Chapter 4 - The Man Who Hired Clara
They found the answer inside the catering office.
Clara's supervisor, Neil Barker, was gone.
His laptop wasn't.
Marco placed it on a desk.
“Who hired you?”
“Barker.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
“For one shift?”
“Yes.”
Adrian looked at her.
“You weren't originally scheduled?”
“No. Someone called out.”
Marco opened the staffing records.
The employee who supposedly called out was named Jennifer Cole.
He dialed her.
A woman answered.
Marco put the phone on speaker.
“Jennifer Cole?”
“Yes?”
“Did you call Marlowe Catering yesterday and cancel your gala shift?”
“No.”
Clara went still.
Jennifer continued.
“I've been trying to reach Neil all day. He told me the event was canceled.”
Marco ended the call.
Adrian said, “Barker replaced her with Clara.”
“Deliberately,” Marco replied.
Clara stared at the computer.
“So somebody wanted me standing in that ballroom.”
A voice came from the doorway.
“Because your father kept records.”
Everyone turned.
Victor Moretti stood there.
He was sixty-two, silver-haired and immaculate despite the chaos upstairs.
Marco immediately moved between him and Adrian.
Victor raised both hands.
“If I wanted Adrian dead, Marco, I wouldn't walk into a basement full of his security.”
Adrian's voice was cold.
“You left the ballroom.”
“To retrieve this.”
Victor placed a folder on the table.
Clara opened it.
Inside were maintenance reports from eight years earlier.
Her father's name appeared repeatedly.
Thomas Hayes.
She read quickly.
Then stopped.
“He reported damaged suspension hardware.”
Victor nodded.
“Three times.”
“And you ignored him.”
“I never saw the reports.”
“Your signature is here.”
“Forged.”
Clara laughed bitterly.
“Convenient.”
Victor accepted the accusation.
“Yes.”
Adrian took the documents.
“Who forged it?”
“My former operations director.”
“Name.”
“Neil Barker.”
Clara looked up.
“My supervisor?”
Victor nodded.
“He wasn't always a catering manager.”
The story came quickly.
Eight years earlier, Barker had overseen maintenance subcontractors during the restoration of the Marlowe Opera House.
Thomas Hayes discovered that Barker was purchasing cheap structural components while billing Moretti Restoration for certified equipment.
Thomas reported him.
Days later, Thomas's accident occurred.
Barker disappeared from construction work.
Now he had returned under another company.
Clara whispered, “My father's accident wasn't an accident.”
“We never proved that,” Victor said.
“You didn't try.”
Victor's silence answered her.
Adrian stepped closer to his uncle.
“You knew?”
“I suspected.”
“And you buried it.”
“I protected the company.”
Adrian's voice dropped.
“You protected the name.”
Victor looked at him.
“At the time, I thought they were the same thing.”
Adrian threw the folder onto the table.
“They aren't.”
Marco's radio crackled.
“Movement backstage.”
Everyone froze.
“Where?”
“Fly tower.”
Clara looked toward the ceiling.
“The rigging system.”
Adrian turned.
“You're staying here.”
“No.”
“Clara.”
“Barker knows this building.”
“So do my people.”
“Not like my father does.”
Adrian stared at her.
“You are not security.”
“And apparently your security didn't notice someone cutting down a chandelier.”
Marco muttered, “She's never letting that go.”
“Absolutely not.”
Adrian stepped close.
“You nearly died upstairs.”
“So did you.”
“That doesn't make this equal.”
“No. I was working for twenty-eight dollars an hour. You were eating lobster.”
Marco covered a laugh with a cough.
Adrian looked at him.
“Something funny?”
“Nothing.”
A guard's voice suddenly exploded through the radio.
“Marco! West stage!”
Then static.
Marco drew himself upright.
“Move.”
They hurried through the backstage corridors.
When they reached the main stage, the theater was dark except for emergency lights.
Hundreds of empty red seats disappeared into shadow.
Clara whispered, “Something's wrong.”
Adrian looked at her.
“What?”
“The fire curtain.”
A massive curtain hung above the stage.
Its counterweight line was moving.
Clara's eyes widened.
“Everybody off the stage!”
Marco shouted.
“MOVE!”
They ran.
A deafening mechanical crash echoed behind them as the curtain dropped.
The group barely cleared it.
The steel barrier slammed down, separating Adrian and Clara from Marco and the guards.
“Adrian!” Marco shouted from the other side.
Clara turned.
A man stepped from behind the scenery.
Neil Barker.
He held no obvious weapon.
He didn't need one.
Above Adrian and Clara hung thousands of pounds of theatrical counterweights.
Barker smiled.
“Thomas's daughter.”
Clara stared at him.
“You hurt my father.”
“I underestimated your father.”
His eyes shifted toward Adrian.
May you like
“And tonight, I underestimated you.”
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