
