Page 160 of Hidden Tide
The second will leave through the rear service corridor with a plainclothes team.
Hazel’s real trunk will remain inside the apartment under guard.
“If Simon is watching,” Marquez says, “he’ll have to decide which transport to follow.”
“And when he does?” Hazel asks.
“We follow him.”
I look toward the ruined music box.
“What if he already took the film?”
Thomas shakes his head.
“He couldn’t open the compartment without the winding key.”
“He has the key now.”
“But not the trunk.”
“He could make a copy.”
“Not easily. James altered every key he used.”
Hazel stares at him. “You remember that but not who worked for you?”
Thomas’s hurt fills the room.
Hazel immediately looks ashamed.
“I’m sorry.”
“No.” Thomas lowers his head. “You have every right to be angry. James trusted me to protect these secrets.”
“Grandpa didn’t tell you everything.”
“He believed that would keep all of you safe.”
“It didn’t.”
The words come from me before I can soften them.
Thomas looks toward me.
“No,” he says. “It didn’t.”
Ben rubs his thumb across my knuckles.
I hadn’t realized I was still holding his hand.
Grandpa separated the evidence because he feared one person could betray him. He hid it inside gifts we would never willingly surrender. He gave us only enough information to protect our pieces.
But he didn’t consider how long secrets could live.
Or how many people they could hurt after he was gone.
Marquez’s phone rings.
