Chapter 5 - The Woman Behind Victor
Peter Shaw arrived under federal escort just after midnight.
He looked terrified.
That made two of us.
Agent Benton placed him in the library.
Mara sat beside me.
“Who ordered the photograph?” I asked.
Peter rubbed his palms against his jeans.
“I didn’t know what they were doing.”
“Name.”
He looked at Benton.
She nodded.
“Catherine Rowe.”
Mara froze.
I knew the name.
“Your deputy director?”
Mara whispered, “Catherine has worked with me for three years.”
Peter nodded quickly.
“She gave me five thousand dollars to disable the east cameras.”
“Why?”
“She said Victor wanted documentation of who Mara met with.”
Mara looked sick.
I asked, “Where is Catherine?”
Benton answered.
“Agents are checking.”
Mara stood.
“We need to call her.”
“No,” Benton said. “If she’s involved, we don’t alert her.”
My phone rang.
Catherine Rowe.
Everyone stared at the screen.
Benton held up one finger.
“Answer normally.”
I did.
“Catherine.”
“Mr. Vale.”
Her voice trembled.
“Is Mara with you?”
Mara shook her head.
“No.”
“I need to speak with you privately.”
“About?”
“Victor Kane.”
Benton gestured for me to keep going.
“What about him?”
“He contacted me.”
“When?”
“Twenty minutes ago.”
Mara mouthed, Ask where.
“What did he want?”
“He wants Mara at Pier Thirty-One.”
“I know.”
Silence.
Then Catherine whispered, “Don’t let her go.”
Mara frowned.
“Why?”
“Because Victor doesn’t plan to leave her alive.”
The room went still.
I asked, “How do you know?”
Catherine began crying.
“Because I helped him.”
Mara shut her eyes.
Catherine continued.
“I didn’t know what he was doing at first. He told me the foundation needed alternate accounts to protect money from lawsuits.”
“How much did you move?”
“Maybe four million.”
Mara whispered, “Eight.”
I repeated, “Eight million.”
Catherine started sobbing.
“I didn’t keep it!”
“Then why help?”
“He had photographs of my brother.”
“Doing what?”
“He owes gambling debts. Victor threatened to hand him over to people he owed.”
Mara took the phone.
“Catherine.”
A sharp inhale.
“Mara?”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Where are you?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“You just did.”
“What?”
Mara looked at me.
“There’s a train announcement behind you.”
Catherine went silent.
Mara asked, “Union Station?”
The call ended.
Benton was already moving.
“Get agents there.”
Mara grabbed her coat.
I stopped her.
“No.”
“She might run.”
“That’s Benton’s problem.”
“Mara—”
“She helped steal from my foundation.”
“And Victor is trying to kill you.”
Mara looked at me.
“He’s trying to kill her too.”
That was Mara.
Even betrayed, she still saw the person behind the betrayal.
Twenty minutes later, federal agents found Catherine in Union Station.
She surrendered.
And she gave them everything.
Victor’s offshore accounts.
The shell companies.
The buyers for the stolen medicine.
And the plan for Pier Thirty-One.
The meeting was never about recovering the ledger.
It was about removing Mara.
Victor believed once Mara disappeared, Catherine would testify that Mara herself had embezzled the foundation money.
“He was going to frame me,” Mara said.
Benton nodded.
“And use your death to close the bookkeeping trail.”
I stood near the window.
“Where is Victor now?”
“We don’t know.”
My phone vibrated.
A text.
YOU ALWAYS WERE TOO SOFT WHERE SHE WAS CONCERNED.
Then another.
A photograph.
My estate.
Taken seconds earlier.
I turned.
“Mara.”
She saw my face.
“What?”
“Victor’s here.”
The lights went out.
Margaret screamed somewhere downstairs.
Elias shouted through the hallway.
“Lock the doors!”
Glass shattered.
I reached for Mara.
“Stay behind me.”
“Dominic—”
“Please.”
It was the first time I had ever used that word while giving an order.
She stopped arguing.
Emergency lights flickered on.
Footsteps moved through the west corridor.
Elias appeared.
“Someone breached the conservatory.”
The conservatory.
The place where Mara had collapsed.
Of course Victor chose it.
Benton drew her weapon and signaled her agents.
“Stay here.”
She moved down the corridor.
Mara whispered, “The ledger.”
“What?”
“The real ledger isn’t at the bank.”
I stared at her.
“Where is it?”
She pointed toward the conservatory.
“In the base of the old brass planter.”
I almost laughed from disbelief.
“You hid evidence inside my house?”
“You never notice plants.”
“That is unfortunately accurate.”
She moved.
I caught her wrist.
“No.”
“If Victor finds it—”
“Then Benton arrests him holding evidence.”
A crash came from the conservatory.
Then Victor’s voice.
“Dominic!”
I stepped into the hallway.
Mara grabbed my sleeve.
“Don’t.”
I looked back.
Her face was pale.
For once, the fear wasn’t for herself.
It was for me.
“Stay here.”
I walked toward the conservatory.
Benton’s agents were hidden beyond the doors.
Victor stood among shattered glass.
His black coat was soaked from the rain.
He was holding the brass planter.
He smiled.
“There he is.”
I stopped several feet away.
“Eleven years.”
Victor laughed.
“And you still trusted me.”
“I did.”
“That’s your weakness.”
“No.”
I looked toward the hallway where Mara waited.
“My weakness was trusting you more than the person who deserved it.”
Victor’s smile vanished.
“You let a crying woman destroy everything we built.”
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“She showed me what you destroyed.”
Victor reached inside the planter.
His hand closed around the ledger.
Then Agent Benton stepped out.
“Victor Kane. Put it down.”
For once, Victor had nothing clever to say.
He looked at me.
“You called the FBI?”
“Mara did.”
Behind me, Mara appeared.
Victor stared at her.
“You should’ve stayed quiet.”
Mara met his eyes.
“So should you.”
Federal agents surrounded him.
Victor looked at me one final time.
“You’ve gone soft.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
Then I glanced at Mara.
“I finally learned the difference between weakness and having something worth protecting.”
They took Victor away before sunrise.
But Mara and I still had one problem left.
May you like
Us.
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