Chapter 6 - The Ghost Comes Home
I canceled the board meeting.
That surprised Victor.
It surprised everyone.
For twenty years, my enemies had depended on one thing: if challenged publicly, Elias Marchetti always appeared.
My pride had become predictable.
So I did something Victor would never expect.
I stayed home.
“They'll remove you,” Reed warned.
“Let them.”
“Elias—”
“Buildings can be recovered.”
I looked at Harper and Maisie.
“People can't.”
Nine years too late, I finally understood the difference.
The photograph left in the kitchen proved someone could get close enough to watch the girls sleep.
We moved everyone into the lower secure wing.
Gabriel paced like a trapped animal.
“They took the fox because they think the evidence is still inside.”
“They'll discover it isn't.”
“Then they'll come back.”
“Yes.”
Gabriel turned on me.
“You say that like you want them to.”
“I do.”
Harper stared.
“No.”
I looked at her.
“We cannot spend the rest of your lives hiding.”
“We've spent months surviving without you.”
“And how well did that go?”
The words came out harsher than intended.
Harper flinched.
I regretted them immediately.
“I'm sorry.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“Did Elias Marchetti just apologize?”
“Don't spread it around.”
Maisie, sitting nearby, whispered, “I'm telling Mrs. Doyle.”
Even Gabriel smiled.
For half a minute, we were almost a normal group of people.
Then my phone rang.
Victor.
I answered.
“Nephew.”
“Uncle.”
“You missed an important meeting.”
“I was busy.”
“You've been suspended from all executive authority.”
“That sounds serious.”
Victor paused.
He expected anger.
“You're taking this strangely.”
“Grief teaches perspective.”
A longer pause.
“Send the girls away.”
“Why are you so interested in two homeless children?”
“They're compromising your judgment.”
“No. They improved it.”
His voice chilled.
“Gabriel is with you.”
Statement.
Not question.
I glanced at him.
“Yes.”
Victor laughed softly.
“There he is. The dog comes home.”
Gabriel stepped closer.
I put the call on speaker.
Victor continued.
“Tell him Rebecca screamed his name near the end.”
Gabriel's face drained.
Harper stood.
“You were there?”
Victor went silent.
Harper seized the phone from my hand.
“You were there when my mother died?”
“Harper,” I said.
She ignored me.
“My mother had cancer. She was in hospice. How were you there?”
Victor answered calmly.
“Your mother was confused near the end.”
“Answer me!”
“Careful, child.”
Gabriel took the phone.
“If you touched her—”
“Oh, Gabriel. You abandoned her years before I ever did.”
His expression turned murderous.
This was what Victor wanted.
“You have thirty minutes,” Victor said. “Come alone to the old Monongahela warehouse, or I release documents showing Rebecca helped Gabriel launder millions.”
Harper stared.
“She didn't.”
“Truth matters less than paperwork.”
“What do you want?” Gabriel asked.
“The ledgers.”
Victor ended the call.
Gabriel grabbed his coat.
“No.”
He looked at me.
“She deserves her mother's name cleared.”
“And Victor expects you to charge into the warehouse.”
“Yes.”
“Which means you don't.”
“You're giving orders now?”
“In my house?”
“Yes.”
Gabriel almost hit me.
Instead, Harper stepped between us.
“My mother spent years trying to protect us from both of you acting like men with guns could solve everything.”
That stopped him.
She looked at Gabriel.
“You want to make something right?”
“Yes.”
“Then stay alive long enough to answer Maisie's questions.”
Gabriel's jaw tightened.
He sat down.
We sent an unmanned vehicle.
Victor's men attacked it exactly where expected.
While their attention focused south, Reed traced the call.
Not to the Monongahela warehouse.
To an abandoned church in McKees Rocks.
We moved quietly.
Gabriel and I entered through opposite sides.
No gunfire.
No guards.
Inside, a projector played video against the altar wall.
Rebecca Lane appeared.
Alive.
Recorded months earlier.
Harper had insisted on coming and stood behind Reed.
The video showed Rebecca speaking to someone off-camera.
Victor.
“I won't tell Elias,” she said.
“You already made copies.”
“They're somewhere you'll never find.”
Victor stepped into frame.
“We found Gabriel's daughter.”
Rebecca went rigid.
“No.”
“Cute girl.”
“You stay away from her.”
“Then give me the evidence.”
Rebecca stared at him.
“You killed Isabella because she discovered what you were. You killed Daniel because he discovered the routes. You destroyed Elias and blamed Gabriel.”
Harper whispered, “Daniel.”
Her father.
Victor smiled on the screen.
“And Elias thanked me for helping him through the funeral.”
I felt Gabriel's hand grab my arm.
Not to restrain me.
To keep me standing.
Rebecca said, “Someday he'll know.”
“He won't believe you.”
“He'll believe Isabella.”
Victor's smile disappeared.
The recording cut.
A second video began.
Rebecca was in a hospital room.
Victor sat beside her bed.
She looked weak.
He poured something into her water.
Harper made a sound I will never forget.
Victor helped Rebecca drink.
Ten minutes later, alarms sounded.
Nurses rushed in.
The camera angle changed.
Hidden camera.
Rebecca had known.
She had recorded her own murder.
Harper turned away.
Gabriel covered his face.
Maisie began crying silently.
I knelt beside her.
“Don't watch.”
“Did he kill Mommy?”
I couldn't lie.
“Yes.”
She buried her face against me.
That was the first time she ever hugged me.
I held her.
Harper's sobs echoed through the abandoned church.
Then the projector changed again.
Live video.
Victor sat behind my desk.
Inside my house.
Mrs. Doyle was tied to a chair beside him.
My blood stopped.
Reed looked at his phone.
“No alarms.”
Victor smiled into the camera.
“You've spent your life protecting the wrong doors, Elias.”
Behind him stood six men.
And one of them was wearing the uniform of my personal security team.
Victor leaned toward the camera.
“Come home.”
May you like
He placed a pistol against Mrs. Doyle's head.
“This time, bring everything.”
