“Just a lady we know,” I said, trying to force a reassuring smile. “It’s okay, sweetie.”

“Is it the mean grandmother?” Lucas asked, his eyes wide and bright in the dim light.

I didn’t answer him.

Alexander turned back to the safe, his fingers spinning the silver dial.

The metallic clicks echoed in the quiet room like tiny gunshots.

“I need the physical ledger from three years ago,” Alexander muttered. “And the backup drives.”

“Why physical ledger?” I asked, keeping one eye on the window that faced the long driveway.

“Because Victoria had the digital records on the main server scrubbed last year,” he said.

He pulled the heavy steel door open.

Inside the safe were stacks of bound papers, black leather books, and a row of silver external hard drives.

His phone began to vibrate on the desk.

The screen lit up with Margaret Wells’s name.

Alexander snatched it and pressed the speaker button. “Margaret. Tell me you have something.”

“I do, Alexander,” Margaret’s crisp, calm voice filled the library. “But it is worse than we thought.”