Chapter 3 - Victor Was Afraid of More Than Losing His JobVictor disappeared before security could formally question him.
Not through the ballroom entrance.
Through the service elevator.
Paul Mercer discovered it nine minutes later.
“He left his phone.”
Marcus stared at the device on Victor’s office desk.
People abandoned phones when they expected them to be searched.
Or tracked.
Paul looked unsettled.
“I’ve known Victor eight years.”
Marcus said nothing.
“He’s arrogant.”
“That we established.”
“But running?”
Marcus looked toward Emily.
She sat in Paul’s office with the violin case on her lap.
A female security officer remained nearby at Emily’s request.
“No one runs from a slap if they’re innocent of everything else.”
Paul nodded reluctantly.
Marcus had once run Richard Hale’s personal security.
Years ago.
Before Anna vanished.
Before Richard fired half the people closest to her.
Paul had been younger then.
He remembered Marcus as dangerous.
He did not know why Marcus left.
Most assumed Richard dismissed him.
The truth was messier.
Marcus quit after Anna disappeared because Richard refused to believe his own daughter had been in danger.
At least that was what Marcus believed then.
Now Anna’s letter suggested something else.
Marcus picked up Victor’s desk phone.
“Get me Richard.”
Paul’s eyebrows lifted.
“You just read ‘do not take Emily to my father.’”
“I’m not taking Emily anywhere.”
“So why call him?”
“Because Victor ran.”
Marcus looked toward the door.
“If somebody inside Hale Hotels knows what that violin means, Richard may already be in danger too.”
Paul hesitated.
Then called.
Richard Hale was upstairs.
The gala celebrated the seventieth anniversary of the Beverly Hills Grand.
Richard was scheduled to speak at ten.
He had no idea his granddaughter had walked into his hotel.
Marcus ended the call without explaining why he wanted the meeting.
Emily looked up when he returned.
“You called him.”
Marcus did not lie.
“Yes.”
Her face closed.
“My mom said—”
“I know.”
“Then why?”
“Because Victor ran.”
“That’s not my problem.”
“You’re right.”
Marcus sat.
“But if your mother spent nine years hiding you from someone close to Richard, and the man who just stole your violin ran the moment your identity came up, I need to know whether those things connect.”
Emily stared at him.
“You sound like a cop.”
“Your mother said worse.”
“Were you?”
“Marine. Then private security.”
Emily nodded toward his arms.
“The tattoos?”
“Mostly bad decisions.”
That earned the faintest smile.
Then she asked:
“What’s the Blue Room?”
Marcus’s expression changed.
Richard’s penthouse at the original Hale hotel in San Francisco once had a private receiving room painted dark blue.
Family business took place there.
Deals not meant for boardrooms.
Anna hated it.
“She called it the room where rich people decided what truth cost.”
Emily stopped smiling.
Marcus remembered something.
The room had been renovated twelve years earlier.
Or supposedly renovated.
The furnishings moved into storage.
Maybe “Blue Room ledger” meant an accounting record.
Maybe a literal ledger.
Paul entered carrying a tablet.
“We pulled footage.”
Victor left through the loading dock.
A black Mercedes collected him.
Plate obscured.
Marcus watched.
Then saw something before Victor entered the car.
He handed a man an object.
Small.
White.
“What’s that?”
Paul zoomed.
An envelope.
Not Anna’s.
Victor never touched Anna’s envelope.
Marcus rewound.
Victor had taken something from his own jacket.
A folded note.
“Who’s in the car?”
“Face isn’t visible.”
Emily suddenly spoke.
“I saw him.”
Marcus turned.
“What?”
“Before Victor hit me.”
She pointed to the screen.
“The car guy?”
“No.”
Emily shook her head.
“Victor talked to somebody near the champagne tables.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“What did he look like?”
“Old.”
Marcus almost smiled.
“Old like me?”
“Older.”
Paul coughed to hide a laugh.
Emily continued.
“Gray suit. Little gold pin.”
“What kind?”
She thought.
“Bird?”
Marcus’s face changed.
“Hawk?”
Emily nodded.
Paul looked confused.
Marcus was not.
The Hale family used a hawk as the symbol of its private holding company.
Only senior executives and family trustees wore that pin at formal events.
Victor had spoken to someone very high inside Richard’s organization immediately before approaching Emily.
Maybe he did not simply notice her by accident.
Marcus turned back to Emily.
“Did Victor see you first?”
She thought.
“No.”
“The man in the gray suit?”
Emily nodded slowly.
“He looked at my case.”
Marcus felt a chill.
The violin.
Whoever wore that pin may have recognized the case before Victor saw the instrument.
A knock came.
Paul opened the door.
An elderly man entered.
Tall.
Silver hair.
Perfect tuxedo.
Richard Hale.
He looked annoyed.
“Marcus.”
Then he saw Emily.
Everything stopped.
Emily looked up.
Richard’s eyes moved to her face.
Then the violin.
His hand gripped the doorframe.
Marcus remembered Anna’s warning.
Trust no one inside the Hale organization.
Especially not the person who smiles first when they see her.
May you like
Richard did not smile.
He started crying.
Related Stories
