Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN WITH THE YELLOW FLOWERS
“If you walk into that warehouse, you will not walk out alive.”
Ryan Adler stood in the center of his private office, staring at Ivy Sanders.
She had changed out of her paint-splattered shirt and into a plain navy sweater, black pants, and sneakers.
Her hair was pulled back.
Her expression was stubborn enough to make Marcus consider leaving the room.
“I didn't say I was walking in alone,” Ivy answered.
“You're not walking in at all.”
“You keep using that tone, Ryan, and I'm going to start charging you for every order.”
“This isn't funny.”
“I know.”
That stopped him.
Ivy stepped closer.
“Caroline is seventy-four years old. She raised three children, buried her husband, and lost her oldest son in the Briar Street fire. Every Tuesday, she brings yellow flowers to Ellis Square because that's where her son used to meet her for lunch.”
Ryan watched her.
“She also buys paintings from me when she can barely afford groceries,” Ivy continued. “Not because she needs more art. Because she doesn't want me to give up.”
Her voice trembled.
“I won't abandon her.”
Ryan looked away.
He understood loyalty.
He had built his entire organization around it.
But Ivy's loyalty was different.
She had no contracts.
No armed guards.
No money powerful enough to frighten enemies into obedience.
She simply loved people and refused to let that love disappear when danger arrived.
“Then we do this intelligently,” he said.
Ivy folded her arms.
“That's the nicest way you've ever said I'm right.”
Marcus cleared his throat.
“Before this becomes a romantic argument, we have a hostage problem.”
Both turned toward him.
Marcus placed a map of Savannah's waterfront on the desk.
“Dock Six is part of an old shipping complex. Vale acquired the lease six months ago through a holding company.”
Ryan leaned forward.
“Entrances?”
“Three. Main loading gate, maintenance road, and a drainage tunnel beneath the eastern wall.”
Ivy examined the map.
“That's not the current layout.”
Marcus frowned.
“What?”
“The drainage tunnel was sealed after last summer's flooding. The city put a concrete barrier across it.”
Ryan looked at her.
“How do you know?”
“I painted a mural for the waterfront cleanup fundraiser. One of the volunteers complained about the construction for six straight hours.”
Marcus stared.
“Does everybody in Savannah tell you their problems?”
“Pretty much.”
Ryan almost smiled.
Then he saw something else on the map.
A narrow utility passage connected Dock Six to an abandoned storage building owned by Vale Renewal.
That passage did not appear on public city records.
But Ryan knew it existed.
His father had used it years earlier.
“Marcus, get Leo and prepare the vehicles.”
“Understood.”
Ryan turned toward Ivy.
“You'll stay with the backup team until Caroline is secure.”
This time, she agreed.
“Fine. But you're going to tell me the truth about your lawyer when we're done.”
Ryan's expression darkened.
“I intend to.”
Before they left, Elena entered the office.
A doctor had treated her injuries, but she was still pale.
She held a small envelope.
“I remembered something.”
Ivy approached.
“What?”
“Elena, if you're not feeling well—”
“It's important.”
She opened the envelope and removed a photograph of the original hotel recording.
It showed a delivery truck outside Briar Street.
On the side was an old company name.
ADLER PROPERTY SERVICES.
Ryan recognized the lettering immediately.
Arthur's company.
Elena pointed toward the driver's door.
“There was a symbol beneath the company name.”
A yellow circle.
Three black lines.
Ryan frowned.
“A subcontractor's mark?”
Elena shook her head.
“My grandfather wrote something on the back.”
She turned the photograph over.
Four words appeared in faded ink.
THE FLOWERS KNOW EVERYTHING.
Ivy stared.
“Flowers?”
Elena nodded.
“My grandfather told me the only person who could prove what happened was a woman who carried flowers.”
Ryan looked toward Ivy.
“Caroline.”
At that exact moment, James Porter called Ivy.
She answered immediately.
“James?”
“Baby girl, I found something you need to see.”
“Are you okay?”
“I'm fine. But Caroline asked me to keep an envelope for her.”
Ivy's heart raced.
“What envelope?”
“She brought it to the stand on Monday. Said if anything happened to her, I should give it to you.”
Ryan extended his hand.
“Put him on speaker.”
James heard Ryan's voice and sighed.
“Oh, fantastic. The expensive funeral director.”
“Mr. Porter, we need that envelope.”
“Then come get it.”
Ryan checked the time.
They had three hours before midnight.
They drove to Ellis Square.
The stalls were closed.
Streetlamps glowed beneath the oaks.
James waited beside his locked fruit stand, a brown envelope tucked beneath his arm.
He handed it directly to Ivy.
“Caroline made me promise not to open it.”
Ivy tore the flap.
Inside was an old locksmith's receipt.
A photograph.
And a handwritten statement.
The receipt had been issued eleven years earlier by Bell & Sons Locksmithing, a business owned by Caroline's late husband.
It described repairs to the west emergency exit at Briar Street.
The notation at the bottom made Ivy's hands tremble.
EMERGENCY EXIT VERIFIED FUNCTIONAL. NO EXTERIOR CHAIN AUTHORIZED.
Below it was a signature.
Joseph Sanders.
“My father inspected it,” Ivy whispered.
James nodded.
“He always said somebody tampered with that door after he checked it.”
Ryan read the statement.
Caroline had written that her son Daniel, a maintenance worker at the shelter, had telephoned her thirty minutes before the fire.
He sounded frightened.
He told her men were unloading drums near the west entrance.
He said a lawyer had arrived and ordered the employees to stay inside.
The lawyer's name was Ethan Shaw.
Ryan lowered the page.
His face had become frighteningly still.
Ivy watched him.
“Did you know?”
“No.”
“Did your father?”
Ryan studied the photograph.
Arthur Adler stood beside the loading truck.
Lorenzo Vale was there.
And a younger Ethan Shaw stood in the background.
“I don't know what Arthur understood before the fire,” Ryan said. “But he helped conceal what happened afterward.”
Ivy swallowed.
“Then your father was part of this.”
Ryan didn't look away.
“Yes.”
It hurt him to say it.
Ivy could see that.
Arthur Adler had been ruthless.
Everyone knew it.
But a son could understand his father's cruelty and still struggle with the knowledge that the same man had permitted innocent people to die.
Ryan folded the statement.
“My father deserved to face a courtroom.”
Ivy looked at him for a long moment.
It was the first time she truly believed he might choose justice over his family name.
At 11:47 p.m., Ryan's convoy approached Dock Six.
Marcus positioned his team near the maintenance road.
Leo covered the waterfront.
Ivy waited in a vehicle behind a warehouse.
Ryan walked alone toward the loading gate.
A voice crackled through an outdoor speaker.
“Right on time, Ryan.”
Ethan Shaw.
Ryan stopped.
“Where is Caroline?”
“Inside.”
“Let her go.”
“Not until I have the artist.”
“You have me.”
Ethan laughed softly.
“Your father would be disappointed in your negotiating skills.”
“Arthur is dead.”
“Yes. And some days I miss him terribly.”
A metal door opened.
Caroline appeared between two armed men.
Her silver hair was disheveled.
A bruise marked her cheek.
But she stood straight.
“Ryan,” she called. “Don't you dare trade that girl for me.”
Ryan felt something tighten in his chest.
Caroline looked toward the darkened street.
“Ivy, if you're out there, listen to me! Your daddy would want you safe!”
Ethan stepped into the doorway.
He wore a dark overcoat and carried a pistol.
The familiar face was almost worse than a stranger's.
Ryan had known him for twenty years.
Ethan had attended Arthur's funeral.
He had helped Ryan negotiate business disputes, avoid federal investigations, and protect people inside the organization.
Now that same man stood holding an elderly woman hostage.
“Let her go,” Ryan repeated.
Ethan smiled.
“You always were sentimental beneath that ridiculous expression.”
“Don't test me.”
“Oh, Ryan. I've been testing you since your father died.”
He motioned toward Caroline.
One of the guards pushed her forward.
She stumbled.
Ryan took a step.
Ethan raised his weapon.
“Stay.”
A sharp voice suddenly came from behind the stacked shipping containers.
“Hey, Counselor!”
Everyone turned.
Ivy Sanders stepped into view.
Ryan's heart nearly stopped.
She held her phone in one hand.
Her other hand rested on her hip.
“You know what I hate about arrogant men?”
Ethan stared.
“Ivy.”
“They always assume they're the smartest person in the room.”
Ryan glanced toward Marcus's hidden position.
Ivy was standing exactly where they had planned.
She wasn't improvising recklessly.
She was distracting Ethan.
And, judging by the growing irritation on his face, doing it extremely well.
Ethan smiled thinly.
“You're brave.”
“No. I'm angry. There's a difference.”
“What do you want?”
“Caroline.”
“Then come closer.”
Ivy took one step.
Ryan shook his head almost imperceptibly.
She stopped.
“First, answer a question.”
Ethan sighed.
“What?”
“Why kill eleven people over a building?”
For the first time, Ethan's expression changed.
He looked almost offended.
“Because it wasn't about a building.”
Ivy waited.
Ethan continued.
“It was about forty acres of waterfront property, a shipping corridor, and the future of the entire district.”
Ryan felt sick.
“You started the fire to force the city to condemn the neighborhood.”
Ethan laughed.
“Your father understood the value of a distressed asset.”
Ivy's voice hardened.
“Those assets were human beings.”
“To sentimental people, perhaps.”
Caroline suddenly spit at Ethan's shoes.
“My son was worth more than every building you've ever owned.”
Ethan turned.
And that was the mistake Marcus had been waiting for.
A sharp crack echoed across the dock.
The light above Ethan shattered.
Darkness swallowed the entrance.
Ryan lunged toward Caroline.
Marcus's men moved.
Gunfire erupted near the shipping containers.
Ivy dropped behind a concrete barrier.
A bullet struck the metal inches above her head.
She covered her ears.
Someone screamed.
Then Ryan was beside her.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Stay down.”
He looked toward the loading gate.
Marcus had reached Caroline.
Leo was struggling with an armed guard beside a truck.
Another man lay unconscious near the doorway.
But Ethan was gone.
Ryan swore.
Marcus hurried toward the vehicles with Caroline supported between two men.
“She's safe!”
Ryan helped Ivy stand.
Her hands were shaking.
He placed his jacket around her shoulders.
For one extraordinary moment, neither spoke.
Then Ivy leaned against him.
Just briefly.
Just long enough to admit she was frightened.
Ryan held her carefully.
“You did well.”
She gave a weak laugh.
“I think I nearly swallowed my own heart.”
“I noticed.”
“Don't become smug.”
His hand rested lightly against her back.
“I wouldn't dare.”
A distant siren interrupted them.
Ryan looked toward the entrance.
Three police cruisers approached with flashing lights.
Marcus's expression changed.
“Boss, that's not our contact.”
The vehicles stopped.
Officers poured out.
Their weapons pointed toward Ryan.
“Ryan Adler!”
A uniformed captain stepped forward.
“Put your hands where we can see them!”
Ryan slowly raised his arms.
Ivy moved beside him.
“What's happening?”
The captain held up an arrest warrant.
“Ryan Adler, you're under arrest for conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and eleven counts of murder in connection with the Briar Street fire.”
Ivy stared at him.
“That's impossible.”
The captain looked at her.
“We have newly recovered security footage placing him at the scene before the fire.”
Ryan's expression turned cold.
Ethan.
He had escaped.
And now he was using the police to complete the trap.
An officer reached for Ryan's wrists.
Ivy grabbed his arm.
“You can't do this!”
Ryan looked at her.
“Ivy.”
“They're framing you!”
“I know.”
“Then tell them!”
He spoke quietly.
“Protect Caroline. Keep the receipts. Find the original recording.”
The officer pulled Ryan away.
Ivy watched the handcuffs close around his wrists.
Then the police captain turned toward her.
“Miss Sanders, we'll also need you to come with us.”
“Why?”
He removed a second document.
“Your studio has been identified as a location used to conceal evidence relating to the original crime.”
Ivy felt the ground shift beneath her.
“What?”
The captain's expression didn't change.
“We have authorization to search your home and seize every painting you produced during the last thirty days.”
Ivy looked toward Marcus.
Then toward the dark waterfront.
Ethan hadn't merely trapped Ryan.
May you like
He was coming for every remaining piece of her father's story.
And this time, he intended to erase the artist along with the evidence.
