Chapter 7 - The Boy They Chose to Break
Emily was taken through Union Station in handcuffs.
Reporters were already waiting outside.
That was how she knew the arrest had been arranged.
Cameras flashed across her face.
Questions struck her from every direction.
“Did you steal from the Harrington Foundation?”
“Are you romantically involved with Alexander Moretti?”
“Did Mr. Moretti help conceal the jewelry?”
“Did you attack Victoria Harrington?”
Alexander walked beside her.
His presence made the reporters step backward.
It did not make them stop.
Victoria’s attorney had filed an assault complaint.
The hotel had released a statement blaming Emily for the ballroom disturbance.
A photograph showed Victoria’s reddened wrist.
No photograph showed her raised hand.
The gala’s main security recording had disappeared.
Only one camera had supposedly malfunctioned.
The camera facing Eleanor’s wheelchair.
Emily sat in an interrogation room for three hours.
Detective Creed entered carrying two coffees.
He placed one in front of her.
She did not touch it.
“Your brother is in the next room.”
Emily looked at him.
“You planted the diamond.”
Creed sat down.
“That is a dangerous accusation.”
“So is calling my father a murderer.”
Creed leaned back.
“Thomas Carter was involved in a serious incident.”
“He saved Eleanor Moretti.”
“According to a woman who suffered head trauma.”
“You buried his hit-and-run.”
“I investigated it.”
“For two days.”
“There were no witnesses.”
“There was Eleanor.”
“She did not witness his later death.”
Emily leaned forward.
“Victoria did.”
Creed’s eyes sharpened.
“You should be careful with names like that.”
“There is that word again.”
“What word?”
“Careful.”
Emily stared at him.
“It is what powerful people say when the truth gets close.”
Creed placed a photograph on the table.
Noah stood at the Moretti estate.
A security guard held the diamond found inside his coat.
“If you confess to stealing the bracelet, your brother walks.”
Emily laughed.
Creed frowned.
“What is funny?”
“You think I believe you.”
“You should.”
“You framed my father.”
“You framed Noah.”
“You will frame me whether I confess or not.”
Creed’s face hardened.
“You are not as intelligent as you think.”
“No.”
“But I am more angry than you expected.”
The door opened.
Lucian Price entered.
He was the Moretti family’s chief attorney.
He wore a charcoal suit and carried no briefcase.
Creed stood.
“This is a private interview.”
Lucian handed him a court order.
“It was.”
Creed read the document.
His jaw tightened.
“The charges remain.”
“The bracelet was reported stolen at 10:14 p.m.”
Lucian sat beside Emily.
“Hotel footage shows Emily leaving the ballroom at 9:52.”
Creed shrugged.
“She could have taken it earlier.”
“The bracelet appeared in a photograph on Victoria Harrington’s wrist at 10:06.”
Creed stopped moving.
Lucian continued.
“The photograph was taken after Emily had already departed.”
Emily looked at him.
Lucian slid another page across the table.
“The diamond found in Noah Carter’s coat was from a different bracelet.”
“Different serial number.”
“Different cut.”
“Different jeweler.”
Creed looked toward the mirrored glass.
Lucian smiled.
“Your officers were careless.”
Creed turned toward Emily.
“You are free to go.”
“For now.”
Emily stood.
“So are you.”
His eyes flashed.
Lucian escorted her into the hallway.
Noah waited beside Alexander.
Emily hugged him.
“Did they hurt you?”
“No.”
“They tried to scare me.”
“Did it work?”
“A little.”
He looked toward Creed’s office.
“Mostly it made me want to break his nose.”
Emily touched his bruised cheek.
“Get in line.”
Alexander looked at Lucian.
“How did you obtain the gala photograph?”
Lucian adjusted his cuff.
“A reporter named Mara Voss sent it.”
“Why?”
“She dislikes Victoria.”
“That is not enough.”
“She also dislikes corrupt police.”
“That is better.”
Outside the station, Mara Voss waited inside a gray sedan.
She was forty years old.
Her red hair was tied behind her head.
A recorder rested on the dashboard.
She handed Emily a folder.
“I investigated your father’s case four years ago.”
Emily opened it.
Inside were copies of phone records.
Thomas had called 911 from the bridge.
He had called the Harrington Foundation.
He had called Renato Moretti.
Three minutes later, Renato had called Detective Creed.
Mara tapped the final page.
“Your father survived the first attack.”
Emily nodded.
“He died two weeks later.”
“After leaving a meeting with someone at the Harrington Foundation.”
“Who?”
“I could not prove it.”
“Tell me anyway.”
“Victoria Harrington.”
Alexander’s face turned hard.
Mara continued.
“Thomas told a friend that he had evidence.”
“What evidence?”
“A financial ledger.”
Noah looked at Emily.
“Mom’s letter.”
Mara nodded.
“The blue ledger records money moved through the foundation.”
“Payments to private security firms.”
“Payments to doctors.”
“Payments to police.”
Creed stepped out of the station.
Mara started the engine.
“We should leave.”
Alexander’s vehicles surrounded them as they drove.
Mara handed Noah another page.
“Your mother rented a storage unit six months after Thomas died.”
Noah frowned.
“She never told us.”
“She paid cash for twelve years in advance.”
Emily looked at the address.
It was on the industrial south side.
Mara glanced into the mirror.
“We are being followed.”
A black SUV moved two cars behind them.
Alexander spoke into his phone.
“Luca.”
“I see it,” Luca answered.
The Moretti vehicles shifted positions.
The SUV accelerated.
It struck the rear of Mara’s car.
Noah grabbed the door.
Mara fought the steering wheel.
The SUV hit them again.
Alexander’s car moved between them.
Luca’s vehicle forced the SUV toward the curb.
The pursuing driver turned sharply into an alley.
Luca followed.
Mara pulled into a crowded parking lot.
Everyone sat in silence.
Noah looked down at the documents.
“There is something I did not tell you.”
Emily turned toward him.
“What?”
“When the police searched me, Creed asked about the blue ledger.”
Mara looked back.
“Did you answer?”
“I said I had never heard of it.”
“Anything else?”
“He asked where Mom kept Dad’s second watch.”
Emily frowned.
“Second watch?”
Noah nodded.
“The man at our apartment asked the same thing.”
Alexander looked toward Emily’s pendant.
“Your father’s letter said your mother knew where the ledger was.”
Emily touched the silver C around her neck.
Noah stared at it.
“Em.”
“What?”
“That pendant is not Mom’s.”
“Yes, it is.”
“No.”
He slowly reached into his shirt.
An identical silver pendant hung beneath it.
“Mom told me never to show anyone.”
Emily stared.
Noah pressed the letter C.
The pendant opened.
Inside was a tiny rolled strip of blue paper.
A list of numbers covered one side.
May you like
At the bottom, Nora Carter had written a single sentence.
THE ORIGINAL LEDGER IS BURIED WITH THE MAN WHO NEVER DIED.
