THE MAFIA BILLIONAIRE HEARD A LITTLE GIRL CALL HIM DADDY—THEN FOUND HIS WIFE'S MICROPHONES IN EVERY WALL

I didn't sleep.

Alvarez took Marcus in for questioning. Emily remained at the house under guard while investigators arranged warrants and examined the devices. I moved Lily to the guest room closest to mine. She would not sleep until I promised her the door would stay open.

At two in the morning, she asked, "Does Mommy still have to hide?"

"I don't know, sweetheart. But I'm trying to find her."

"She told me grown-ups can be brave and scared at the same time."

"She was right."

"Are you scared?"

I sat beside her bed. "Very."

Lily considered that, then offered me a stuffed rabbit with one ear missing. "You can borrow Buttons."

That small act of generosity nearly brought me to my knees.

By sunrise, Alvarez had verified the timestamp in the photograph. Caroline was alive—or had been three days earlier. The bus station was in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The letter's ink and paper offered no obvious clues. But the back of the image showed a reflection in the glass: a man's silhouette with a cane.

I recognized him.

My former chief operating officer, Victor Rane, had walked with a silver-handled cane since a motorcycle crash. Two years earlier, I had fired him for hiding offshore payments. Victor had sworn he would take everything I owned.

"Victor's behind this," I said.

Alvarez studied the photograph. "Possibly. A silhouette isn't proof."

"He knew how our systems worked."

"And someone who wanted to implicate him would know that too."

I hated her restraint. I needed somebody to blame, somewhere to direct the rage. But she was right. We had a photograph, not a verdict.

At breakfast, Emily entered the kitchen as though the previous night had been an unfortunate dinner party. Two officers stood in the corridor. She poured herself coffee.

"We should talk privately, Daniel."

"Nothing is private in this house."

She set the mug down. "You're destroying our marriage over a woman who worked here for six months."

"Three years ago, you told me Caroline was a thief."

"She was unstable."

"She left a little girl hiding inside my walls."

Emily's expression flickered. "I didn't know she would do that."

It was the first honest sentence I'd heard from her in years, and it chilled me.

"Who else knew about Lily?"

"I have no idea."

"Did Victor know?"

She looked at the staircase before answering. "Victor knows more about you than you think."

A technician called from the upstairs office. The original drive had a damaged partition, but he had recovered a folder labeled C.W._SAFE. Within it were images of financial documents and one seventeen-second audio file.

We listened.

Caroline's voice, breathless, whispered, "If they find this, Daniel must know. I didn't take his money. I took the evidence."

There was a scraping sound.

A second voice said, "You should have accepted the offer."

It was not Emily.

It was Marcus.

The audio ended with Caroline crying out and something heavy striking the floor.

I replayed it twice, each time hearing my old friend's voice more clearly. My fists closed until my nails cut my palms.

Alvarez stopped me from calling him.

"If Caroline is alive, someone helped her survive," she said. "Our best chance is to learn what she was protecting, not announce what we know."

At noon, my phone rang from an unknown number.

A woman spoke before I could answer.