Chapter 13
Elena's hand stayed on mine on the window latch. Behind us, the pantry smelled like old cereal and dust. In front of us, Marino's shadow filled the kitchen doorway, and the two suits stood in the hall listening.
"One," Elena whispered. Her fingers tightened.
I could feel her ring against my skin. Thin gold band, worn smooth. She had worn it all night, through the curtain and the office and the passage.
"Victor Kane!" Marino called again from the front hall. "Your father promised me that Harbor View lot in '98. That Red Ledger is my deed. You don't get to burn it."
The suit by the desk answered him. "House is secured. No one leaves till we have the book."
Elena looked at me. Her eyes were on my coat where the ledger pressed against my ribs.
"Two," she whispered.
I didn't move. "If we open this window, they hear it," I said, low.
"They hear us anyway," she said. "Marino knows my car. He knows I'm here. He knows you are."
Footsteps came closer. One of the suits walked toward the kitchen. His shoes hit the wood floor hard.
Elena made her choice. She let go of the latch and pulled her hand back. Then she reached inside her apron pocket and pulled out her keys. She slid them across the pantry shelf toward me, quiet.
"Take it," she said. "If you run, you take the book with you. I stay. They want the maid, not you."
I stared at the keys. "You're Daniel's wife," I said. "The book has his name in it."
She nodded. Tears started but she didn't wipe them. "Daniel fixed your father's furnace. He heard your father tell Marino the lot was for Daniel if Marino didn't pay the note. Your father wrote it on page forty-seven. Daniel told me to keep that page safe. Then Daniel died last winter. Heart. I stayed on because your father let me keep the apartment behind the kitchen. I kept the uniform because it let me watch the office."
The footsteps stopped right outside the utility room door. The locked door we had come through. A hand tried the knob. It rattled.
"Locked," the suit said loud. "Check the pantry."
Elena pushed the ledger deeper into my coat and zipped it shut for me. Her ring caught the dim light.
"My ring," she said. "Daniel gave it to me in this house. Your father was witness. That's why I didn't take it off when they searched me. If Marino gets that book, he crosses Daniel's name out. I don't let him."
The pantry door shivered as someone pulled it from the other side. We had only closed it to a slit. Light widened.
Elena stepped in front of me, straight, hands at her sides, the maid again. She raised her voice just enough to be heard.
"I'm here," she called. "Elena Reyes. I was cleaning. Mr. Kane is not here. He left this afternoon."
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The door opened another inch. The suit's face appeared, eyes down on her uniform.
I pressed my back against the cereal boxes, ledger hard against my chest, breathing through my nose so he wouldn't hear.
