Chapter 7 - WHAT HER MOTHER DID
“That’s impossible.”
Daisy stared at the image.
Her mother had been dead six years when Leo’s accident happened.
Matteo leaned closer.
Then shook his head.
“That isn’t your mother.”
“It looks exactly like her.”
“Look at the date.”
“I know the date.”
“Look at her.”
Daisy did.
Same dark hair.
Same narrow face.
Same posture.
Then she noticed something.
The woman was too young.
Not twenty-four years younger.
Just younger than Margaret would have been nine months ago.
Daisy whispered, “Aunt Ellen.”
She hadn’t seen Ellen Mercer in almost fifteen years.
Her mother’s younger sister had left Philadelphia after a bitter family argument Daisy never understood.
Daisy had been told Ellen wanted nothing to do with them.
Another family story.
Another incomplete truth.
Rosa sat down heavily.
“She came back.”
“You knew?”
“No.”
Vincent did.
Daisy saw it immediately.
“You knew.”
Vincent nodded.
“Ellen contacted me ten months ago.”
“Why?”
“She wanted money.”
“For what?”
“To leave the country.”
“Why?”
Vincent looked toward the final page.
“She stole something from Miller.”
Daisy closed her eyes.
Of course.
There was always something else.
“What?”
“A list of active police accounts.”
Matteo understood.
“Current corruption.”
Vincent nodded.
“Thomas’s ledger proves the old network. Ellen found the new one.”
That was why Miller needed the Gallagher family.
Not only to erase the past.
To protect the present.
Daisy looked at the photograph.
“Why was she with him?”
Vincent answered carefully.
“She was pretending to help him.”
“Pretending?”
“She told me she could get Miller to expose where he stored his records.”
“And you believed her?”
“No.”
That answer was at least honest.
They found Ellen through an old address Rosa remembered.
Not a secret mansion.
Not a hidden bunker.
A small row house in Tacony owned by a retired schoolteacher.
Ellen was living in the upstairs apartment under her married name.
When she opened the door and saw Daisy, she began crying before anyone spoke.
Daisy didn’t hug her.
“You have five minutes.”
Ellen nodded.
“That’s more than I deserve.”
She looked older than the garage photograph.
Tired.
But unmistakably Margaret’s sister.
Daisy held up the image.
“Why were you with Miller?”
Ellen invited them inside.
She explained that Margaret had contacted her shortly before dying.
Not because she was sick.
Because Miller had approached her.
“He told your mother he knew Thomas had left proof somewhere.”
Daisy’s throat tightened.
“What did Mom do?”
“She lied.”
A small smile crossed Ellen’s face.
“Your mother was very good at lying when she was protecting you.”
Daisy almost smiled too.
Almost.
“After Margaret died, I started watching Miller. I wanted to know why he was still looking.”
“You abandoned us.”
Ellen’s eyes filled.
“I stayed away because Margaret asked me to.”
“That doesn’t make it hurt less.”
“I know.”
Daisy appreciated that she didn’t ask for instant forgiveness.
Ellen continued.
She had gotten close to Miller by pretending she hated the Romanos and blamed Thomas for destroying the family.
Miller believed her.
Eventually, he showed her enough to prove that corrupt officers were still selling evidence and protection.
“So you stole the list,” Matteo said.
“Yes.”
“Where is it?”
“I gave it to Leo.”
Daisy stared.
“No.”
“Not knowingly.”
Ellen had hidden a memory card inside the insulated delivery bag Leo used for restaurant deliveries.
Leo found the phone at the warehouse because Ellen had deliberately sent him there.
Daisy stood.
“You used him?”
Ellen’s face crumpled.
“I thought the building would be empty.”
“You sent my brother into that place.”
“I needed someone Miller wouldn’t connect to me.”
“He can’t walk!”
“I know.”
Daisy’s hand curled into a fist.
Matteo moved beside her, not touching.
Just there.
Ellen whispered, “I have hated myself every day since.”
That was not forgiveness.
But it was truth.
“Where’s the memory card?”
“I don’t know. Leo’s bag disappeared after the crash.”
Daisy remembered the accident inventory.
One item had been listed as damaged property and released.
A red insulated delivery bag.
She had thrown it into a closet in her apartment because she couldn’t bear to look at it.
For nine months.
They drove there.
Daisy pulled the bag from behind an old vacuum cleaner.
The fabric was torn.
Bloodstained.
Leo’s blood.
Her hands shook.
She opened the insulated lining.
Nothing.
Then Matteo noticed the rigid bottom panel.
They cut it open.
A memory card fell onto the kitchen table.
Ellen covered her mouth.
Daisy looked at her.
“You almost got him killed for this.”
“Yes.”
“Whatever’s on it better matter.”
“It does.”
The card contained spreadsheets.
Badge numbers.
Payments.
Case numbers.
Dozens of officers.
Miller’s name appeared repeatedly.
But there was one more folder.
GALLAGHER.
Inside were surveillance photographs.
Daisy.
Leo.
Margaret.
Thomas.
And a scanned letter written by Harrison Miller’s father.
Matteo read aloud.
“Thomas Gallagher has refused the offer. Vincent can be blamed. Carlo will assume his brother acted independently.”
Daisy closed her eyes.
There it was.
The setup.
Then the next line.
“Margaret must never learn Harrison was present.”
Daisy opened her eyes.
“Harrison?”
Ellen went pale.
“He told me he wasn’t there.”
“Where?”
Daisy scrolled.
The next scanned page contained an old police photograph.
Thomas Gallagher’s body inside his car.
The death Daisy had been told was a heart attack.
Beside the open driver’s door stood a nineteen-year-old Harrison Miller.
Alive.
Present.
Daisy whispered, “He watched my father die.”
Ellen shook her head.
“No.”
Daisy looked at her.
Ellen was crying.
“Harrison didn’t watch him die.”
She pointed at the next photograph.
Miller was kneeling beside Thomas.
His hands were on Thomas’s chest.
Performing CPR.
Daisy stared.
Ellen whispered:
“He tried to save him.”
May you like
And behind nineteen-year-old Harrison Miller stood the man who had ordered him to stop.
Vincent Romano.
