Chapter 12 - The Man on the Balcony
Mateo fired first.
The shot shattered the balcony glass.
The intruder dropped behind a concrete planter.
Leo dragged Lily from the bed.
Beatrice pulled a blanket around the child and moved her toward the hallway.
“Safe room.”
Leo pointed toward a hidden panel.
Beatrice stopped.
“I’m not leaving you.”
“That was not a request.”
For one second, anger flashed between them.
Then Lily clung to Beatrice.
Decision made.
Beatrice carried her into the safe room.
Leo closed the steel door behind them.
Outside, Mateo and two guards moved through the penthouse.
The intruder never reached the interior.
He surrendered twelve minutes later after discovering the service elevator had been disabled.
His name was Cole Mercer.
Former military contractor.
Currently employed by a Kensington subsidiary.
Federal investigators arrived before sunrise.
Cole refused to speak.
Then Naomi Carter showed him a photograph of his bank transfer.
He began talking.
Sterling had ordered him to retrieve “an item belonging to Sofia Rossi.”
“What item?” Naomi asked.
“A blue flash drive.”
Leo and Mateo exchanged a look.
Bluebird contained four flash drives.
Three had been copied.
One had not opened.
Its encryption remained unbroken.
Sterling knew exactly which one mattered.
“What else were you told?” Naomi asked.
Cole looked toward Leo.
“If the maid was there, take her too.”
Beatrice felt her stomach drop.
“Why?”
“He said she might know where Sofia hid the second key.”
Leo turned toward her.
“Second key?”
Beatrice shook her head.
“I don’t know anything about another key.”
Cole shrugged.
“I only know what I was told.”
Back inside the penthouse, Beatrice paced.
“This makes no sense.”
Leo watched her.
“Sofia gave you the cookbook.”
“Yes.”
“She wrote the warning.”
“Yes.”
“She told me to trust the woman Lily trusts.”
“That could have meant anyone.”
“It meant you.”
“You don’t know that.”
Leo stepped closer.
“I think Sofia chose you before either of us understood why.”
Beatrice stared at him.
Then she remembered something.
“My mother.”
Leo frowned.
“What?”
“The cookbook wasn’t the first time I saw Sofia.”
Silence.
Beatrice’s heart began pounding.
“Years before I worked for you, my mother cleaned offices downtown.”
“Which offices?”
“I helped her sometimes.”
“Beatrice.”
She looked at him.
“Kensington Global.”
Leo went still.
“My mother cleaned Sterling Kensington’s private floor.”
“When?”
“About six years ago.”
“Did she know Sofia?”
“I don’t know.”
Beatrice pressed her fingers to her forehead.
“There was a woman who used to meet my mother in the service hallway.”
“What woman?”
“I only saw her once.”
“What did she look like?”
“Dark hair.”
Beatrice’s eyes widened.
“She gave my mother an envelope.”
Leo’s voice became barely audible.
“Sofia.”
Beatrice turned.
“My mother kept a locked box until she died.”
“Where is it?”
May you like
Beatrice whispered the answer.
“My apartment.”
