Chapter 12 - A Crack in the Citadel
There was an agonizing pause on the other end of the line, followed by the muffled sound of a kitchen door clicking shut.
"Mrs. Vance... child, where are you?" Mrs. Higgins whispered, her voice cracked with distress. "There are men in suits everywhere. Mr. Julian has private security standing at the gates. They won't even let Master Leo into the garden. That woman... Victoria... she has him locked in the third-floor nursery with a private tutor."
"Is Leo hurt?" Elena demanded, her knuckles whitening around the plastic receiver.
"He won't eat," the old woman said tearfully. "He keeps asking for you and his sister. Yesterday Mr. Julian caught him crying in the library and took his mother's watch away. He told the boy he was a disgrace to the Vance name."
A cold, lethal fury settled into Elena's chest. "Martha, I need you to do something dangerous. I need you to deliver a message to Leo before noon."
"Anything, child. I can't bear what they're doing to this home."
"Tell him the toy train his mother gave him has a duplicate key under the brass wheel. Tell him to look inside the base of the clock in the library during his afternoon study hour. And Martha... tell him his mother is coming to get him tonight."
"Tonight? Elena, the security—"
"Julian is attending the pre-hearing dinner at the Metropolitan Club at eight o'clock, isn't he?" Elena interrupted, knowing Julian’s vanity like the back of her hand. He would never miss an opportunity to court the judges and corporate board members before the conservatorship vote.
"Yes," Martha whispered. "Victoria is going with him. They're leaving the house at seven-thirty."
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"Good," Elena said. "Leave the delivery cellar latch unbolted when the florist arrives with the dinner centerpieces. That's all you have to do. Keep Leo ready."
Elena hung up the phone. She had eight hours to prepare the ground. She couldn't simply extract Leo; an extraction without the vault documents would only trigger an amber alert, branding her a kidnapper. She needed the vault key, and she needed the boy to walk out of that house under the cover of legitimate legal protection. To do that, she needed an ally with the authority to stand between Julian Vance and the state police. She turned away from the docks and headed toward the one office Julian couldn't buy: the regional bureau of federal maritime trade.
