Chapter 5 - Box 417.
Norah did not speak on the drive downtown.
Gabriel sat beside her in the back of an armored SUV.
Luca drove.
Owen remained at the penthouse with a medic and two guards Gabriel trusted only because they had been searched personally.
The brass key rested in Norah's palm.
417.
Her father had carried the same number on a small white card when she was a child.
She had not seen the key itself in thirteen years.
"How did they get this?" Gabriel asked.
Norah stared out the rain-streaked window.
"I don't know."
"Who knew about the box?"
"My mother."
"Where is she?"
"Dead."
Gabriel waited.
"My father's attorney knew," Norah added.
"Name."
"Samuel Creed."
Luca glanced into the rearview mirror.
"Creed and Hart?"
Norah looked up.
"You know him?"
"Everybody in this city knows him."
Gabriel did not.
That was obvious from his expression.
Luca explained.
"White-collar defense, corporate investigations, political clients."
"Still practicing?" Gabriel asked.
"Retired three years ago."
Norah's phone vibrated.
A text from an unknown number appeared.
DON'T OPEN THE BOX.
She showed Gabriel.
His eyes hardened.
"That means we open it."
"That is exactly the reaction they expect from you."
"Good. I hate disappointing people."
Norah almost smiled despite herself.
Then another message arrived.
IF GABRIEL SEES WHAT'S INSIDE, HE WILL KILL YOU.
Gabriel read it.
The SUV became silent.
"Comforting," Norah said.
"You believe it?"
"I don't know you well enough to answer that."
Luca muttered from the front.
"You've worked for him eleven months."
"Exactly."
Gabriel looked out the window.
"If I wanted you dead, Norah, we wouldn't be driving to a bank at one in the morning."
"That is somehow reassuring and threatening at the same time."
"I'm talented."
They reached a private bank near Wall Street.
Gabriel's people had already contacted the night manager.
Money and fear opened doors that business hours normally kept shut.
The manager met them inside a marble lobby wearing a suit over a wrinkled shirt.
"Mr. Kane."
"Box 417."
The manager looked at Norah.
"Identification, please."
Norah handed over her driver's license.
He checked the system.
His face tightened.
"There may be a problem."
Gabriel leaned closer.
"Solve it."
"The box was accessed tonight."
Norah's stomach dropped.
"By who?"
The manager clicked through the record.
"According to the log, by you."
Norah stared at him.
"I've been in Gabriel's office for two days."
"The biometric record shows a fingerprint match."
Gabriel turned to Luca.
"Lock the building."
The manager protested.
"Sir, you cannot—"
Gabriel looked at him.
The protest ended.
They moved downstairs to the vault.
The manager used his master key.
Norah used the brass key recovered from Owen's attacker.
The lock turned.
She pulled out the long metal box.
It was lighter than she remembered.
Too light.
They carried it into a private viewing room.
Norah opened the lid.
The notebook was gone.
Inside were only three things.
A photograph.
A flash drive.
And an old newspaper clipping.
Norah picked up the photograph first.
It showed her father standing beside a much younger Gabriel Kane.
Gabriel looked no older than twenty-five.
Norah stared at him.
"You knew my father."
Gabriel did not answer.
Luca looked from the photograph to his boss.
"Gabriel?"
Norah unfolded the newspaper clipping.
The headline reported Daniel Vale's fatal car crash.
Someone had circled one paragraph in red ink.
Investigators stated that Vale had recently consulted with representatives of Kane Development regarding irregularities in a municipal rebuilding contract.
Norah read the sentence twice.
Then she looked at Gabriel.
"You told me you didn't know his name."
Gabriel's face stayed completely still.
"I said nothing."
"You let me think you didn't know him."
"Norah."
"Were you involved in the investigation?"
He hesitated.
That hesitation hurt more than a denial.
Norah stepped backward.
"Were you involved in his death?"
Luca looked stunned.
Gabriel's voice lowered.
"No."
"Then why are you in this picture?"
Norah inserted the flash drive into a bank-owned offline laptop before anyone could stop her.
Gabriel gave her a hard look.
"You just found a mystery drive in a box targeted by armed men."
"Which is why I am using their laptop."
The night manager looked alarmed.
"Please don't use our laptop."
Norah glanced at him.
"Then stand farther away."
Gabriel almost smiled.
The drive contained only one file.
VALE_LEDGER_INDEX.pdf.
Norah opened it.
The document listed hundreds of numbered entries without names.
Each entry had a date, a project code, and a two-letter designation.
DK.
SC.
EV.
GK.
Gabriel pointed to his initials.
"That one is supposed to be me."
Norah shook her head.
"Maybe."
"You really hate conclusions."
"Premature ones."
She sorted the dates.
The GK entries began sixteen years earlier and stopped thirteen years earlier.
Daniel Vale died thirteen years ago.
Norah felt the connection before she could explain it.
"These are not payments."
Gabriel looked at her.
"What are they?"
"Contact events. Meetings, calls, evidence exchanges."
She pointed to an entry marked GK at a date fifteen years earlier.
The project code matched a municipal rebuilding contract Gabriel's company had held at the time.
A second GK entry occurred two weeks later.
Then another beside DV.
Daniel Vale.
Norah looked at Gabriel.
"You really did know him."
Gabriel looked at the old index.
Something moved behind his eyes.
"I met an auditor years ago. He never gave me his full name."
"You remembered him?"
"I remember people who tell me I am being robbed."
"Did he?"
Gabriel nodded once.
"He said someone was using our contracts to move public money."
Norah's anger rose.
"And you didn't think that was worth mentioning ten minutes ago?"
"I didn't know it was your father."
She wanted to believe him.
That frightened her.
The night manager looked toward the vault hallway.
A distant door clicked.
Gabriel turned.
Luca's hand moved toward his weapon.
The laptop screen flickered once.
Then every ceiling light died.
Before he could answer, the vault lights went out.
Absolute darkness swallowed the room.
A second later, a gunshot exploded from the corridor.
Gabriel grabbed Norah and pulled her to the floor.
Another shot shattered the glass door above them.
Luca fired back toward the hallway.
The emergency lights flickered red.
Norah saw a masked man rush past the doorway.
Gabriel raised his weapon.
The attacker threw something into the room instead of firing.
A small black device landed beside the open deposit box.
It began blinking.
May you like
Gabriel's eyes widened.
"Move!"
