Chapter 4 - THE COUSIN WHO LEFT BEFORE DINNER
Mikhail Rostova controlled Julian’s northern territory.
He was charming, patient, and trusted by men who feared Julian’s directness.
He also had not answered his phone since the search of room seventeen-B.
His car remained in the Highcrest garage.
A maintenance truck had left the property using his authorization badge.
Security footage showed the driver wearing a hood.
Another figure sat in the passenger seat.
The figure appeared injured.
Mateo might still be alive.
Lila issued an alert for the truck.
Julian sent his own men searching.
Clara watched the difference.
The police followed procedures.
Julian’s people moved like men who had already decided what the rules allowed.
She feared what would happen if they found Mikhail first.
“You said you would let the law handle this,” she told Julian.
“I said I called the law.”
“That is not the same.”
“No.”
“At least you are honest.”
Julian looked toward the window.
“Honesty and goodness are not the same either.”
He had built his reputation through violence.
Clara knew better than to mistake restraint in one room for innocence everywhere.
Still, Bishop trusted him.
Mateo had trusted him.
Her father had once worked for his family.
She needed answers.
The memory card from the capsule contained three files.
The first showed Mateo inside room seventeen-B.
His face was bruised.
Mikhail stood behind the camera.
Vanessa entered carrying a folder.
The date was two nights before the gala.
“What did you do with Bishop?” Vanessa asked.
Mateo stared at her.
“He escaped.”
Mikhail struck him.
Vanessa stepped backward but did not object.
“You were supposed to keep the animal contained until Julian signed the transfer.”
“What transfer?” Clara asked.
Julian’s attorney opened the second file.
It showed documents assigning Julian’s legitimate hotel holdings to a new company called Vance-Rostova Hospitality.
Vanessa would control forty-nine percent after marriage.
Mikhail would control another forty-nine through a hidden trust.
Julian would retain two percent and public responsibility for all debt.
“They were going to strip your legal businesses,” Lila said.
“And leave me holding the investigations.”
The third file was an audio recording.
Vanessa’s voice came first.
Once the gala begins, Julian drinks from the engraved glass.
Mikhail answered.
The drug will look like a heart attack.
Vanessa hesitated.
“What about Clara?”
Clara’s blood became cold.
Mikhail replied.
The server saw the truck.
She disappears after her shift.
Clara stared at the speaker.
She had seen a maintenance truck outside Highcrest three nights earlier.
The driver had carried something heavy toward the west pavilion.
She assumed it was kitchen equipment.
Someone had noticed her watching.
The gala had not merely become dangerous after she carried Bishop inside.
She had already been selected as a loose end.
Julian turned off the recording.
His face held no visible emotion.
That frightened everyone.
Clara stepped in front of him.
“If you kill them, the evidence becomes a gang story.”
“Vanessa becomes a frightened woman trapped between criminals.”
“Mikhail becomes a dead man who cannot confess.”
Julian looked at her.
“What do you expect me to do?”
“Make them answer where people can hear.”
The sentence reminded him of something.
“Your father said that once.”
Clara’s throat tightened.
“What happened after he said it?”
May you like
Julian did not look away.
“He disappeared.”
