Chapter 4 - SOMEONE INSIDE THE HOUSE
Lucas replayed Elena's sentence three times.
Someone Mateo sees every day.
Anthony stood behind him.
Hannah watched his face.
If Anthony was acting, he was extraordinary.
Lucas closed the laptop.
“Everyone leaves.”
Anthony nodded.
“Hannah too?”
Lucas hesitated.
“No.”
That surprised both of them.
Anthony left.
Lucas immediately called security and ordered a complete review of every employee who had worked inside the penthouse during the previous two years.
Hannah folded her arms.
“You realize the person you're looking for may hear about that.”
“I know.”
“Then why announce it?”
Lucas looked at her.
“To see who runs.”
It was the first time Hannah understood why dangerous men feared him.
He wasn't loud.
He was patient.
The next morning, two employees didn't report to work.
One was a cook whose mother had been hospitalized.
The other was Mateo's former driver, Samuel Price.
Samuel's phone was disconnected.
His apartment was empty.
Lucas wanted men sent after him.
Hannah wanted to watch the rest of Elena's video.
They argued.
“My son could be in danger.”
“And chasing the first person who disappears is exactly how you miss the person who wanted him to disappear.”
Lucas stared at her.
“You always talk to employers like this?”
“Probably why I'm unemployed.”
For one second, his mouth almost smiled.
Then it vanished.
They played the video.
Elena explained that she had discovered unusual shipments moving through a Ravellini-controlled warehouse in Newark.
Lucas knew nothing about them.
The paperwork carried authorization codes belonging to his late father.
Impossible codes.
Someone had been using old family credentials to move weapons.
Elena had initially suspected Gabriel.
Then she found photographs proving Gabriel had been in Europe during two major shipments.
“Someone wants you blaming your brother,” Elena said on-screen. “And Lucas, you're angry enough at him to make it easy.”
Lucas looked away.
Hannah paused the video.
“She knew you.”
“Better than anyone.”
“Then listen to her.”
He nodded.
Elena's final instructions mentioned the aquarium.
Locker 214 in an employee corridor.
Inside, they found no financial records.
Only a child's yellow raincoat.
Mateo's.
Lucas held it with both hands.
“He was two when this fit him.”
Hannah checked the pockets.
A photograph was hidden inside.
Elena stood beside Gabriel Ravellini.
The date on the back was six weeks before her disappearance.
Lucas's face darkened.
“They met.”
Anthony had claimed Gabriel knew about the locker.
Now they knew why.
But the photograph contained something else.
In the background stood Samuel Price.
The missing driver.
Hannah turned it toward Lucas.
“He knew too.”
Lucas called Anthony.
Within an hour, Samuel was found at his sister's house in Queens.
Not running.
Hiding.
When Lucas's men brought him to the penthouse, Samuel looked terrified.
“I didn't touch Mrs. Ravellini.”
Lucas placed the photograph before him.
“Start talking.”
Samuel looked at Hannah.
Then Mateo.
“Not with the kid here.”
Hannah took Mateo into the playroom.
They built another block city while voices rose faintly beyond the door.
Twenty minutes later, Lucas entered.
His expression was grim.
“Samuel drove Elena to meet Gabriel several times.”
“Why?”
“Gabriel was helping her.”
Another reversal.
The bitter brother wasn't the enemy.
At least not then.
“Helping her do what?”
“Trace the shipments.”
Hannah looked toward Mateo.
“Then why did Elena say the traitor was someone Mateo saw every day?”
Lucas sat beside her.
“Samuel says Elena became convinced somebody was using household staff to watch her.”
“Who?”
“He doesn't know.”
Mateo suddenly pushed over his block tower.
“Don't like church man.”
Hannah looked at him.
“What church man?”
Mateo shrugged.
Lucas frowned.
“We don't attend church.”
But Hannah remembered something.
The job interview.
Anthony.
Employees.
Security.
Someone Mateo saw every day didn't necessarily live there.
“Did your wife have religious objects?”
Lucas nodded.
“She kept a rosary from her grandmother.”
“Where is it?”
They returned to Elena's dressing room.
The rosary wasn't in the jewelry drawer.
Lucas searched twice.
Nothing.
Then Hannah saw a small velvet indentation inside a box.
Something had been removed.
Mateo stood behind them.
“Father took it.”
Lucas turned.
“Father who?”
“Daddy's friend.”
Lucas's face changed.
Hannah felt it immediately.
“Lucas?”
He didn't answer.
He walked into his study and removed an old photograph.
Three teenage boys stood outside a Catholic school.
Lucas.
Gabriel.
And another boy wearing a crooked grin.
“Michael Donnelly,” Lucas said.
“Who's Michael?”
“My oldest friend.”
“What does Mateo call him?”
Lucas looked at her.
“Father Michael.”
A priest.
Hannah's stomach tightened.
“Does he visit often?”
“Every week.”
Someone Mateo sees every day had become someone Mateo saw regularly.
Close enough to be trusted.
Lucas called the parish.
Father Michael hadn't appeared for morning Mass.
His room had been cleared.
On his desk, church staff had found one object.
A silver rosary.
Elena's.
Lucas drove there himself.
Hannah went because Mateo refused to stay behind without her, and Lucas refused to leave Mateo anywhere he couldn't personally secure.
At the rectory, an elderly nun handed Lucas the rosary.
“He left something else.”
A train ticket.
New York to Philadelphia.
Purchased that morning.
Gabriel's city.
Lucas looked furious.
“Elena told me not to blame Gabriel.”
Hannah studied the ticket.
“Maybe that's why Michael wants you to.”
Then Mateo tugged her sleeve.
He was staring at the rosary.
“What is it?”
The boy pointed to the crucifix.
“Open.”
Lucas frowned.
Mateo repeated, “Mama open.”
Hannah examined it.
The back slid sideways.
Inside was a narrow strip of paper.
One handwritten sentence.
Lucas recognized Elena's writing.
DON'T TRUST THE MAN WHO SAVED YOUR LIFE.
Lucas went pale.
Hannah looked at him.
“Who saved your life?”
May you like
His answer came quietly.
“Anthony.”
