Chapter 9 - BEFORE MIDNIGHT
Meridian Bank’s lobby was empty.
An overnight manager met Naomi, Arthur and Detective Ortiz beside a private elevator.
“Vault 71 is an offline authorization room,” he explained.
“Who entered it tonight?”
“Gideon Price and a woman carrying Arthur Caldwell’s medical power of attorney.”
The woman wore a silver scarf.
Arthur placed his palm against the biometric reader.
Access denied.
His authority had been suspended.
Naomi tried hers.
The scanner turned red.
Her stolen identity could authorize a transfer.
It could not stop one.
“Break the door,” she said.
“If we force it, the transfer completes automatically.”
Twenty-one minutes remained.
Naomi studied Ethan’s photograph from Room 814.
The newspaper was folded beneath his hand.
Four handwritten words appeared near his thumb.
USE THE FIRST THING SHE LOST.
“Lila’s first tooth,” Naomi said.
Ethan had placed it inside a silver music box.
The box also contained a voice message he recorded for her.
It remained at Caldwell Tower.
Arthur ordered security to retrieve it.
The audio file reached the bank with nine minutes remaining.
Ethan’s voice filled the lobby.
“If you found this, Little Bird, you were braver than the tooth fairy.”
The biometric reader flashed blue.
The elevator opened.
Ortiz and two officers entered first.
Vault 71 was empty.
Two chairs faced an authorization screen.
On one chair rested Gideon’s leather case.
Inside were forged medical certificates, copied signatures and written instructions for framing Lila.
The transfer clock showed six minutes.
The computer requested a legacy phrase.
Naomi entered LITTLE BIRD.
Access denied.
Arthur tried Lila’s birthday.
Access denied.
Naomi replayed Ethan’s message.
If you found this, Little Bird, you were braver than the tooth fairy.
On the night Lila lost her first tooth, she had been frightened by the blood.
Ethan asked what made her brave.
Lila answered with two words.
Mommy stayed.
Naomi entered them.
The screen turned white.
TRANSFER SUSPENDED.
Thirty-two seconds remained.
Arthur closed his eyes.
One hundred and eighty million dollars had been saved by the memory of a frightened child.
Ortiz opened Gideon’s case again.
The documents were copies.
The most important evidence was missing.
“He wanted us to find this,” Ortiz said.
A monitor inside the case came alive.
May you like
It showed Lila asleep in the hotel’s bridal suite.
Behind her, the woman wearing Miriam Sloane’s face raised a syringe.
