“Where were you?”

“New Haven.”

“What happened then?”

“I told him I was coming.”

Adrian’s face became distant.

“He said not to.”

I felt cold.

“He warned both of us away.”

“Yes.”

“From what?”

“That is the question I have been asking for almost four years.”

A knock came.

Marco entered before Adrian answered.

His expression was different now.

Not alarmed.

Concerned.

“Sorry.”

“What?”

“Nora is asking for Clara.”

I stood immediately.

“Is she okay?”

“She’s fine.”

He hesitated.

“She found something.”

My stomach sank.

“What?”

Marco held up a piece of paper.

A photograph.

Old.

Creased.

James stood beside me outside the Boston coffee shop.

I remembered the day.

Except someone else stood several yards behind us.

A man in sunglasses.

Watching.

Adrian took the photograph.

“Where did this come from?”

“Nora’s purse.”

I frowned.

“No.”

I had never seen it.

Adrian turned it over.

Writing covered the back.

James’s handwriting.

My chest tightened.

Adrian read aloud:

If Clara ever has to show this to you, I was right about being followed.

I stared.

“I have never seen that photograph.”

Adrian examined the purse when Nora came running back in.

“Mommy!”

She hugged my legs.

“Where did you find this?”

Nora pointed at the watch.

“It was inside.”

Adrian’s expression sharpened.

The pocket watch had a hinged back.

I had opened it hundreds of times.

But beneath the obvious panel was a second thin compartment.

Adrian pressed along the edge.

Click.

A hidden chamber opened.

Inside was a tiny brass key.

And another folded strip of paper.

Adrian unfolded it.

Two words.

HARBOR 16.

Marco stopped breathing.

Adrian looked at him.

“You know it?”

Marco nodded slowly.

“Warehouse sixteen.”

My stomach tightened.

“What warehouse?”

Neither man answered immediately.

Finally Adrian said:

“It belonged to James.”

“I thought James didn’t want anything to do with family business.”

“He didn’t.”

“So why did he own a warehouse?”

“He bought it privately.”

“When?”

“Six months before he died.”

Marco added:

“And three weeks before the crash, someone broke into it.”

Adrian looked toward him sharply.

“You never told me that.”

“James asked me not to.”

The room went silent.

Apparently James had left behind an entire collection of instructions nobody shared with anyone else.

Adrian looked down at Nora.

She was trying to fit his tie around her stuffed rabbit.

Then he closed his hand around the key.

“I’m going to the warehouse.”

“So am I.”

“No.”

I stared.

“Excuse me?”

“If James hid something there, we don’t know who else knows.”

“He left the key with me.”

“He hid the key in a watch you didn’t know opened.”

“Still counts.”

Adrian’s eyes hardened.

I did not move.

Nora looked between us.

“Are you fighting?”

“No,” we both said.

She frowned.

“You have fight faces.”

Marco coughed suspiciously.

Adrian rubbed his forehead.

Finally he said:

“Marco stays with Nora.”

“No.”

This time Marco and I spoke together.

Adrian stared at us.

Marco explained.

“With respect, if we don’t know who followed James, Nora should remain here with full security.”

Adrian looked toward his niece.

That word had not been spoken aloud yet.

Niece.

But I saw him think it.

Something changed in his face.

“All right.”

He crouched in front of her.

The same movement that had frightened me earlier.

Now I understood why.

James.

“Nora.”

“Yes?”

“Your mother and I are going somewhere.”

“Can I come?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because Marco needs someone to supervise him.”

Marco looked offended.

Nora took this responsibility seriously.

“Okay.”

Adrian stood.

Then Nora caught his sleeve.

“My watch.”

He opened his hand.

For a moment I thought she wanted it back.

Instead she pushed his fingers closed around it.

“You borrow it too.”

Adrian stared at her.

“For luck?”

“No.”

She smiled.

“So you come back.”

Nobody said anything.

Adrian slipped James’s watch into his coat pocket.

“We’ll come back.”

The drive to Harbor 16 took forty minutes.

Rain began halfway there.

Of course it did.

By the time we reached the old industrial district, my hands were shaking.

The warehouse had been empty for years.

Or looked empty.

Adrian unlocked the side door with James’s tiny brass key.

Inside, dust covered everything.

Old crates.

A desk.

A rusting metal cabinet.

We found nothing for twenty minutes.

Then I noticed a coffee cup.

Clean.

Not dusty.

“Adrian.”

He saw it.

Someone had been here recently.

He motioned me behind him.

We moved toward the office.

The door stood slightly open.

Inside was an old tape recorder.

One chair.

And a sealed envelope.

ADRIAN.

He opened it.

Inside was a flash drive and one note.

If you found Clara, then I failed to keep her out of this.

Adrian’s hand trembled.

He continued reading.

There is something you need to know about the crash.

My breath caught.

Adrian read the next line silently.

His face changed.

“What?”

He looked at me.

For the first time since I had known him, the feared Adrian Cole looked genuinely afraid.

“My brother knew he was going to die.”

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