Chapter 2 - THE MAN WHO RAN
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Ryan made it twelve feet.
Luca’s men made it eight.
Norah didn’t see where they came from.
One second Ryan was shoving past a waiter near the ballroom doors. The next, two men in black suits stepped from opposite sides of the entrance and blocked him without drawing weapons or raising their voices.
Ryan stopped so fast his dress shoe skidded against the marble.
“Move.”
Neither man moved.
Ryan looked over his shoulder.
His eyes found Norah.
For one terrible second, the ballroom disappeared.
She remembered a smaller apartment in Wicker Park.
Takeout cartons on the counter.
Ryan standing in their kitchen, swearing he had no idea why another five thousand dollars had vanished.
She remembered believing him because love had made her embarrassed by her own instincts.
She remembered coming home three days later and finding his closet empty.
Now he stood beneath a crystal chandelier wearing a hotel security badge.
“Norah,” he said.
She crossed the ballroom.
Luca stayed half a step behind her.
It was strangely comforting.
Ryan gave Luca one nervous glance.
“That looks bad.”
Norah folded her arms.
“Running usually does.”
“I wasn’t running.”
“You were moving toward the exit with the enthusiasm of a man being chased by federal agents.”
“Can we talk privately?”
“No.”
“Norah.”
“No.”
His face changed.
That old irritation appeared.
The one he used whenever she refused to make things easy for him.
“We have history.”
“So does tuberculosis. I don’t invite that back into my life either.”
A few nearby guests whispered.
Ryan lowered his voice.
“I didn’t steal the diamond.”
“Then why run?”
“Because the second I saw you, I knew this was going to turn into exactly what it’s turning into.”
Norah almost laughed.
“You haven’t seen me in two years.”
“I know.”
“And you just happen to work security at the hotel where someone plants a velvet pouch in my bag?”
“I didn’t plant anything.”
“Did you move the pedestal?”
Ryan’s expression flickered.
Tiny.
Barely noticeable.
But Luca saw it.
“Take him downstairs,” Luca said.
The security chief stiffened.
“You don’t have authority—”
Luca looked at him.
The chief stopped talking.
Ryan shook his head.
“I’m not going anywhere with him.”
Luca’s voice remained almost pleasant.
“Then answer the lady.”
“I don’t know anything.”
Norah stepped closer.
“Did you move my pedestal?”
Ryan rubbed his jaw.
“I was told to.”
The entire room seemed to contract around her.
“By who?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s a lie.”
“I got a work order.”
“From who?”
“Facilities.”
Norah stared at him.
“The pedestal is part of the exhibition. Facilities wouldn’t touch it without calling me.”
Ryan looked away.
“Then somebody forged the request.”
Luca glanced toward the security chief.
“Pull the work order.”
The man immediately radioed someone.
Norah hated how quickly people obeyed Luca.
She also hated how useful it was.
A moment later, the chief listened through his earpiece.
His face changed.
“No work order exists.”
Ryan swore softly.
Luca nodded toward the side doors.
“Now we talk downstairs.”
This time Ryan didn’t argue.
Ten minutes later, Norah found herself inside a private hotel conference room with Luca, Ryan, the security chief and Victoria Hale.
The ballroom remained locked down.
Guests were furious.
Lawyers had begun appearing out of nowhere.
The Belladonna Diamond remained missing.
On the conference table sat the empty velvet pouch.
Norah’s tool bag.
And photographs of the pedestal.
Ryan sat with his elbows on his knees.
Victoria stood by the window looking offended by the existence of the entire crisis.
“I already explained,” Ryan said. “I got a text telling me to move the display four inches left before the gala.”
Norah leaned forward.
“Show us.”
“I deleted it.”
“Of course you did.”
“It came from an unknown number.”
Luca watched him.
“Why would hotel security take installation instructions from an unknown number?”
Ryan hesitated.
Norah knew the answer before he spoke.
“Money.”
“How much?” Luca asked.
“Ten thousand.”
Victoria turned.
“You accepted ten thousand dollars to move an insured object without authorization?”
Ryan snapped, “I didn’t move the diamond. I moved a box.”
Norah stared.
“You never changed.”
Ryan’s jaw tightened.
“This isn’t about us.”
“No. Us only cost me forty-two thousand dollars.”
Victoria’s head turned sharply.
Even the security chief looked surprised.
Ryan’s face flushed.
“I paid some of that back.”
“You sent me eight hundred dollars.”
“I was trying.”
“You wrote ‘closure’ in the memo line.”
Luca’s gaze shifted slowly to Ryan.
“That was unwise.”
Ryan went quiet.
Norah ignored the unexpected warmth that sentence gave her.
“Why exactly four inches?”
“I don’t know.”
Luca placed one of the pedestal photographs on the table.
“Because four inches positioned it over this.”
At first Norah saw nothing.
Then she noticed the thin rectangular pattern between two marble tiles.
A service hatch.
She stood.
“No.”
The hotel chief leaned closer.
“That access panel leads into the old electrical raceway.”
Norah’s pulse quickened.
“The building was renovated in the nineties. Those channels aren’t used anymore.”
The chief nodded.
“Most were sealed.”
“Most?”
“One runs beneath the ballroom toward the original freight corridor.”
Luca looked at Ryan.
“What did the message say exactly?”
Ryan rubbed his face.
“Move the centerpiece four inches toward the windows. Make sure nobody sees you.”
“And you did.”
“Yes.”
“For ten thousand dollars.”
“Yes.”
Norah thought of the ten-second blackout.
Someone hadn’t needed to approach the display from the ballroom.
They could have approached it from underneath.
“Open the pedestal,” she said.
They returned upstairs.
This time only Norah, Luca, the chief and a hotel engineer approached the display.
The ornamental screw triggered the hidden panel.
Behind it was a narrow mechanical compartment that had not existed when Norah installed the structure.
Inside, a cable ran downward through a freshly drilled hole.
Luca crouched.
“What did the original case use?”
“Independent battery alarm,” Norah said. “No external wiring.”
“So this wire is new.”
The engineer traced it.
“It runs through the floor hatch.”
Norah felt suddenly sick.
Whoever planned this knew her design.
Not approximately.
Exactly.
They knew where she placed the pedestal.
They knew where the security sensor sat.
They knew how the acrylic case opened.
They knew enough to install a bypass system without leaving visible damage.
And afterward, they put the pouch in her bag.
This wasn’t simply a theft.
It was a theft designed to end with Norah Bennett in handcuffs.
Luca seemed to reach the same conclusion.
He stood.
“Everyone involved in installation needs to be identified.”
Victoria looked irritated.
“That’s dozens of people.”
“No,” Norah said.
Her voice came out quieter than she expected.
“The final plans weren’t shared with dozens of people.”
Luca turned toward her.
“How many?”
She swallowed.
“Four.”
“Names.”
“Me. Victoria. The insurance representative.”
She stopped.
Luca waited.
“And?”
Norah looked toward the ballroom.
At the wealthy donors watching through a wall of security officers.
At the people who had been so ready to believe a stranger’s accusation because she looked like someone who belonged behind the scenes rather than beneath a chandelier.
Then her eyes landed on a tall silver-haired man near the stage.
Graham Vale.
Chairman of the Harborlight Children’s Arts Fund.
May you like
The man who had personally insisted that Norah’s company handle the installation.
“The fourth person,” she whispered, “is the man who donated the diamond.”
