Chapter 3 - THE BROKEN DISPLAY CASE
Security guards spread through the ballroom.
The guests were ordered to remain against the walls.
One of the side windows had been shattered.
Cold night air moved through the opening.
Blood marked the edge of the glass.
But the lawn outside was empty.
Senator Vaughn’s wife stood beside the stage.
She kept repeating that she did not know where her husband had gone.
Victoria demanded the doors be opened.
No one listened to her.
Vance searched the floor near the broken window.
He found a torn strip of dark fabric.
It matched Vaughn’s tuxedo.
“He took the medal,” Maya said.
Vance nodded.
“He knew it contained something.”
“Contained?”
“The medal was designed with a sealed interior.”
“General Cross used it to carry emergency identification.”
Vance turned his matching medal in his hand.
A nearly invisible line circled its edge.
“It may hold a military code.”
“Or evidence.”
Ethan came closer.
“You believe Vaughn kidnapped Maya?”
“I believe he knows why she was taken.”
Victoria laughed too loudly.
“Conrad Vaughn was twenty-six years old when that convoy disappeared.”
“He was a junior attorney.”
Vance looked at her.
“You know a great deal about his life twenty-four years ago.”
Victoria’s face tightened.
“We have been business partners for decades.”
Maya studied her mother-in-law.
The slap no longer seemed like the most important thing Victoria had done that night.
“Did you know about my medal before tonight?”
“No.”
“Did you know my birth records were sealed?”
Ethan looked at his mother.
“What is she talking about?”
Maya faced him.
“Last year, your family investigator requested my childhood files.”
“I found the receipt in your office.”
Ethan’s eyes shifted toward Victoria.
“I thought it was for the adoption paperwork.”
“We never adopted anyone.”
“For Rose’s security file.”
Maya shook her head.
“You did not even know I saw it.”
Victoria raised her chin.
“Every person entering this family is investigated.”
“Then what did you find?”
“Nothing.”
Vance stepped closer.
“That is impossible.”
“Records involving the missing Cross child would have triggered federal alerts.”
Victoria looked toward the broken window.
For one second, fear passed through her eyes.
Maya saw it.
“You found something.”
Victoria said nothing.
Ethan moved between them.
“Mother.”
“What did you know?”
She turned on him.
“I protected you.”
“From my wife?”
“From a woman carrying a name that could destroy everything we built.”
The ballroom became silent again.
Maya’s voice was barely audible.
“You knew who I was.”
Victoria looked at her.
“I knew who you might be.”
A security guard entered from the garden.
He carried a black leather briefcase.
“It was beneath Senator Vaughn’s car.”
Vance opened it.
Inside were three passports.
A handgun.
May you like
Two million dollars in bearer bonds.
And a photograph of Maya taken outside her group home when she was twelve years old.
