44. Noah #3
“Julian.” Veronica’s voice pulls our attention back to the matter at hand. “I wanted to apologize for my behavior the other day, I didn’t mean to come at you like that. I wasn’t in my right mind, and I lashed out. And for that, I am sorry.”
“No need for apologies. I understand the situation was a tender one and could make even the strongest of us react in such ways.” They both nod in agreement.
“So, what is it you wanted to talk about? The man is dead and finally out of our lives; what could we possibly need to know?” I ask with a frown, not really up for hearing more about the man who could have ruined everything for us.
“I thought you might want some answers on where he was and how he was gaining access to your home.” Julian waits.
“How?” Gabe finally bites.
“Does the name Antoine Fisher ring a bell?”
“The lobby desk clerk?” Gabe and I both look at Veronica with surprise. When she catches our gaze, she frowns. “You seriously don’t know who that is? He’s the young-looking one. He even called you when your mother was in the lobby.” She looks at Gabe.
He raises his brows. “I didn’t know that was his name.”
“What did I tell you both about making an effort?” she scolds us.
“Right… sorry?” Gabe gives her a big apologetic smile that only gains him an eye roll.
“Then you do know him?” Julian asks, intrigued.
“Well, yes. I’ve seen him often, and he was always really nice to me. He would offer to get me a driver every time I was leaving the building without—” Her eyes widen. “Oh my God… He… he wouldn’t have gotten me a driver… right?”
“That was the plan. He confessed to everything when Ricky and Marcos were trying to find the source of the power outage. They noticed he seemed nervous and kept looking at the time, as if he was waiting for something,” Julian confirms.
“But I don’t understand. Why him? What does he have to do with this?” Veronica searches for answers, looking at him in complete disbelief.
“He was simply a target, just as you all. Mr. Fisher happens to have a three-year-old daughter by the name of Priscillia. Victor discovered this information and threatened Priscillia’s life if Mr. Fisher did not cooperate.”
“Oh God…” Cecilia gasps.
“He went after a child? Are you freaking kidding me?!” Emma shouts. “I wish I could bring that fucker back to life, just to kill him again!”
“I’m right there with you, Bunny,” Greyson agrees.
“And I’m guessing they weren’t empty threats?” I question Julian.
“They were not. He had photographs of Fisher’s daughter at their home, her daycare. Everywhere that little girl went, he was right there. Fisher gave Victor access to your penthouse the first time. But once we changed the keycodes, he handed him a key for the main entrance,” Julian informs us.
“He also informed Victor about one of the tenants having a condo in the building that was rarely being used, since the owner is away half the year for business. Which is where Victor was hiding out on the nineteenth floor.”
“So, what? His plan was to stay hidden there until I accepted a car ride, and instead of it being an actual driver, it would have been him?” Veronica frowns, trying to put all the pieces together.
Julian nods. “Originally, yes. But he became impatient and decided on a different course of action. He had Fisher close the main breaker to the entire building and instructed him only to turn it back on five minutes later, not a second sooner,” he says before continuing.
“When the power went out, Victor snuck into the penthouse through the main entrance at that exact moment. He knew the camera would need a second to regain focus once it switched from day vision to night vision, making him a smidge too blurry for our sensors to alert us of movement. The asshole was a lot smarter than we anticipated.”
“And the explosion?” Gabe asks next.
“Fisher was unaware of that part. But my guess is that Victor knew it would be impossible to keep the power off for so long without someone checking on the breaker. The explosion was planted in the condo Victor was using as housing. And had you two not already been on your way up, it would have made it impossible for anyone to make it up to the penthouse before the five minutes were up.” Julian explains it like it’s all so simple.
But it’s not. We had this guy pegged out as just a petty criminal biker, but in the end, he was a fucking mastermind.
“He said it was a distraction…” Veronica mumbles to herself, looking down at her hands.
“He knew all our schedules. He knew how the cameras worked. He knew about the guards. He knew everything.” She finally looks up.
“God, we were such idiots to think we could ever get him. This whole time, he was right under our nose, literally! And we never once caught sight of him.”
“He definitely was significantly more intelligent than any of us could have imagined. Do not blame yourself for this, Veronica. None of us could have seen it coming, myself included,” Julian tries to reason with her.
“And what was he planning on doing once he was in the penthouse?” I wonder because we still don’t know what his big plan was.
“I do not believe he intended to harm Veronica, at least not in the building. From what Fisher told us, he needed the five minutes to get her out of the penthouse. My guess is he would have waited the five minutes to then take the elevator back down once it was up and running. Thinking my men would have been waiting at the stairs. The moment they would have slipped in, he would have already been riding it down with Veronica.”