Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
The moment Elena Vega's video ended, Ivy reached for Ryan's phone.
“Play it again.”
Ryan hesitated.
“She's hurt.”
“I have eyes, Ryan. Play it.”
He obeyed.
Ivy watched Elena's bruised face, listened to her trembling voice, and paid particular attention to the last sentence.
Don't trust the man who says he was trying to save your father.
When the screen went dark, Ivy looked directly at Ryan.
“She means you.”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
“I won't pretend I know what she meant.”
“That's convenient.”
Ryan accepted the accusation without arguing.
Then he called Marcus.
“Trace the video's origin.”
Marcus checked his phone.
“Already working on it. The number is unregistered, but the upload came through a public wireless network near River Street.”
“Find the exact location.”
Ivy watched him.
“You're going after her.”
“Yes.”
“I'm coming.”
“No.”
She laughed without humor.
“Oh, that's adorable. You think we're doing this again.”
“Ivy, the woman is being held by people who may have killed eleven innocent people.”
“Eleven innocent people, including my father.”
“Exactly.”
“And you think I'm going to sit quietly somewhere while men in black suits decide what I deserve to know?”
Ryan's jaw tightened.
Marcus looked between them.
Ivy planted her hands on her hips.
She was a plus-size woman who had spent most of her life being underestimated by strangers, dismissed by gallery owners, and occasionally treated as though her body made her incapable of handling difficulty.
She had learned to recognize that expression.
She saw it now on Ryan's face.
“Don't confuse protecting me with controlling me,” she said.
Something changed in his eyes.
Ryan had never had to explain the difference.
Usually, people simply obeyed.
But Ivy wasn't one of his employees.
She wasn't frightened enough to surrender her judgment.
And she had every right to be involved.
Finally, he nodded.
“You stay close to Marcus. If I tell you to leave, it's because there's immediate danger. Not because I think you're helpless.”
Ivy considered that.
“Acceptable.”
Marcus looked faintly relieved.
“Wonderful. Democracy has survived.”
Ivy turned toward him.
“Careful. I'm starting to like you.”
Marcus smiled.
“Please don't. The boss might make me transfer.”
For one brief moment, even Ryan's expression softened.
Then Leo called.
They had located the abandoned delivery truck's driver.
He was unconscious behind an old printing warehouse near River Street.
And someone had written three words across the windshield.
SHE KNOWS EVERYTHING.
Twenty minutes later, Ryan's SUV stopped beside the warehouse.
The building stood between an old brick laundry and a deserted loading yard.
Most of its windows were broken.
A faded mural of a blue bird covered the eastern wall.
Ivy froze.
“I know this place.”
Ryan turned.
“How?”
“I painted that bird.”
Marcus looked at the wall.
“Really?”
“Six years ago. The property owner wanted something cheerful because the neighborhood children were afraid of the empty building.”
She studied the mural.
“The wings used to be yellow. Somebody painted over them.”
Ryan followed her gaze.
A fresh blue panel covered part of the artwork.
Its edges were too clean.
Too recent.
Ivy pointed.
“There's a service entrance behind that wall.”
Marcus frowned.
“How do you know?”
“Because I needed somewhere to wash my brushes. The owner let me use the old utility sink.”
Ryan looked impressed despite himself.
“Can you get inside?”
“Yes.”
She paused.
“But the last time I was here, the rats weren't paying rent, either.”
Marcus almost laughed.
Ryan didn't.
He was watching a shadow move behind the upstairs window.
“Leo, cover the front. Marcus, stay with Ivy.”
They entered through the service entrance.
The warehouse smelled of damp cardboard and machine oil.
Water dripped somewhere in the darkness.
Ryan moved ahead with his gun lowered at his side.
Ivy followed Marcus, clutching the metal flashlight he had given her.
She hated the cold weight of fear in her stomach.
But she hated the thought of leaving Elena behind even more.
They reached an interior office.
A muffled voice came from behind the door.
“Please. I told you everything.”
Elena.
Ivy moved forward.
Marcus caught her arm gently.
“Wait.”
A man's voice answered from inside.
“Then tell us where the second copy is.”
“I don't know.”
A sharp noise followed.
Ivy flinched.
Ryan's expression turned murderous.
He pushed open the door.
The man inside reached for his waistband.
Ryan moved first.
A single gunshot shattered the office window.
The weapon flew from the man's hand.
Marcus forced him onto the floor before he could recover.
Elena sat tied to a wooden chair.
Her lip was split.
One eye had swollen nearly shut.
When she saw Ivy, she burst into tears.
“Oh, thank God.”
Ivy hurried to her.
“Sweetheart, what did they do to you?”
Elena shook violently.
“I tried to protect it.”
“The painting?”
“The recording.”
Ryan cut the restraints.
“Where is it?”
Elena looked at him.
Her terror returned.
“You're Arthur Adler's son.”
“Yes.”
“I shouldn't have trusted you.”
“Probably not.”
That answer surprised her.
Ryan crouched so they were eye to eye.
“But if you know who chained that door, I want their names.”
Elena searched his face.
Then whispered, “Ethan Shaw.”
Ivy went still.
Ryan didn't move.
Elena started crying again.
“He came to my apartment last Thursday. He said he was trying to save Joseph Sanders when the fire started. He told me your father had kept him from reaching the west door.”
Ivy looked toward Ryan.
“That was her warning.”
Ryan nodded.
Ethan had been the man Elena meant.
The lawyer who had stood beside Arthur Adler for years.
The man Ryan trusted with everything from business contracts to matters he never permitted outsiders to see.
“Why did you believe him?” Ryan asked.
“Because he knew things only someone who was there could know.”
Elena wiped her cheeks.
“He said Joseph's last words were about Ivy.”
The room became painfully quiet.
Ivy felt as though somebody had struck her.
Ryan had repeated those same final words.
Had Ethan known them too?
Or had Ethan told Ryan a story he had come to believe was his own memory?
Ryan noticed her expression.
“What is it?”
She shook her head.
“Nothing.”
But he knew it wasn't nothing.
Elena reached for Ivy's hand.
“I went to the hotel because my grandfather worked security there the night of the fire. Before he died, he told me the cameras recorded everything.”
“He kept the footage?” Ryan asked.
“Yes. The hotel deleted its copy after the investigation, but he saved a backup.”
“Why wait eleven years?”
Elena looked ashamed.
“I didn't know what I had. My grandfather wouldn't discuss it. When he died last winter, I found a box among his things.”
She swallowed.
“At first, I thought it was just old family paperwork.”
“What changed?”
“The city announced the new Briar Street redevelopment.”
Ivy frowned.
Lorenzo Vale had recently unveiled plans to demolish several nearby buildings for a luxury riverfront project.
Most of the displaced residents were elderly.
Several were business owners who had lived there for decades.
Elena continued.
“I recognized one of the men from the recording in the newspaper photograph.”
“Lorenzo Vale?” Ryan asked.
She nodded.
“He was standing beside a truck outside the shelter before the fire.”
Ryan's eyes narrowed.
“What was in the truck?”
“Metal drums.”
Ivy felt sick.
“Gasoline?”
“I couldn't tell. But the men were unloading them through the west entrance.”
Marcus looked toward Ryan.
The implications were obvious.
The fire might not have been an accident.
It might have been planned.
And the men responsible could now be preparing to repeat the same scheme.
Elena gripped Ivy's fingers.
“I transferred the recording to a memory card. I slipped it behind my portrait because I thought nobody would search a street artist's work.”
“Then why take the painting?” Ivy asked.
“I saw two men watching your table. I tried to get there first.”
Ivy remembered the chaos at Ellis Square.
“The delivery truck.”
Elena nodded.
“They were working for Lorenzo. I reached the painting during the distraction, but one of them saw me. They caught me behind the parking garage.”
“And the note?” Ryan asked.
“I left it when I took the canvas. I wanted Ivy to make you ask questions.”
Ryan considered that.
“You deliberately involved me.”
Elena gave a frightened nod.
“Your father was part of it. But I didn't know if you were.”
“I wasn't.”
She studied him.
“Then why did your lawyer tell me that you signed the order authorizing the west door to be chained?”
Ryan felt a cold pressure settle over his chest.
“I never signed an order to chain any door.”
Elena shook her head.
“He showed me a copy.”
Marcus's phone vibrated.
His expression changed as he read the screen.
“Boss.”
Ryan stood.
“What?”
“Ethan accessed our private security system fifteen minutes ago.”
Ryan turned sharply.
“He doesn't have that authorization.”
“He does now.”
Marcus held up the phone.
Someone had used Ethan's credentials to disable three cameras outside Ryan's estate.
Ryan felt fury tighten his throat.
Ethan hadn't merely concealed evidence.
He had been preparing for Ryan to discover it.
A noise sounded outside.
Leo's voice came through the radio.
“Two cars approaching. Armed men.”
Marcus moved toward the rear exit.
“Everybody out.”
They hurried through the hallway.
Ivy supported Elena.
Ryan followed behind them.
A vehicle accelerated outside.
Then gunfire cracked against the loading door.
Metal rang violently.
Elena screamed.
Ryan pushed Ivy and Elena behind a brick wall.
Marcus fired toward the approaching vehicle.
Leo appeared near the SUV.
“Move!”
They reached the car as its rear window shattered.
Ryan climbed in last.
“Drive!”
The SUV tore away from the warehouse.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Elena trembled against Ivy.
Marcus pressed a cloth to a cut on his forehead.
Ryan checked the rear windshield.
No pursuit.
Not yet.
Then his phone rang.
Ethan Shaw.
Ryan answered.
“You've made a mistake.”
Ethan's familiar voice sounded tired.
“Ryan, you're looking at things you don't understand.”
“I understand you've been lying to me.”
“You think this is about a fire?”
“Eleven people died.”
“People die every day.”
Ryan went completely still.
Ethan continued.
“Your father understood that some sacrifices are necessary.”
“Where are you?”
Ethan sighed.
“I'm offering you one opportunity to walk away.”
Ryan's voice turned deadly.
“I'm not my father.”
“No,” Ethan said softly. “That's exactly why this is going to hurt.”
The call ended.
A photograph appeared on Ryan's phone.
Caroline Bell.
The elderly woman from Ellis Square.
She sat tied to a chair inside a shipping container.
Her yellow flowers lay scattered around her feet.
Below the photograph was a message.
DOCK SIX. MIDNIGHT. BRING THE ARTIST. COME WITHOUT POLICE, OR THE OLD WOMAN DIES.
Ivy read it over Ryan's shoulder.
Her face drained of color.
Ryan immediately locked the screen.
But it was too late.
Ivy had seen everything.
May you like
And when she spoke, there was no fear left in her voice.
“Tell Ethan Shaw,” she said, “that if he wants the artist, he's going to have to face her.”
