“Arthur gave me a phrase.”
Leon leaned forward eagerly.
“Then make her enter it.”
Sadie’s gaze stayed on Victor.
“I’ll stop it when Arthur is safe.”
“I told you I don’t have him.”
“Find him.”
Paul pulled out his phone.
Victor said, “Use every contact we have.
Check stations, clinics, motels, and the storage properties Arthur could access.
Do not send Leon’s people.”
Paul made two calls.
Then a third.
The timer reached one minute and twenty-one seconds.
Sadie’s breathing had become shallow.
Victor could see the pain worsening, but she would not surrender the phrase while her brother remained missing.
Paul’s phone rang.
He answered, listened, and held it toward Victor.
“A call was placed from one of Arthur’s old freight accounts ten minutes ago.
It came from a motel outside Newark.”
“Call it.”
Paul dialed.
A man answered after the fourth ring.
“Who is this?”
Sadie pushed herself onto one elbow.
“Arthur?”
Silence.
Then her brother’s voice broke.
“Sadie?”
She closed her eye and began to cry without making a sound.
“I told you to leave Brooklyn,” Arthur said.
“Why didn’t you leave?”
“They found me.”
Arthur’s breathing stopped.
“Did Leon hurt you?”
Victor took the phone.
“She is alive.
She needs medical treatment.
Tell me the release phrase.”
Arthur recognized his voice immediately.
“You’re with her.”
“Yes.”
“Then listen carefully.
I stole from you.
I’ll answer for it.
But Leon was going to kill both of us and put every missing dollar under my name.”
“The drive supports that.”
“It supports more than that.
It contains your ledgers too.”
Victor looked at the countdown.
Forty-eight seconds.
Arthur continued, “If those files go out, Leon won’t be the only person destroyed.”
“I know.”
“Sadie can stop it.”
Victor looked at her bruised face, the torn sweater, the blood drying on the handkerchief he had once carried only because tailored suits required polished details.
Leon began speaking quickly.
