Chapter 4 - THE LOCKER HELD A MESSAGE DANIEL HAD RECORDED FOR ME BEFORE OUR DAUGHTER WAS BORN
I left Ellie with Mrs. Alvarez.
Not because Luca ordered it.
Because I chose her.
That mattered.
Mrs. Alvarez cried when she realized how the baby had ended up on the executive floor.
“I thought I was helping.”
she whispered.
“You were.”
“I should have called you.”
“Yes.”
She looked ashamed.
I touched her arm.
“But Vincent told you HR would fire me if the baby stayed downstairs.”
Her face changed.
“How did you know?”
“Camera.”
She nodded.
“He said Mr. Moretti would decide.”
Of course.
Vincent had pushed Ellie upstairs deliberately.
Maybe he wanted Luca to discover her.
Maybe he wanted necklace found.
Maybe the message was bait designed to force Luca into motion.
Either way, I trusted Mrs. Alvarez because she had made one mistake from fear, then told truth immediately.
Luca assigned two security guards.
I said:
“I want Nico choosing them, not you.”
Luca’s eyebrow moved.
“Why?”
“Because if this is a trap, everyone around you is a target.”
He looked at Nico.
Then back.
“Reasonable.”
That word from mafia boss felt strange.
At 11:10 p.m., we reached old Union Station service level.
Locker 614 had been part of baggage storage closed years earlier.
The public lockers were gone.
But some maintenance units remained behind restricted corridor.
Luca did not actually come alone.
Neither did I.
FBI?
Not yet.
We did not know who was clean.
Instead, Nico placed two vetted men at street exits.
Luca and I entered corridor.
I wore a small panic device clipped inside coat.
No gun.
I did not want one.
Luca carried one under jacket.
I knew.
He did not pretend otherwise.
Locker 614 had no modern keypad.
Old brass keyhole.
The photograph envelope had included a key taped behind picture.
Luca inserted.
I stopped him.
“Wait.”
He looked.
“What if it’s wired?”
His mouth twitched.
“You’ve watched television.”
“Daniel did cybersecurity.”
“He’d say the same thing.”
Luca called Nico.
A technician checked.
No explosive.
We opened.
Inside:
A cheap prepaid phone.
A sealed flash drive.
A photograph of me five months pregnant.
And one folded baby ultrasound image.
I covered my mouth.
Daniel had carried it.
The phone had one saved video.
Date stamped the night he disappeared.
My husband appeared on screen.
His face filled frame.
He was sitting somewhere dark.
“Anna.”
I stopped breathing.
“If you’re watching this, something went wrong.”
Tears came immediately.
“I’m sorry.”
“I know you hate when people start with that.”
A laugh escaped me through tears.
He knew.
“By now you probably think I left.”
“I didn’t.”
“I need you to believe that first.”
I held the phone with both hands.
Luca turned away slightly.
Privacy.
Unexpected kindness.
Daniel continued:
“I found something at work.”
“Something involving Moretti Holdings.”
“Before you panic, Luca Moretti does not know.”
“At least I don’t think he does.”
Luca glanced back.
Daniel:
“I tried going to Detective Brennan.”
“That was a mistake.”
“If I tell you details, I put you and Ellie in danger.”
“Yes, I know.”
“You’ll say that should be your choice.”
My chest broke.
“You’re right.”
“I’m still making it.”
I whispered:
“Damn you.”
Daniel on video smiled sadly as if he heard.
“I’m scared.”
“I’ve never been this scared.”
“Not for me.”
“For you.”
“For our daughter.”
He looked down.
Then:
“Ellie Bean, if your mom plays this for you someday, your dad loved you before he knew what your face looked like.”
I sobbed.
Luca’s shoulders became rigid.
He looked at wall.
Daniel continued:
“I gave Luca my necklace.”
“If he’s clean, he’ll get it to you when it’s safe.”
“If he doesn’t…”
He paused.
“Then maybe I was wrong about him.”
Luca’s face tightened.
“He wasn’t.”
I whispered.
Not entirely.
Daniel explained the flash drive.
Encrypted.
Not full evidence.
An index.
Names.
Dates.
Instructions.
The password:
THREEEGGSANDTOAST
I laughed.
Our Sunday breakfast.
Daniel burned toast every time.
The file opened.
Documents.
Financial transfers.
Internal access logs.
Vincent Russo’s name appeared repeatedly.
Detective Brennan.
Two Moretti Holdings executives.
One city procurement officer.
And one name I did not know:
DR. STEPHEN HART — NORTHLAKE RECOVERY CENTER
Luca became still.
“What?”
I asked.
He pointed.
“Northlake is a private rehabilitation facility outside Milwaukee.”
“Addiction?”
“Trauma.”
“Executive psychiatric care.”
“Discreet.”
“Why is doctor in Daniel’s files?”
We searched.
A payment.
$240,000.
From Vincent-controlled consulting entity.
Ten months earlier.
Memo:
LONG-TERM PRIVATE CARE / D.C.
D.C.
Daniel Carter.
My blood turned cold.
“He’s there.”
Luca did not promise.
“Maybe.”
I grabbed his sleeve.
“He’s there.”
“Anna.”
“Do not tell me to calm down.”
“I wasn’t.”
Good.
Then a new text appeared on prepaid phone.
YOU OPENED IT.
I froze.
Luca took phone.
Another:
NOW YOU KNOW WHY HE COULDN’T COME HOME.
Another:
ASK LUCA WHO OWNED NORTHLAKE UNTIL LAST YEAR.
Luca’s expression changed.
I stared.
“Who?”
He didn’t answer quickly enough.
“Who owned it?”
“My sister’s trust.”
The room went silent.
“What?”
“Not my sister personally.”
“A Moretti family investment trust held thirty-one percent.”
“Sold last year.”
“Who managed trust?”
I already knew before he said it.
“Vincent.”
I stepped away.
Daniel had been hidden inside a facility financially connected to Luca’s own family.
For months.
While Luca’s men searched.
While I begged police.
While Ellie was born.
“You people built a maze around yourselves.”
My voice shook.
“And then act shocked when somebody gets lost inside it.”
Luca did not defend.
“You’re right.”
Again.
I hated how much I respected that.
Then the prepaid phone rang.
Unknown.
Luca answered on speaker.
A man’s voice.
Not Vincent.
Detective Brennan.
“Mrs. Carter?”
I went cold.
“I’m here.”
“Daniel is alive.”
My knees weakened.
“Where?”
“Northlake.”
My heart exploded.
“Then why are you calling?”
Brennan breathed heavily.
“Because Vincent is cleaning up.”
“What does that mean?”
“He knows the locker was opened.”
“He knows Daniel’s location is compromised.”
Luca stepped closer.
“Brennan.”
Silence.
Then:
“You should have stayed out of this, Moretti.”
Luca’s voice became ice.
“You worked for Vincent?”
Brennan laughed bitterly.
“I worked for myself.”
“Difference?”
“Not much.”
Then I said:
“Why did you lie to me?”
Silence.
“Detective.”
“You sat in my kitchen.”
“You watched me cry.”
“You told me you were trying.”
His voice softened slightly.
“I was.”
“No.”
“Not for Daniel.”
“To keep you from finding him.”
“Vincent said if you stopped looking, you lived.”
I almost dropped phone.
“So you decided I should be grateful.”
“I decided a pregnant widow was better than a dead one.”
“My husband wasn’t dead.”
“I didn’t know that at first.”
“When did you?”
Silence.
My stomach turned.
“When?”
“Seven months ago.”
Around Ellie’s birth.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“And did nothing.”
“I kept him alive.”
“What?”
Brennan’s voice tightened.
“Vincent wanted him dead.”
“I convinced him Daniel was more useful alive because nobody knew where full files were.”
My breathing stopped.
“You saved him?”
“Don’t make me hero.”
Good.
“At first I took money.”
“Then I realized Vincent was going to kill everybody eventually.”
“So now?”
“Now I’m trying to leave.”
Luca said:
“You want protection.”
“Yes.”
“Give us Daniel.”
Brennan paused.
“Northlake Building C.”
“Room 208.”
“Not main records.”
“He’s under name David Collins.”
My hand covered mouth.
“Is he conscious?”
“Yes.”
“Can he walk?”
“Mostly.”
“Does he know about Ellie?”
Silence.
“Does he know his daughter was born?”
“Yes.”
My heart cracked.
“How?”
“I told him.”
I almost hated Brennan more for that.
“He asked for pictures.”
“Did you give him?”
“One.”
“When?”
“Six months ago.”
My vision blurred.
Daniel had seen Ellie.
Somewhere locked away.
I whispered:
“We’re going.”
Brennan’s voice sharpened.
“Not yet.”
“Vincent has men there.”
“How many?”
“Four.”
“Maybe five.”
Luca looked at Nico through his earpiece? Nico not with them but nearby. He sent location.
Brennan continued:
“If Moretti vehicles show up, Daniel dies.”
“Then what?”
“I can get one door open.”
“Twenty minutes.”
“After that, you’re on your own.”
Luca said:
“No.”
“What?”
“We are not doing a blind assault on medical facility with patients inside.”
I stared at him.
Old image of mafia boss shattered another inch.
“Then what?”
Brennan asked.
Luca looked at me.
“People you never involved because you assumed they were all dirty.”
I knew what he meant.
Federal agents.
Brennan swore.
“They have leaks too.”
“Then we pick one.”
Luca looked at Nico when he arrived at corridor entrance.
“Call Assistant U.S. Attorney Rachel Monroe.”
Nico froze.
“You trust her?”
“No.”
Luca said.
“But she hates me enough to be useful.”
That was how, twenty-eight minutes after hearing my husband was alive, I found myself in a federal SUV headed toward Wisconsin while a mafia boss coordinated with prosecutors who had spent years trying to put him in prison.
Nothing about my life made sense anymore.
Except one thing.
May you like
Daniel was alive.
And this time, nobody was going to decide for me whether I got to see him.
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