Chapter 2 - The Man Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
Luca killed the call.
"No one touches that apartment," he said.
Marco immediately sent the order.
Ivy was staring at him.
"Who wants me?"
"We don't know."
"Do they have Mommy?"
Luca didn't answer immediately.
That was enough.
Ivy's chin trembled.
"You said you'd save her."
"I will."
"You don't know where she is."
"No."
Her eyes filled.
"So how can you promise?"
Luca looked at her.
Because men like him weren't supposed to promise children things.
Because promises created weaknesses.
Because weakness in Luca's world became a weapon.
But there was something about Ivy's desperate little face that reminded him of another promise, made twelve years ago in an alley while Daniel Mercer pressed his hands against Luca's bleeding side.
If you survive this, Luca, you owe me one.
Luca had survived.
Daniel disappeared before Luca could repay him.
Perhaps debts could wait longer than men.
"I can promise because the people who took your mother just made the mistake of giving me a reason to find them."
Ivy wiped her cheek.
"Is that good?"
"For us."
"And bad for them?"
"Very."
They changed vehicles twice before arriving at one of Luca's safe properties, a brownstone that belonged on a postcard rather than in the portfolio of a crime boss.
Inside, a woman named Rosa greeted Ivy.
She was in her fifties and had spent fifteen years managing Luca's household while pretending not to know why armed men came for coffee at midnight.
"She needs food," Luca said.
"I'm not hungry," Ivy replied.
Rosa crouched.
"Do you like pancakes?"
Ivy hesitated.
"At night?"
"Best time."
Ivy looked at Luca.
"You'll still find Mommy?"
"I'm working."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
She followed Rosa reluctantly.
Marco waited until she disappeared.
Then he shut the door.
"This is bad."
"You'll need to be more specific."
"Vale being back is bad. Daniel being alive is worse. Patrick Callahan being connected makes this a nightmare."
Luca removed his suit jacket.
"Twelve years ago, Daniel had evidence."
"Against your father."
"Against everyone."
"And then disappeared."
"Yes."
"If he's alive, maybe the evidence is alive too."
Luca stared at the five-dollar bill beneath a lamp.
He entered the handwritten number into a secure lookup.
Nothing immediately appeared.
"Run this."
Marco photographed it.
"Could be a burner."
"Could be coordinates encoded somehow."
"Ten digits?"
"Could be anything."
Luca moved to the windows.
"Tell me about Adrian Vale."
Marco opened his tablet.
"Thirty-nine. Family money. Shipping, construction, hospitality. Quiet expansion over the past decade. Almost no criminal charges."
"Because he doesn't get caught."
"Three years in Europe. Came back suddenly."
"When?"
"Twenty-two days ago."
"Why?"
"No obvious reason."
"Daniel?"
"Maybe."
Luca thought.
"Find where Grace cleaned three days ago."
"Already cross-checking schedules."
The door opened.
Roman entered.
"Teams hit all three Halcyon properties."
"And?"
"Nothing at two."
"The third?"
"Sublevel room. Recently occupied."
Luca turned.
"Blood?"
"Some."
"Body?"
"No."
"Restraints?"
Roman nodded.
"Chair bolted to floor. Medical waste. Food containers."
"Daniel."
"Could be."
"What else?"
Roman pulled a plastic evidence bag from his coat.
Inside was a silver chain.
A military-style identification tag hung from it.
Luca didn't need to read the name.
He recognized the damaged edge.
Daniel had worn it since they were teenagers.
Luca took the bag.
For a second he wasn't thirty-four.
He was twenty.
Daniel was laughing across a boxing gym.
Then twenty-one.
Daniel was pulling him away from a burning car.
Then twenty-two.
Daniel was warning him that Luca's father had become involved with something monstrous.
Then nothing.
Twelve years of nothing.
"Where?"
"Inside a drain."
"Recently?"
"Hard to tell."
Luca's phone buzzed.
Marco looked down at his screen at the same time.
"I got Grace's cleaning schedule."
"Which property?"
"Not one of the three."
Luca frowned.
Marco turned the tablet.
"She worked the Stella Denote building."
Luca stared.
The same restaurant where Ivy had found him.
"You sure?"
"Office floors above the restaurant. Halcyon owns the building through two holding companies."
Roman swore.
"She sent Ivy directly back to the building."
"No," Luca said.
"Then what?"
"She didn't send Ivy to me."
He placed the five-dollar bill beside the tablet.
"She sent me to the building."
They returned after closing.
No sirens.
No marked vehicles.
Luca preferred silence.
The restaurant manager was removed politely.
Staff went home early.
By eleven, only Luca's people remained.
Ivy stayed with Rosa.
Luca, Marco, and Roman entered the service elevator.
It stopped at basement level.
"This place has been ours for five years," Marco said.
"Apparently not all of it."
They moved through storage rooms.
Wine.
Dry goods.
Electrical panels.
Nothing.
Then Roman noticed scratches near a metal shelving unit.
They moved it.
Behind it was a narrow door.
No exterior handle.
Luca stared.
"How did we miss this?"
"Architectural plans don't show it."
Roman forced the lock.
The door opened onto a stairwell descending farther beneath the street.
Marco looked at Luca.
"Hidden sub-basement."
They went down.
At the bottom was a corridor.
Concrete walls.
Fresh electrical wiring.
Security cameras had been removed recently, leaving pale rectangles.
One room contained a chair.
Another contained monitors.
A third was empty except for a table.
On the table sat a child's drawing.
Luca approached.
Crayon figures.
A woman.
A little girl.
A man in dark clothing.
Above them were three crooked words.
MOMMY.
IVY.
LUCA.
Marco stared.
"Someone knew she'd come to you."
"Or wanted her to."
A speaker crackled overhead.
All three men drew weapons.
Then a recorded male voice filled the corridor.
"Luca."
He froze.
Age had roughened it.
Pain had changed it.
But he knew the voice.
Daniel.
"If you're hearing this, Grace found you."
Luca stared at the speaker.
"I don't know how much time I have."
Static.
"If Grace is still alive, keep her alive. Vale needs her for something I couldn't understand."
Luca's fists clenched.
"And Luca..."
Daniel coughed.
"If Ivy is with you, do not give her to anyone. Not police. Not federal agents. Not even someone carrying my name."
The recording clicked off.
Marco exhaled.
"Someone carrying his name?"
Roman inspected the room.
"Maybe family."
"Daniel had no children," Luca said.
"That you knew of."
Luca looked at the child's drawing.
Someone had predicted Ivy's route.
Someone had arranged for Grace to discover Daniel.
Someone had positioned the entire chain.
The question was why.
Roman found a small digital recorder taped beneath the table.
Another message.
This time a woman's voice.
Grace.
"I don't know if you'll hear this."
Ivy's mother sounded terrified.
"My name is Grace Callahan. Daniel told me Luca Moretti might help."
A shaky breath.
"If anything happens to me, tell Ivy I tried to come back."
Luca's chest tightened.
"Patrick knew. My husband knew about Daniel before he died. I found files hidden inside his old tool chest. Vale killed Patrick because Patrick wouldn't tell him where the ledger was."
Marco whispered, "Ledger?"
Grace continued.
"I don't have it. I never did. But Vale doesn't believe me."
A noise interrupted the recording.
Grace whispered faster.
"Daniel said the ledger wasn't evidence of money. It was evidence of people."
Footsteps sounded in the recording.
"If Vale forces me to marry him, it's because Patrick put something in my name before he died. Something Vale can't access without me."
The recording ended abruptly.
Roman cursed.
Marco looked at Luca.
"Property?"
"Account?"
"Trust?"
Luca's phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
He answered.
No words.
Only breathing.
Then a woman's voice.
"Mr. Moretti?"
"Grace?"
A sharp inhale.
"Where is Ivy?"
"Safe."
Grace began crying quietly.
"Thank God."
"Where are you?"
"I can't say."
"You called me."
"They gave me one minute."
"Who?"
"Vale."
"Put him on."
"No. Listen."
Her voice dropped.
"Don't come after me."
"That's not happening."
"You don't understand."
"Then make me understand."
"Daniel isn't the reason they want me."
Luca waited.
Grace whispered:
"Ivy is."
His blood went cold.
"What does Ivy have to do with this?"
"I don't know all of it."
"Grace."
"Patrick changed something before he died. Some legal record. He told me if anyone ever came asking about Daniel, I should take Ivy and run."
A door opened on Grace's end.
She gasped.
"Grace?"
"I have to go."
"Where are you?"
"Tell Ivy I love her."
"Grace!"
A man's voice sounded faintly behind her.
Then Grace said something that made Luca grip the phone hard enough to hurt.
"Patrick wasn't Ivy's biological father."
The call disconnected.
Marco stared at him.
Luca dialed back.
Dead number.
"What did she say?"
Luca slowly lowered the phone.
Before he could answer, Roman's device chimed.
He looked at the incoming image.
His face changed.
"Boss."
"What?"
Roman turned the screen around.
A photograph had just arrived.
Grace sat in a white dress inside an unfamiliar room.
Behind her stood Adrian Vale.
And beside him stood a gaunt man Luca hadn't seen in twelve years.
Daniel Mercer.
May you like
Beneath the photograph was one sentence.
BRING IVY TO THE CHURCH BEFORE MIDNIGHT, OR HER MOTHER MARRIES A DEAD MAN.
