Chapter 1 - The Empty Fourth Stool
The bell above the door rang once.
Ivy Mercer looked up from the register.
Four men entered Rosie's Diner.
None of them belonged there.
The first was tall, broad-shouldered, perhaps thirty-eight, wearing a black overcoat over a charcoal suit. His dark hair was combed back from a hard, controlled face.
Three men followed him.
They didn't look around.
They watched exits.
Windows.
Hands.
Ivy's stomach tightened.
Outside, three matte-black SUVs idled beneath falling snow.
Wade, her manager, stepped from the kitchen.
"We're closing."
The tall man ignored him.
His pale gray eyes found Ivy.
She stopped breathing for half a second.
Elias.
Not the face.
The eyes.
The same strange gray eyes belonging to the homeless old man who had occupied stool four every night for three weeks.
The stranger approached the counter.
"Are you Ivy?"
Wade answered first.
"Who's asking?"
The man's gaze never left Ivy.
"Adrian Vale."
Wade's expression changed.
Ivy noticed.
"Should that mean something to me?" she asked.
Adrian reached inside his coat.
One of the customers near the window stiffened.
He removed a photograph.
Then placed it on the counter.
Elias stared up from the picture.
But this Elias wore a tailored tuxedo.
Silver hair perfectly combed.
A black bow tie.
He stood beside senators, businessmen, and people Ivy vaguely recognized from television.
She looked from the photograph to Adrian.
"Where did you get this?"
Adrian's jaw tightened.
"He's my father."
Silence swallowed the diner.
Ivy glanced toward stool four.
Empty.
"Your father?"
Adrian placed something else beside the photograph.
A stained diner napkin.
Rosie's crooked neon sign had been drawn across it in blue ink.
Below it was one word.
IVY.
Adrian leaned slightly closer.
"He's my father. Find him."
Ivy stared at him.
"You think I know where he is?"
"He came here twenty-one nights."
Her eyes narrowed.
"How do you know that?"
"I know now."
"Then you also know he hasn't been here since Monday."
"I know."
"Then why are you standing in my diner acting like I kidnapped him?"
One of Adrian's men shifted.
Adrian raised one finger.
The man stopped.
Ivy noticed that too.
Adrian Vale didn't need to raise his voice.
"Because," he said, "my father disappeared eleven months ago."
Ivy blinked.
"Eleven months?"
"We searched hospitals. Shelters. Bus stations. Train stations. Every property he ever owned."
"And you missed a diner?"
His expression hardened.
"I wasn't looking for a homeless man."
Ivy glanced at the photograph again.
"Who exactly is he?"
Adrian took several seconds to answer.
"Elias Vale founded Vale Maritime."
Even Ivy knew that name.
Shipping terminals.
Freight companies.
Warehouses from New York to Baltimore.
And rumors.
The kind people lowered their voices to repeat.
Wade suddenly became very interested in wiping the counter.
Ivy pushed the photograph back.
"He told me his name was Elias. That's all."
"What did he say?"
"Mostly complained about the weather."
Adrian stared at her.
"Anything else?"
"He liked black coffee. Chicken noodle soup. Stool four."
"Did he mention anyone following him?"
"No."
"Did he seem afraid?"
Ivy thought about it.
"No."
"Confused?"
"No."
"Sick?"
"Cold. Hungry. Tired."
Something flickered across Adrian's face.
Gone immediately.
Ivy continued.
"He didn't act confused. He spoke like somebody who knew exactly where he was."
Adrian looked toward stool four.
"Why did you feed him?"
"Because he was hungry."
"What did he give you?"
Ivy frowned.
"Pennies."
Adrian turned back sharply.
"What?"
"Every night. One penny."
"Where are they?"
"At my apartment."
Adrian went still.
"How many?"
"Twenty-one."
His expression changed.
For the first time, the cold man in front of her looked genuinely disturbed.
"Show me."
"No."
"Ivy—"
"It's nearly one in the morning. Four strange men arrive and tell me to take them home? Absolutely not."
Adrian stared at her.
Then, unexpectedly, he nodded.
"Fair."
Wade suddenly stepped forward.
"Ivy, maybe you should cooperate."
She looked at him.
"Five minutes ago you wanted Elias thrown into the snow."
Adrian's eyes moved to Wade.
"What?"
Wade paled.
"Nothing."
Ivy grabbed her coat.
"I'm going to look for him."
Adrian blocked her path.
"Where?"
"Places he might go."
"I'm coming."
"No."
"That wasn't a request."
Ivy met his eyes.
"Then here's my answer anyway."
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Then Adrian stepped aside.
"Fine."
She walked past him.
He followed.
"I said no."
"And I heard you."
"Then why are you following me?"
"Because you've known my father for three weeks."
Adrian opened the diner door.
Freezing wind rushed inside.
May you like
"And apparently," he said, "that's three weeks longer than I've known him for the past eleven months."
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