Chapter 4: The Name Julian Had Not Spoken in Four Years
Thomas spoke for forty minutes without stopping.
Julian did not interrupt.
He stood at first, then sat on the edge of the desk, then stood again.
He moved the way men move when they are trying to keep something contained that does not want to be contained — small, controlled shifts that burned through the stillness so the stillness could hold.
When Thomas finished, the room was silent.
Lily had woken partway through and was now sitting upright in Nora's lap, leaning against her mother's chest, watching Julian with the calm curiosity of a child who does not yet understand that some silences are dangerous.
Julian looked at Nora.
"Victor came to you."
"Three weeks after Claire d*ed," Nora said.
"I didn't know who he was.
He said he was a family friend.
He said he had heard about Claire and wanted to offer his condolences.
He asked if she had left anything behind.
Letters, documents, anything personal." Nora kept her voice even.
"I told him no.
He didn't believe me.
He came back twice more."
"Did he threaten you?"
"The third time, yes.
He said that a woman raising a child alone in Chicago could find herself in very difficult circumstances if she wasn't careful about whose business she involved herself in." Nora paused.
"That was when I understood that whatever Claire had been afraid of was real.
And that Lily was part of it."
Julian's jaw moved.
"Why didn't you go to the police?"
"Claire had told me not to.
She said the people involved had connections inside the department.
She said the only person she trusted was you — and that I should never go to you directly because it would put Lily in danger before she was old enough to be protected." Nora looked down at her daughter.
"She said to wait.
She said to get close.
She said to let you see Lily first, before anyone told you anything."
Julian looked at Lily.
Lily looked back at him.
She held up the stuffed rabbit.
"His name is Percy," she said.
Something crossed Julian's face that he did not manage to control.
He crouched down to her level.
"That's a good name."
"Mama picked it.
But I agreed."
"That's how the best decisions get made." His voice was very quiet.
Lily studied him with the same serious expression she had worn before stepping onto the marble floor.
Then she said, "You look like you need tea."
A sound came out of Julian that was not quite a laugh and not quite anything else.
He straightened up.
He turned to the window.
His hand went to the back of his neck.
"Victor," he said.
The name landed in the room like something dropped from a height.
"I want him found tonight.
Not tomorrow.
Tonight."
"Marcus is already running his last known locations," Thomas said.
"I want a name on that message you received.
The warning about the p*ison.
Someone sent it to you, Thomas.
Someone who knew enough to warn you but not enough — or not willing enough — to warn me directly."
Thomas hesitated.
"There is a woman.
She worked in Victor's household for several years.
She left his employment approximately eight months ago.
I believe she is the one who sent the message."
"Name."
"Elena Vasquez.
She lives in Pilsen.
I have an address."
Julian looked at Marcus, who had been standing silently near the door since they entered.
"Bring her in.
Carefully.
She's not a threat — she's a witness.
Treat her accordingly."
Marcus nodded and left.
Julian turned back to Nora.
He looked at her for a long moment — this woman who had carried his daughter through eighteen months of careful silence, who had cleaned his floors and served his guests and stood in his ballroom holding a tray while the room laughed at her child.
"I owe you an apology," he said.
"You didn't know."
"That's not the same as not owing one." He pulled a chair from the corner and set it closer to where she sat.
He did not sit in it.
He rested one hand on the back of it.
"Claire wrote to me.
I need you to know that.
Three letters, in the last two months before she disappeared.
I never received them.
I found out six months later that they had been intercepted.
I did not know she was trying to reach me.
I did not know about Lily."
Nora was quiet.
"If I had known," Julian said, "nothing that happened to Claire would have happened."
"I believe you," Nora said.
And she meant it.
Lily had fallen asleep again, her head against Nora's shoulder, Percy the rabbit tucked under her arm.
Julian watched his daughter sleep.
His expression was the most unguarded thing Nora had seen on any face in that house.
"She looks like her," he said.
"Around the eyes," Nora said.
"And when she laughs.
Claire used to laugh exactly like that — like it surprised her every time."
Julian nodded slowly.
He did not say anything else for a moment.
Then his phone rang.
He looked at the screen.
His face changed — not fear, but something colder and more focused.
"It's the hospital," he said.
He answered it.
He listened.
His hand tightened on the phone.
"What do you mean she's gone?" he said.
"She was sedated.
She was monitored." A pause.
"How long ago?"
He lowered the phone.
"Cassandra checked herself out," he said.
"Forty minutes ago.
Against medical advice.
She told the duty nurse she had somewhere she needed to be."
Thomas stood up slowly.
Nora pulled Lily closer without thinking.
Julian was already moving toward the door.
May you like
"Find her," he said.
"Before Victor does."
