Chapter 10 - The Man Behind the Door
Elena spent two nights in the hospital.
Cassandro barely left.
Audrey was brought to her the following morning after doctors approved the visit.
The little girl stood in the doorway holding a replacement stuffed rabbit.
For once, Audrey said nothing.
Elena opened her arms.
Audrey ran.
Cassandro turned away as mother and daughter clung to each other.
Seven weeks of fear collapsed into one hospital room.
Later, when Audrey slept against Elena’s chest, Brooks began asking questions.
Elena remembered most of what happened.
Vivienne and Damian confronted her at the mansion.
They demanded her backup files.
Elena refused.
Damian forced her into an SUV through the service entrance.
At West Briar, they kept her in a basement room.
They wanted the password to the laptop.
She never gave it.
Vivienne visited three times.
Damian came almost daily.
But there was another man.
“He never entered the room while the lights were on,” Elena said.
“What did you hear?”
“A cane.”
Brooks looked up.
“A cane?”
“He walked slowly. Hard tip against concrete.”
Cassandro’s expression changed.
Elena noticed.
“What?”
Cassandro thought of Paul’s confession.
Of the old corruption scandal.
Of a man he had not seen in years.
“Graham Knox uses a cane.”
Vivienne’s father.
Officially, Graham lived in North Carolina.
Public records showed almost nothing recent.
Brooks immediately began checking.
Two hours later she returned.
Graham Knox had not lived in North Carolina for over a year.
He had quietly moved back to Florida.
A toll camera captured a black Lincoln registered to one of his companies less than five miles from West Briar on three different dates.
Including the day of the raid.
Cassandro leaned against the wall.
“This was never just Vivienne getting revenge.”
Elena shook her head.
“No.”
She looked at him.
“Your father accused Graham of stealing millions.”
“He was stealing.”
“Then he spent twenty years teaching his children that the Vales stole from him.”
Brooks’s phone buzzed.
She read the message.
“Graham’s car was found.”
“Where?”
“Orlando International Airport.”
Cassandro stood.
Brooks held up a hand.
“He didn’t board a flight.”
Security footage showed Graham entering the terminal.
But never entering a gate.
He changed clothes inside a restroom.
Left through a rental-car shuttle exit.
Then disappeared again.
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Graham Knox knew police were looking for him.
And unlike his children, he had been planning his escape for years.
