Chapter 4 - Beneath the Restaurant Was a Room That Had Been Locked for Twenty Years
Valencia opened at noon.
Customers had no idea a murder investigation was happening beneath them.
Jack and Grace entered through the kitchen.
Reed led them downstairs.
A steel door sat behind the wine cellar.
Jack stopped.
“This wasn't here before.”
Grace looked at it.
“It was.”
“You knew?”
“My mother used to bring me here when I was little.”
“You've never told me.”
“No one asked.”
The door opened.
Inside was an old office.
Files lined the walls.
Photographs covered the desk.
And in the center sat a black ledger.
Grace stepped toward it.
Her hands shook.
She opened the cover.
Names.
Dates.
Accounts.
Payments.
And the Remington family.
Jack read silently.
His face became harder with every page.
Then Grace saw her mother's handwriting.
She pointed.
“She was here.”
Jack leaned closer.
A note had been written in the margin.
If Grace ever finds this, tell her I loved her.
Grace began crying.
Jack wrapped an arm around her.
She didn't resist.
For several seconds, neither moved.
Then a sound came from the hallway.
Footsteps.
Reed raised his weapon.
A shot struck the door.
Another.
Jack pushed Grace behind him.
“Stay down.”
“I hate when you say that.”
“This isn't the time.”
He returned fire.
The attackers ran.
Reed chased them.
Grace looked at the ledger again.
One page had been torn out.
She touched the empty section.
“Something's missing.”
Jack crouched.
“What?”
“This page.”
“Can you remember what was there?”
“No.”
Then she noticed something beneath the desk.
A hidden drawer.
Inside was a tape recorder.
She pressed play.
Evelyn's voice.
“If you're hearing this, then they already know about Grace.”
Jack's eyes closed.
Evelyn continued.
“Jack must protect her.”
“Not because of the ledger.”
“Because Grace is the only person who can identify the man who ordered everything.”
Grace stared.
“Me?”
The recording continued.
“When Grace was six, she saw him.”
“But she was too young to remember.”
Jack looked at her.
“Who did you see?”
Evelyn whispered:
“The man wearing the Remington ring.”
Jack froze.
“My father.”
“No.”
Grace shook her head.
“Your uncle.”
Jack stood.
His uncle had supposedly died twenty years earlier.
Yet his ring was on the man in Grace's childhood photograph.
Jack suddenly realized the truth.
Marcus wasn't dead.
He had been running everything.
Then Reed returned.
“We lost them.”
Jack nodded.
“Of course.”
“Boss.”
Reed handed him another photograph.
Jack stared.
The photograph showed Marcus.
Alive.
Standing outside Grace's apartment.
Taken yesterday.
Jack's face became cold.
“He's been watching her.”
Grace swallowed.
“What do we do?”
Jack looked at her.
“We leave.”
“Where?”
“Somewhere he can't reach us.”
Grace laughed.
“You have a private island?”
“No.”
“A bunker?”
“Yes.”
She blinked.
“You're serious?”
“Yes.”
“Of course you have a bunker.”
Jack almost smiled.
Then the restaurant lights went out.
Someone screamed upstairs.
And a voice came through the intercom.
“Jack.”
Jack froze.
Marcus.
“You should have listened to your father.”
Jack raised his weapon.
Marcus laughed.
“Bring me the girl.”
Then the line went dead.
Jack looked at Grace.
“You're staying beside me.”
“That's the least romantic thing you've ever said.”
“It's not romantic.”
“I know.”
“It's necessary.”
Grace nodded.
And that frightened her more than any threat.
May you like
Because she realized she didn't want to leave him either.
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