Chapter 4: Everything She Came Here For
Victoria was not in her suite.
Mateo found this out within four minutes.
He came back down the east corridor, stopped outside Lily's door, and said through the gap, "She's gone.
Room's clear.
Took one bag.
The rest is still here."
Beatrice heard Leo's silence from where she sat.
"The gate log," he said finally.
"Checked.
She didn't go through the main gate.
Side garden door.
The camera on that side has been offline for six days."
Another silence.
"Six days," Leo said.
"Yes."
"Who authorized the maintenance window?"
"Carver."
The name landed like a stone in still water.
Beatrice heard it from inside the room and felt the ripple move through the walls.
She looked down at Lily, still sleeping, one small fist curled under her chin.
Six days.
The camera had been dark for six days.
Long enough to plan.
Long enough to know exactly which door to use and exactly when to use it.
Victoria had not panicked tonight.
Victoria had run on a route she already knew.
Leo's voice came through the door again, quieter now.
"Find Carver."
"He's not in the staff quarters."
"I know." A pause.
"Find him anyway."
Mateo's footsteps moved away down the corridor.
Beatrice sat in the dark room and turned this over carefully, the way she turned difficult things over — not rushing, not flinching, just looking at the shape of it until she understood what she was seeing.
Victoria had arrived three months ago.
The camera had gone dark six days ago.
Carver had been the one to tell Leo that Lily's bruises were from the playground.
She thought about the funeral again.
Victoria at the back of the room, in a black dress that fit too well for something bought in grief.
The way she had introduced herself to Leo afterward — not intruding, just present, just close enough to be noticed.
A family friend, she had said.
A friend of Elena's, Lily's mother.
Someone who wanted to help.
Leo had believed her because he was a man drowning in loss and she had appeared with a life preserver.
Beatrice had believed her because it was not her place to question the people Leo chose to trust.
She would not make that mistake again.
The door opened.
Leo stepped back inside.
He looked at Lily, then at Beatrice.
"I need to ask you something," he said.
"Ask."
"The bruises you found.
The two times.
What did you actually see?"
Beatrice thought back carefully.
"The first time was eight weeks ago.
I was helping Lily change after her bath.
There was a mark on her upper arm — four fingers, pressed hard.
Not a fall.
I know what falls look like." She paused.
"The second time was five weeks ago.
Left side, two ribs.
She flinched when I dried her back.
She said she bumped into the garden wall."
"And you went to Carver."
"That same day.
Both times."
Leo sat in the chair by the window — the chair Beatrice had been sitting in — and put his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands.
He stayed like that for a moment.
Just a moment.
Then he lifted his head.
"Victoria came with references.
Three of them.
Personal letters.
One from a senator's wife.
One from a woman named Hargrove — Elena's college roommate, she said."
"Did you verify them?"
"Carver verified them."
Beatrice looked at him steadily.
"Did you speak to any of those women yourself?"
Leo's expression answered before he did.
"No," he said.
The word cost him something.
She could see it.
"Leo." She used his name for the first time without the title.
It came out quietly, without apology.
"I think Victoria came here with a purpose.
I don't think she came to help Lily.
I think she came because of you."
"Because of what I have."
"Or because of what happened to Elena." She hesitated.
"The bombing.
Has anyone ever told you who arranged it?"
Leo looked at her for a long time.
"The investigation was closed," he said.
"Officially."
"And unofficially?"
He didn't answer.
But he didn't look away either.
A phone buzzed in his coat pocket.
He pulled it out, read the screen, and went very still.
He turned the phone so Beatrice could see it.
A message from an unknown number.
May you like
Four words.
*She found what she came for.*
