Chapter 6
The room went silent.
Luca stared at Matteo.
"You're sure?"
"Yes."
"You were injured. Hiding. Running."
"I remember both faces."
"Mom said Gabriel was Victor."
"Mom was wrong."
Priya rewound the video.
Elena's photograph of Gabriel appeared again.
Matteo pointed.
"That's Gabriel."
"Then who is Victor?"
Matteo took the laptop.
He searched through encrypted files.
Priya tried to stop him.
He ignored her.
A folder appeared.
HALDEN.
Inside were photographs.
Most were old.
One showed Elena as a teenager beside a boy.
Her brother.
Victor.
Luca leaned closer.
The boy had light eyes.
Square jaw.
A scar through the left eyebrow.
Matteo whispered:
"That's him."
Priya opened a later photograph.
Victor at forty.
Same scar.
Different from Gabriel.
Luca's face hardened.
"Mom lied in the video."
Matteo shook his head.
"Or someone edited it."
Priya examined the file.
"Possible."
"Can you tell?"
"Give me a minute."
She isolated the segment.
The audio waveform changed subtly around the sentence identifying Gabriel as Victor.
"Splice."
Daniel frowned.
"Meaning?"
"That line was inserted."
"By who?"
Priya looked at the file metadata.
"Last modified three months after Elena Moretti died."
Nobody breathed.
Someone had accessed the card after her death.
Mrs. Carter had supposedly held it for eleven years.
I looked at Luca.
"Someone copied it."
"Or Mrs. Carter wasn't the only one with access," Matteo said.
Luca called the estate.
No answer from Mrs. Carter.
Vanessa's phone off.
Daniel's security feed showed the attack.
Three masked men entered through an underground maintenance corridor.
They knew camera blind spots.
They moved directly to the room where Vanessa was being held.
Mrs. Carter tried to stop them.
They took both women.
No hesitation.
No search.
"They knew exactly where she was," Daniel said.
Luca looked at him.
"Inside information."
Daniel's jaw tightened.
"Yes."
He hated saying it.
Luca turned to me.
"Mia, who knew Vanessa's room?"
"Security. Mrs. Carter. Me. Two housekeepers."
"Names?"
I gave them.
Daniel started checks.
Matteo looked at the black card.
"Victor needs Vanessa alive."
"Why?" Luca asked.
"Carlo's witness-protection file."
"What about it?"
"Carlo had an offshore trust."
Vanessa had mentioned hidden money.
Matteo continued.
"Not his money. Evidence escrow."
Luca frowned.
"Explain."
"Carlo copied transaction records before going into protection. He placed them under a legal trust that could only be released by his biological heir."
"Vanessa."
"Yes."
"So Victor needs her."
"To unlock a second archive."
I looked at Luca.
"And Mrs. Carter?"
Matteo's face darkened.
"Leverage."
My stomach tightened.
Luca opened his phone.
"Where would Victor take them?"
Matteo shook his head.
"Could be anywhere."
Then I remembered Vanessa's call.
Background noise.
A repeated metallic bell.
Not a bell.
A warning chime.
Three notes.
Every thirty seconds.
I had heard it before.
"Train crossing."
Everyone looked at me.
"What?" Daniel asked.
"During the call. There was a crossing signal."
"Chicago has hundreds."
"And water."
Luca frowned.
"I heard gulls."
Matteo looked at me.
"You heard gulls over a phone whisper?"
"I worked three summers at Navy Pier. You learn the sound."
Daniel pulled up maps.
Rail crossings near water.
Industrial areas.
South Branch.
Calumet.
Near old warehouses.
Matteo pointed.
"Halden Risk had a facility here."
An abandoned freight terminal near the river.
Daniel deployed teams.
Luca took his coat.
I did too.
He looked at me.
"No."
I stared back.
He sighed.
"You are becoming a problem."
"I was a problem before dinner."
Matteo laughed.
"She's got you there."
We reached the freight terminal forty minutes later.
No police.
Luca didn't trust local law yet.
Not after the ledger.
The building was massive.
Broken windows.
Rusting doors.
Train tracks ran along one side.
River on the other.
Daniel's men entered from three points.
I stayed near the command vehicle.
For exactly four minutes.
Then a light flickered on the third floor.
Three times.
Pause.
Two.
Mrs. Carter's signal.
I grabbed Luca's sleeve.
"There."
He looked up.
The light flashed again.
Three.
Two.
Daniel sent a team.
Gunfire erupted.
The command radio filled with shouting.
"Contact west stairwell!"
"Two armed!"
"Moving!"
Luca started inside.
Matteo followed.
I stayed.
For exactly another minute.
Then someone grabbed me from behind.
A cloth pressed over my mouth.
I bit.
Hard.
The man cursed.
I drove my heel backward.
He loosened his grip.
I twisted free and saw a masked figure.
Not security.
He lunged.
I grabbed a metal flashlight from the vehicle and swung.
It hit his wrist.
Gun fell.
I kicked it under the SUV.
He punched me.
My head snapped sideways.
Before he could grab me again, a shot cracked.
He collapsed.
Matteo stood twenty feet away.
Gun raised.
"Stay in the car," he shouted.
I stared at the unconscious man.
"He tried to kidnap me."
"Yes. That's generally why we say stay in the car."
Luca appeared behind him.
He saw the blood at my lip.
His expression changed.
"Who?"
I pointed.
He walked toward the man.
Matteo blocked him.
"Later."
Luca looked ready to kill someone.
Then the radio crackled.
"We found Mrs. Carter."
"Vanessa?"
"No."
Mrs. Carter came out supported by a guard.
I ran to her.
She hugged me.
"You're okay."
"Where's Vanessa?"
Mrs. Carter shook her head.
"They separated us."
"Did you see Victor?"
Her face went pale.
"Yes."
Matteo stepped closer.
"Describe him."
"Sixties. White hair. Scar above his left eyebrow."
Matteo looked at Luca.
Victor.
Real Victor.
"Gabriel?"
"No."
"Was he there?"
"I heard someone call that name."
So both men existed.
The conspiracy doubled.
Mrs. Carter clutched my hand.
"Victor said something about Luca's apartment."
Luca froze.
"What?"
"He said, 'Once Gabriel gets the case, we're done here.'"
The cufflink case.
The original archive.
Luca pulled out his phone.
Daniel was already shouting orders.
But we were too late.
The camera feed from Luca's downtown apartment showed smoke.
Fire alarms.
Sprinklers.
A man leaving with a small silver case.
Gabriel.
Luca stared at the screen.
"No."
Matteo took the phone.
"Can we track him?"
Daniel zoomed traffic cameras.
Gabriel entered a dark sedan.
License obscured.
The sedan headed north.
Luca looked like he'd been punched.
"The original archive."
Priya called.
"Maybe not."
Everyone looked at Luca's phone.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"I've been analyzing the card. Elena's video used a phrase: original archive stored with Luca."
"Yes."
"That may not mean the cufflink case contains the archive."
Luca frowned.
"What else could it mean?"
"She said she gave it to you before your wedding."
"My engagement to Sophia."
"Did she give you anything else?"
Luca thought.
"No."
Then his face changed.
"A watch."
Matteo looked at him.
"What watch?"
"Mom gave me Dad's old watch the night before the engagement party."
Adrian's watch.
Luca still wore it sometimes.
Not tonight.
"Where is it?" Daniel asked.
Luca looked at his wrist.
Then at me.
I knew.
"Your bedroom safe."
At the estate.
The drive back to the estate was quiet.
Not peaceful.
Quiet the way a room becomes quiet after someone admits they've been lying for years.
Mrs. Carter sat beside me in the second SUV.
She kept rubbing the place on her wrist where the rope had cut her skin.
"You knew my mother?" I asked.
She looked at me.
"Not well."
The answer came too quickly.
I noticed.
Apparently living around Luca had made suspicion contagious.
"Mrs. Carter."
She sighed.
"Your mother worked here before you were born."
I stared at her.
"What?"
"Only for a short time."
"Doing what?"
"Bookkeeping."
My pulse quickened.
"Why have you never told me?"
"Because she asked me not to."
"She died ten years ago."
"Some promises survive people."
I looked out the window.
Chicago lights blurred against the glass.
"Did Luca know her?"
"He was young."
"That's not an answer."
Mrs. Carter smiled sadly.
"You sound like him."
I didn't find that funny.
"Did she know Elena?"
"Yes."
"How well?"
Mrs. Carter hesitated.
"Very well."
Before I could ask more, our vehicle slowed at the estate gates.
Security checked the underside, trunk, engine compartment, and even the wheel wells before letting us through.
The house no longer felt like a mansion.
It felt like a fortress that had discovered walls weren't enough.
Inside, every hallway had agents.
Every door had a guard.
Every familiar object looked suspicious.
Mrs. Carter touched my arm.
"Mia."
"What?"
"If you find something that belonged to your mother, don't give it to anyone immediately."
I stared.
"Why?"
Her eyes moved toward the study where Luca and Matteo were arguing.
"Because Elena wasn't the only woman in this house who knew how to hide evidence."
Then she walked away.
I stood in the foyer with a cold feeling in my stomach.
Minutes later, the safe was found open.
And Adrian's watch was gone.
We drove back.
The safe was open.
Empty.
Luca stopped.
"No."
Daniel checked logs.
No forced entry.
Code used.
Only three people knew it.
Luca.
Daniel.
Mrs. Carter.
We all looked at her.
Mrs. Carter's face crumpled.
"I didn't."
Daniel looked sick.
"My code is different."
Luca turned.
"Then mine was used."
"Who knows yours?"
"No one."
I remembered Vanessa watching Luca one morning in the breakfast room as he opened a locked document case.
She had a habit of noticing numbers.
But she wasn't at the estate when the safe was opened.
Or was she?
Daniel checked timestamp.
9:14 p.m.
Before she was kidnapped.
Vanessa had opened the safe.
Maybe before everything.
Maybe on Gabriel's order.
Mrs. Carter whispered:
"She took the watch."
Luca closed his eyes.
Then my phone rang.
Vanessa.
Video call.
I answered.
She was crying.
Her face bruised.
Behind her, Victor stood.
White hair.
Scar over left eyebrow.
In his hand was Adrian's watch.
He smiled.
"Thank you for finding the right archive for me."
Luca stepped into frame.
"Let her go."
Victor looked pleased.
"Nephew."
"Where is Gabriel?"
Victor laughed.
"Always asking about the wrong ghost."
He held up the watch.
"Your mother was clever."
Then he pressed the crown.
The back popped open.
Inside was a micro-storage chip.
Victor removed it.
"Very clever."
Vanessa whispered:
"I'm sorry."
Luca didn't look at her.
Victor continued.
"The network dies if this reaches the government."
Matteo stepped beside Luca.
"Then you're finished."
Victor smiled.
"No."
He held the chip over a lighter.
"You're finished."
He flicked the flame.
Vanessa suddenly slammed her head backward into Victor's face.
He shouted.
The phone fell.
We saw floor.
Shoes.
Struggle.
A gunshot.
Then silence.
Luca grabbed the phone.
"Vanessa!"
No answer.
Then someone picked it up.
Gabriel's face filled the screen.
He looked amused.
"Victor always underestimated women."
Behind him, Victor lay on the floor.
Blood spread beneath his head.
Gabriel held the chip.
May you like
"Fortunately, I don't."
The call ended.
