Chapter 4 - THE CAR THAT NEVER CRASHED
The video ended before Dominic could respond.
For two seconds, nobody moved.
Then Dominic turned toward the tunnel.
“Seal every exit.”
His men scattered.
Hannah still held the phone.
The final image of Leo remained frozen on the screen.
Bound.
Bruised.
Alive.
Dominic took the device from her.
His thumb moved across the edge.
Cheap prepaid model.
No contacts.
No history.
One call.
Hannah looked at him.
“What did she mean about Anthony’s car?”
“I don’t know.”
“You believe Leo?”
“I believe evidence.”
It was such a Dominic answer that Hannah almost hated him for it.
Almost.
Because she knew what was underneath it.
Fear.
If Lauren was telling the truth, his most trusted man had hidden something enormous.
If she was lying, she had chosen precisely the betrayal most likely to break him.
Dominic examined the storage room.
“Nothing gets touched until photographs are taken.”
One of his men nodded.
Hannah crouched beside the chair.
A faint scratch marked the concrete.
She ran a finger over it.
An arrow.
Pointing toward the rear wall.
“Dominic.”
He came over.
Together they moved an old shelving unit.
Behind it was another door.
Unlike the others, this one had no number.
Dominic forced it open.
A staircase descended into darkness.
They went down slowly.
The lower chamber looked untouched for years.
Dust coated filing cabinets.
Broken fluorescent lights hung overhead.
On a metal desk sat a cardboard archive box.
The label read:
VALE DEVELOPMENT — 2006–2008.
Hannah stared.
“Victor.”
Dominic opened it.
Financial records.
Property acquisitions.
City permits.
And dozens of photocopied checks.
Dominic flipped through them.
“They’re payments.”
“To who?”
He showed her one.
J. CROSS CONSULTING.
Another.
GRANT SECURITY SERVICES.
Hannah’s stomach dropped.
“Grant?”
Dominic didn’t answer.
There were six checks.
All written to a company carrying Leo’s last name.
Together, they totaled $480,000.
Hannah whispered, “Maybe it wasn’t his.”
“It was.”
“How do you know?”
“Leo’s father owned Grant Security.”
Dominic kept reading.
The dates ended three days after Anthony died.
Hannah sat down.
“That’s what Lauren meant.”
“Maybe.”
“You’re still defending him?”
“I’m not defending anyone.”
Dominic found a folded document beneath the checks.
It was a police vehicle recovery report.
October 13, 2008.
Anthony Romano.
Black Mercedes S-Class.
Recovered from Schuylkill River.
Hannah frowned.
“That’s the car.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
“No.”
“What?”
“My brother drove a silver BMW that night.”
The room went still.
“You’re sure?”
“I saw him leave.”
Dominic read the report again.
“This vehicle identification number belonged to one of my father’s company cars.”
Hannah felt a chill.
“So the car recovered from the river…”
“Wasn’t Anthony’s.”
“Then what happened to his real car?”
Dominic looked toward the checks.
Grant Security Services.
Leo.
Twenty minutes later they found the first answer.
A file cabinet contained photographs.
One showed a damaged silver BMW inside a warehouse.
The windshield intact.
Passenger door dented.
No catastrophic crash.
On the rear of the photograph:
OCT 13 — G.S.S. FACILITY.
Hannah whispered, “Anthony didn’t die in the crash.”
Dominic’s face had gone pale.
His brother’s death certificate said blunt force trauma caused by a vehicle accident.
If the car had been staged—
Then Anthony had died somewhere else.
A second photograph showed blood across the back seat.
Dominic turned away.
For the first time all night, Hannah saw him lose control.
He struck the metal cabinet with his fist.
Once.
Hard.
Then stood motionless.
Hannah didn’t touch him.
She wanted to.
But Dominic Romano was not a man who needed comfort performed for him.
He needed somebody to remain standing beside him while the world changed.
So she did.
Finally he said, “We find Leo.”
At 1:04 a.m., his men traced Lauren’s video signal to an industrial area near the Delaware River.
The signal had bounced through several devices, but one security camera showed a black van entering an abandoned printing facility.
Dominic ordered everyone into the vehicles.
Hannah followed.
He blocked her at the door.
“No.”
“We already had this argument.”
“And now someone has a hostage.”
“Leo knows who I am.”
“That makes you more valuable to them.”
“It also makes me necessary.”
Dominic looked furious.
Then something strange happened.
He exhaled.
“Anthony really did this?”
“What?”
“Argued until people wanted to throw furniture.”
Hannah almost smiled.
“So I’ve been told.”
Dominic opened the car door.
“Stay behind me.”
At the printing facility, they found Leo tied to a chair.
Alive.
Lauren was gone.
So were whoever had helped her.
Leo looked at Dominic.
“I can explain.”
Dominic cut the restraints himself.
“Start with the BMW.”
Leo closed his eyes.
Hannah knew immediately.
Lauren had told the truth about something.
“I moved it.”
Dominic’s voice was flat.
“Why?”
“Your father ordered me.”
“Where did you find it?”
“In an underground garage near City Hall.”
“Anthony?”
“Gone.”
“Blood?”
Leo nodded.
Dominic turned away.
“What did my father say?”
“That Anthony had made enemies.”
“Did you believe him?”
“No.”
“Yet you destroyed the car.”
“I didn’t destroy it.”
Dominic turned back.
Leo swallowed.
“I hid it.”
“Why?”
“Because something was wrong.”
“So you kept photographs.”
“Yes.”
“And took money.”
Leo flinched.
“That money wasn’t payment.”
“What was it?”
“My father was being blackmailed.”
“By Cross?”
“Yes.”
Leo sat forward.
“Cross used Grant Security to move people, vehicles, packages. My father tried to quit. Cross threatened my daughter.”
Dominic’s anger remained, but it shifted.
“Where is the BMW now?”
Leo looked at him.
“Still hidden.”
Hannah stared.
“You kept it for eighteen years?”
“Because I knew one day someone would come looking.”
Dominic crouched in front of him.
“Take me there.”
The warehouse stood beneath an abandoned rail spur in North Philadelphia.
At 2:11 a.m., Leo opened a steel door.
Beneath a dust-covered tarp sat a silver BMW.
Anthony’s car.
Dominic approached it slowly.
The passenger door still carried the same dent from the old photograph.
Leo opened the trunk.
Inside were boxes.
Anthony’s belongings.
A jacket.
A broken watch.
Receipts.
A bloodstained blanket.
Then Hannah noticed a child’s bracelet.
Plastic beads.
Pink and yellow.
The name HANNAH spelled in tiny white cubes.
Her throat closed.
“I had one like that.”
Evelyn, who had been brought with them, covered her mouth.
“You made it at preschool.”
Hannah lifted it.
Her biological father had kept it in his car.
All those years.
She turned away, crying silently.
Dominic stood beside her.
Neither said anything.
Then Leo opened the glove compartment.
Inside was a mini recorder.
Not Rose’s.
Anthony’s.
The battery was dead, but one of Dominic’s men found a compatible charger.
They waited.
At 2:37 a.m., the recorder powered on.
One audio file.
October 12, 2008.
Dominic pressed PLAY.
Anthony’s voice filled the warehouse.
“If you’re listening to this, Victor found me.”
Hannah gripped the bracelet.
Anthony continued.
“Sarah is safe for now. Hannah is safe. That matters more than anything.”
Hannah broke.
She turned away and covered her mouth.
Dominic’s eyes shone, but he remained still.
“The documents prove Vale, Cross, and someone inside our family used Romano construction companies to funnel city money.”
Static crackled.
“I’m meeting the person tonight. If he does the right thing, this ends.”
Dominic frowned.
“What person?”
Anthony’s recording answered.
“My father.”
Dominic froze.
Leo whispered, “Jesus.”
Anthony continued.
“I still believe he’ll choose his sons over his secrets.”
Then another voice appeared in the recording.
Distant.
Male.
Anthony said, “You came.”
The unidentified man replied.
“You should never have involved the girl.”
A gunshot exploded through the speaker.
Hannah screamed.
The audio cut.
Nobody moved.
Then the recorder unexpectedly continued.
Thirty seconds of silence.
A car door.
Footsteps.
Another male voice.
Closer this time.
“We have a problem.”
Hannah recognized it.
So did Dominic.
Everyone did.
Because they had heard it only hours earlier.
Julian Cross.
Then came a woman’s voice.
Young.
Shaking.
But unmistakable.
“Is he dead?”
Hannah stared at Dominic.
Dominic’s face went blank.
Evelyn whispered, “No.”
The woman on the recording started crying.
“I didn’t know my father was going to kill him.”
Lauren Vale.
Eighteen years younger.
But Lauren.
Dominic stopped the audio.
Hannah’s blood ran cold.
May you like
Lauren had been there when Anthony died.
And she had known the truth all along.
