Chapter 5 - THE RED CAR
We left Blackridge at 11:14 that night.
Roman lied to almost everyone about where we were going.
He announced over the estate security network that Lily and I were being moved to a private residence north of the city.
Three SUVs left through the main gates.
We weren't inside any of them.
Instead Roman, Tomas, Lily, and I went beneath Blackridge.
The hidden passage began behind a wine-storage wall in the basement.
“Your house has tunnels,” I whispered.
Roman gave me a look.
“My grandfather was paranoid.”
“And you still live here?”
“I've become increasingly sympathetic to him.”
Tomas almost smiled.
The passage emerged half a mile away in an abandoned greenhouse.
A plain gray sedan waited outside.
No convoy.
No insignia.
No obvious protection.
I hated it.
I hated everything.
Mostly I hated that Lily thought it was an adventure.
“Secret road,” she whispered happily from her car seat.
Roman was driving.
Tomas sat beside him.
I was in the back with Lily.
“Not an adventure, sweetheart.”
“Little adventure?”
“No.”
She sighed dramatically.
Roman's eyes met mine in the mirror.
For one second there was something almost human in them.
Then it vanished.
The Old Harbor Freight Depot sat near the river behind rusted fencing and abandoned rail lines.
Roman parked two blocks away.
“You and Lily stay here,” he said.
“No.”
“Mara.”
“If that locker belonged to Daniel, I'm seeing it.”
Roman looked at Lily.
I understood.
“I can't leave her in the car.”
“No.”
Tomas said, “I can stay with them.”
Roman considered it.
I shook my head.
“We're not splitting up.”
That was how women died in bad movies.
Apparently it was also how widows started giving orders to mafia bosses.
Roman rubbed his jaw.
“Fine.”
We entered through a side door.
The depot smelled like rust, river water, and old oil.
Our footsteps echoed.
Rows of metal lockers lined the employee corridor.
Numbers faded beneath dust.
301.
302.
303.
304.
My pulse thundered.
Roman checked the hall.
Tomas checked behind us.
I inserted Daniel's key.
It turned.
The locker opened.
Empty.
My heart dropped.
The caller had been telling the truth.
Then Roman touched the inside wall.
“No.”
He tapped it.
Hollow.
Tomas handed him a screwdriver.
Roman removed the back panel.
Behind it was a narrow cavity.
Inside sat a black envelope wrapped in plastic.
My knees nearly failed.
Daniel's handwriting was on the front.
MARA.
I stopped breathing.
Roman handed it to me.
My fingers trembled so badly I couldn't open it.
Finally I tore the plastic.
Inside was a letter.
Mara,
If you're reading this, I was right to be afraid.
I covered my mouth.
The words blurred.
Roman turned away to give me privacy, but I didn't want privacy.
Not anymore.
I read aloud.
I found something inside Hail Continental that isn't just theft. Someone is moving illegal cargo through Blue Heron, then changing the manifests after delivery. I reported it through the normal chain. That was a mistake.
There are people in security involved.
There are people in legal involved.
And there is at least one Hail involved.
I don't know whether Roman knows.
That sentence stopped everyone.
Roman slowly turned.
I continued.
If Roman knows, don't trust him.
If he doesn't, he's probably next.
Roman looked as though Daniel had spoken directly into the room.
The letter continued.
I copied the records onto a drive and separated the password from the data. The drive is hidden where Lily will keep it closer than anyone else ever could. The password is in this locker.
I looked toward Lily.
She was holding her red car.
Roman whispered, “The car.”
My heart slammed.
We had found the key inside the car.
Not the drive.
Roman knelt.
“Lily, sweetheart, I need your car again.”
This time she handed it over.
He opened the base.
Beneath the brass-key compartment was a second plastic plate.
He pried it carefully.
A micro-storage card dropped onto his palm.
Daniel had hidden both pieces inside the same toy.
One where a search might find it.
One deeper.
Roman looked at me.
“Your husband was smart.”
“He was scared.”
“Smart people usually are.”
Tomas searched the cavity again.
He found a folded card.
Six words and numbers were written across it.
Password.
Roman pulled a secure laptop from his bag.
“You brought a laptop?”
“I believed Daniel.”
The answer hit me harder than I expected.
We inserted the card.
Files appeared.
Hundreds.
Shipping manifests.
Security logs.
Photographs.
Bank transfers.
Video.
Roman opened the first folder.
BLUE HERON.
Rows of payments appeared.
Some went to Felix.
Some to Adrian Pike.
Others to shell corporations.
Then one name appeared over and over.
VINCENT HAIL.
Roman sat perfectly still.
“He stole from you?” I asked.
Roman's voice was cold.
“Millions.”
“Is that why he tried to kill you?”
“No.”
He opened another folder.
The files were labeled SAFETY INCIDENTS.
There were seven.
The third bore Daniel's name.
My stomach turned.
Roman clicked.
A maintenance report appeared.
BRAKE LINE FAILURE.
Except beside it was the original report Daniel had saved.
BRAKE LINE INTENTIONALLY CUT.
I stopped breathing.
Daniel had not died because of an electrical fire.
The fire had happened after his company vehicle crashed through a loading bay.
His brakes had been sabotaged.
Someone had killed him.
I made a sound I didn't recognize.
Roman reached for me.
I pulled away.
Not because it was him.
Because if anyone touched me I was going to fall apart.
Lily looked up.
“Mommy sad?”
I turned away from the screen.
“Just a little.”
She climbed against me.
“Daddy?”
My throat closed.
I nodded.
“Daddy.”
Roman kept going.
There was video.
A warehouse camera.
Grainy.
Nighttime.
Daniel walking toward his vehicle.
Another figure approaching afterward.
The man crouched beside Daniel's truck.
Thirty seconds.
Then he stood.
Camera angle caught his hand.
Silver ring.
Black stone.
Felix.
My vision went white.
“He killed Daniel.”
Roman's face looked carved from ice.
“He helped.”
“Helped who?”
Roman opened the final file.
A recording began.
Daniel's voice.
Then another.
Vincent Hail.
Daniel said, “I'm taking this to Roman.”
Vincent laughed.
“You think Roman can protect you from his own family?”
Daniel replied, “I think he deserves the chance.”
Then Vincent said the words that erased whatever remained of the world I had believed in.
“Cut the brakes. Burn whatever's left.”
I couldn't breathe.
Roman closed the laptop.
“That's enough.”
“No.”
“Mara.”
“I want all of it.”
“You have enough to know.”
“I want everything.”
He looked at me for a long moment.
Then nodded.
Tomas suddenly raised one hand.
Silence.
Footsteps.
Outside the corridor.
Roman shut off the laptop.
Tomas drew his weapon.
The footsteps multiplied.
One.
Three.
Five people.
Roman whispered, “Back exit.”
We moved.
Then every overhead light came on.
A voice echoed through the depot speakers.
Vincent Hail.
“Cousin.”
Roman stopped.
Vincent laughed.
“I always wondered what Daniel left behind.”
Metal shutters slammed down over both exits.
Lily screamed.
Roman pulled us behind a concrete pillar as gunfire shattered the lockers.
Tomas fired back.
“Service tunnel!” he shouted.
“What service tunnel?” I yelled.
Roman pointed toward the loading bay.
We ran.
Bullets struck metal behind us.
Roman lifted Lily into his arms without breaking stride.
I followed.
Tomas covered us.
We reached an old inspection pit.
Roman jumped down.
He passed Lily to me.
“Crawl.”
The tunnel beneath the bay was barely four feet high.
We moved through darkness while gunfire echoed overhead.
Lily whimpered against my chest.
Then Roman's phone buzzed.
He looked at the screen.
A message.
One photograph.
Blackridge Estate.
My cottage.
Burning.
Underneath were six words.
YOU SHOULD HAVE SIGNED THE REPORT.
Then a second photograph arrived.
This one was taken less than a minute earlier.
From inside Blackridge's private library.
May you like
And in the reflection of the window stood the nanny I had trusted with Lily dozens of times.
Holding a Blue Heron security badge.
