Chapter 2 - The Woman in the Photograph
By sunrise, Lily had learned three things about Tristan Cain.
First, he did not sleep when people were trying to kill him.
Second, he trusted almost nobody.
Third, when he was angry, the room became quieter instead of louder.
She sat at the edge of a leather chair in a private conference room two floors below the presidential suite while a doctor checked the bruise forming along her knee.
She had expected panic.
What she got instead was paperwork.
Forms.
Security reports.
Photographs.
Maps.
Time stamps.
The men around the table spoke in clipped phrases about sightlines and access points as if someone had attempted to assassinate a billionaire every Tuesday.
Maybe they did.
Lily kept looking at the photograph.
It was still on the table.
Someone had taken it from across the street.
Not with a phone.
With a long-lens camera.
The image showed her standing in front of St. Vincent's Medical Center, holding a paper bag from the pharmacy.
She remembered that day.
It had rained.
Her mother had been discharged after a blood transfusion.
Lily had been crying.
She hadn't realized anyone had seen.
Tristan entered the room at seven twelve in the morning.
He had a file in one hand.
He sat across from her.
"The hotel camera footage is incomplete."
Lily looked up.
"Why?"
"Three cameras went dark for eleven minutes."
"Because of the shooter?"
"Because someone disabled them."
"So this was planned."
"Yes."
He placed the file down.
"There was a second problem."
"What?"
"You didn't arrive at this hotel voluntarily."
She felt confused.
"I came with my boss."
"Adrian Cross?"
"Yes."
"He says you left the dinner at eleven thirty."
"I don't remember."
"Your building pass shows you entered the hotel at ten fifty-six."
Lily frowned.
"I thought it was later."
"It was."
He pushed a printout toward her.
"Your key card was programmed at eleven forty-two."
"That doesn't make sense."
"No."
He tapped another page.
"Your room assignment was forty-oh-eight."
"Yes."
"But you were given a key for forty-fourteen."
"By the front desk."
"Which front desk clerk?"
"I don't remember."
"That's convenient."
Lily looked at him sharply.
"I wasn't trying to get into your room."
"I know."
The certainty in his voice surprised her.
He leaned back.
"Someone drugged you."
She stared at him.
"What?"
"The alcohol didn't explain your memory loss."
Lily's stomach twisted.
"The doctor found a sedative in your blood."
Her face went pale.
"I was drugged?"
"Yes."
"Who?"
"We're finding out."
Lily looked at her hands.
"Why would someone drug me?"
"Because a drunk secretary stumbling into the wrong suite looks like an accident."
His eyes met hers.
"A programmed key card isn't."
The door opened.
A woman in a dark suit entered.
"Mr. Cain."
She was thirty-five, maybe.
Sharp eyes.
Black hair.
No makeup.
She placed a tablet in front of him.
"Security traced the access manipulation."
"To where?"
"Your company's internal network."
Lily looked up.
Her heart sank.
"What?"
The woman glanced at her.
"This is Eva Moretti. Chief security."
Lily knew the name.
Everyone in the company did.
Eva was the person employees avoided in elevators.
She tapped the screen.
"Someone used Adrian Cross's authorization code to alter hotel access records."
Lily felt cold.
"Adrian?"
"Yes."
Tristan looked at Eva.
"Can you prove it?"
"His credentials were used. That doesn't mean he used them."
"Good."
Lily looked at Tristan.
"You think my boss did this?"
"I think your boss has access to enough systems to make this possible."
"Why would he want to hurt me?"
Tristan's gaze moved to the photograph.
"Maybe he doesn't."
"What does that mean?"
"Maybe you aren't the target."
She stared.
"Then who is?"
He didn't answer.
Instead he asked, "What did you do before Cain Holdings?"
"Administrative work."
"Where?"
"Several offices."
"Anything in finance?"
"No."
"Legal?"
"No."
"Government?"
"No."
"Police?"
Lily frowned.
"No."
He studied her expression.
"Do you remember your father?"
The question hit like a slap.
She went still.
"My father died when I was nine."
"How?"
"A car accident."
"Who told you that?"
"My mother."
"Did you see the body?"
"No."
The room went silent.
Lily stared at him.
"Why are you asking me this?"
Tristan slid another photograph across the table.
An old black-and-white image.
A man standing outside a courthouse.
The image was grainy.
But Lily recognized his eyes.
Her breath caught.
"That's not my father."
Tristan watched her.
"No."
"Then who is he?"
"His name was Marcus Bennett."
Lily stopped breathing.
"That's my father's name."
"He's your father."
She shook her head.
"No. He's dead."
"Your father died."
He pointed to the photograph.
"Marcus Bennett disappeared. He was never officially declared dead."
Lily felt the room tilt.
"What are you saying?"
"Your father was one of my father's accountants."
"Your father?"
"Victor Cain."
She looked at him.
Tristan continued.
"Marcus worked for him until he discovered a missing account worth thirty-eight million dollars."
Lily's mouth went dry.
"What account?"
"The account connected to a shell company called Bellweather."
"Why would that matter?"
"Because Bellweather financed a private operation that people have been trying to erase for twenty years."
Lily stared at the photograph.
"You think my father had something to do with it?"
"I think your father found something."
"And someone killed him."
"Maybe."
Her hands trembled.
"Where has he been all these years?"
"I don't know."
She stared at Tristan.
"You don't know?"
"No."
"Then why tell me?"
"Because last week someone accessed a sealed file about him."
Lily swallowed.
"Who?"
Tristan turned the tablet around.
A security log.
One line highlighted.
USER: ADRIAN CROSS
TIME: 2:14 A.M.
FILE ACCESSED: MARCUS BENNETT
Lily stared at it.
The man who had hired her.
The man who knew her mother's medical situation.
The man who had gotten her drunk at dinner.
Her boss.
He had opened her father's sealed file.
Lily looked up.
"Tell me you're wrong."
Tristan's expression softened by a fraction.
"I hope I am."
Eva spoke quietly.
"Mr. Cain, we also found a transfer."
"What transfer?"
"Twenty thousand dollars to Lily's mother's account."
Lily blinked.
"What?"
Eva showed her.
The money had been deposited that evening.
From an account belonging to a company Lily had never heard of.
Then a second line appeared.
PAYMENT REVERSED.
Someone had deposited twenty thousand dollars in her mother's name.
Then removed it six minutes later.
Lily whispered, "Why would they do that?"
May you like
Tristan answered without looking away.
"To test whether you were watching."
