Chapter 7 - The Wire Transfer|
The drive back to the compound took twelve minutes. Nico drove with one hand on the wheel and the black ledger box sitting on the passenger seat beside him.
When he pulled through the iron gates, Dante was waiting under the driveway lantern, holding a smoking cigarette.
"Boss," Dante said, stepping up to the driver's window. "Walter Brandt's men just hit the hospital downtown."
Nico paused, his fingers tightening on the leather steering wheel. "Why the hospital?"
"They were looking for Eleanor’s body," Dante said, blowing a cloud of gray smoke into the night air. "When they realized the morgue didn't have her, Brandt put out a two-hundred-thousand-dollar bounty on the nanny. He told the streets she kidnapped his grandkids and set the fire."
Nico got out of the car, grabbing the black ledger box.
"Get her upstairs," Nico said smoothly.
"The cellar?"
"My office."
Three minutes later, Josie was brought into the second-floor study. She wore a clean grey sweatshirt Mrs. Gable had given her, her wet hair slicked back behind her ears.
Nico sat behind the mahogany desk, sliding the Cayman Islands wire transfer receipt across the wood until it rested in front of her.
"Fifty thousand dollars," Nico said coldly. "Wired to an account in your name forty-eight hours ago. You told me you didn't know about the money in the diaper bag."
Josie looked down at the paper. Her expression didn't change to fear. It changed to a deep, heartbreaking sadness.
"She told me she was setting up a trust for the babies," Josie whispered, her eyes filling with tears. "She asked for my social security number and my mother's maiden name last week. She told me if anything ever happened to her, I was supposed to take Leo and Maya to a house in Vermont."
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"Vermont?"
"Her mother’s old cabin," Josie said, looking up at him. "Ellie knew her father was going to kill her, Nico. She knew it for weeks."
