Chapter 2 - The Man Behind the Door
Elliot staggered forward.
Mara caught him before he hit the floor.
“Don’t let him see me.”
The whisper came again from inside the office.
Dominic Moretti stepped past Mara.
And the man hiding behind Elliot raised both hands.
“Dominic.”
Everything stopped.
Mara recognized him.
She had served him dinner less than an hour earlier.
He had been sitting at table fourteen.
One of Dominic’s own men.
His name was Anthony Vale.
Mara’s arms tightened around Elliot as his weight dragged against her.
“Help me.”
Elliot’s voice was barely there.
Blood soaked the left side of his white shirt, but Mara couldn’t tell where it was coming from.
Dominic didn’t move toward him.
His attention remained on Anthony.
Anthony was perhaps forty-five, narrow-faced, with silver beginning in his beard. Mara remembered pouring him sparkling water at 8:35.
He had thanked her.
He had smiled.
Now his jacket was open.
His hands were empty.
A handgun lay on Elliot’s desk.
Carlo appeared in the doorway behind Dominic.
The moment he saw Anthony, his face changed.
“What the hell?”
“Don’t,” Anthony said.
Carlo reached beneath his jacket.
Dominic raised one hand.
Carlo froze.
Mara lowered Elliot carefully against the wall.
“We need an ambulance.”
“No ambulance.”
Mara snapped her head toward Anthony.
“He’s bleeding.”
“I know.”
“Then move.”
Anthony looked at Dominic instead.
“If an ambulance comes, this place fills with cops.”
“Maybe that’s what should happen,” Mara said.
Anthony almost laughed.
“You have no idea what you walked into.”
Mara pressed her folded service towel against Elliot’s side.
He groaned.
The blood was coming from a cut beneath his ribs.
Not a gunshot.
Mara looked toward the weapon on the desk.
Then at Anthony.
“What happened?”
Anthony ignored her.
Dominic finally entered the office.
“Carlo. Shut the door.”
Mara stared at him.
“You’re locking us in?”
“I’m keeping everyone else out.”
The door closed.
The noise of the restaurant vanished.
The office suddenly felt much smaller.
Dominic looked at Anthony.
“Talk.”
Anthony swallowed.
“I found him destroying something.”
Elliot shook his head.
“He’s lying.”
“What?”
“Records.”
Anthony pointed toward the floor.
Mara saw a metal wastebasket beside the desk.
Inside were partially burned papers.
Dominic crouched and pulled one free.
The bottom half had blackened.
The top contained rows of numbers.
Dates.
Wine purchases.
Employee initials.
Mara recognized the Meridian logo.
“Inventory records,” she said.
Dominic looked at her.
“You’re sure?”
“I see them every week.”
Elliot struggled to sit straighter.
“He attacked me.”
Anthony shook his head.
“I stopped you from burning evidence.”
“You broke into my office.”
“I followed you.”
Dominic stood.
“Why?”
Anthony hesitated.
That was enough.
Carlo took one step toward him.
“Answer.”
Anthony looked at Dominic.
“Because I saw Elliot near your bottle.”
Mara froze.
“You saw him too?”
Anthony looked at her for the first time.
“Yes.”
“Then why didn’t you stop him?”
His silence chilled her.
Mara slowly stood.
“You watched him put something in Dominic’s wine.”
“I didn’t know what it was.”
“But you followed him afterward.”
“Yes.”
“Instead of warning Dominic?”
Anthony’s jaw tightened.
“It wasn’t that simple.”
Dominic’s voice became dangerously quiet.
“It is becoming simpler by the second.”
Anthony looked toward the gun.
Carlo immediately moved between him and the desk.
“Don’t.”
“I wasn’t reaching for it.”
“Good.”
Mara looked down at Elliot.
His eyes were open.
“Elliot.”
He looked at her.
“Did you poison the wine?”
His face twisted.
“No.”
“I watched you put something in the bottle.”
“I know.”
The answer stunned her.
“You know?”
“I knew you saw me.”
“Then what did you put in it?”
Elliot closed his eyes.
“Nothing.”
Mara stared at him.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“I pretended.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“Explain quickly.”
Elliot looked frightened now.
Not frightened of Dominic.
That was the strange part.
His eyes kept moving toward the office wall.
Toward a framed photograph of the restaurant founder.
“I was told to make sure Mara saw me touching the bottle.”
Mara felt the room tilt.
“What?”
“I was supposed to make it obvious.”
“Why?”
“So she’d think I tampered with it.”
Mara’s voice rose.
“You’re saying someone wanted me to see you?”
“Yes.”
“And then somebody actually poisoned the wine?”
Elliot looked at Dominic.
“That wasn’t supposed to happen.”
Silence.
Even Carlo seemed confused.
Dominic leaned down.
“What was supposed to happen?”
Elliot’s breathing became shallow.
“I was supposed to touch the bottle. Mara was supposed to notice. Nothing else.”
“Who told you?”
Elliot shook his head.
“I can’t.”
Carlo laughed once.
It contained no humor.
“You’re bleeding on the floor because someone just tried to shut you up.”
Anthony interrupted.
“I didn’t try to kill him.”
Mara turned.
“You cut him.”
“He came at me with a letter opener.”
Elliot said nothing.
Anthony pointed toward the desk.
A brass letter opener lay beneath a stack of papers.
There was blood along one edge.
Anthony rolled up his sleeve.
A shallow cut crossed his forearm.
“He panicked when I confronted him.”
Dominic studied both men.
“Elliot.”
No response.
“Look at me.”
Elliot obeyed.
“Who told you to touch the bottle?”
Elliot’s eyes filled with something Mara had never seen there.
Shame.
“My daughter.”
Nobody spoke.
Mara knew Elliot had a daughter.
Sophie.
Twenty-two years old.
Graduate student.
Elliot kept a photograph of her beside his computer.
Mara had met her twice.
Quiet girl.
Dark hair.
Always reading.
“What does Sophie have to do with this?” Mara asked.
Elliot’s mouth trembled.
“They took her.”
Mara felt her anger disappear.
“When?”
“Yesterday morning.”
He swallowed.
“I got a video around noon.”
“What did they want?”
“Nothing at first.”
Dominic remained expressionless.
“Then?”
“Tonight they sent instructions.”
Elliot pointed weakly toward his phone.
Anthony retrieved it from beneath the desk.
“Passcode.”
“0719.”
Anthony unlocked it and handed it to Dominic.
Mara watched Dominic scroll.
His expression barely moved.
Then he handed the phone to her.
There was a video.
Sophie sat in a bare room.
Her wrists were bound in front of her.
No visible injuries.
Someone behind the camera held up that day’s newspaper.
A distorted voice spoke.
Touch Moretti’s wine bottle at 9:10.
Make sure the waitress sees you.
Do nothing else.
Tell nobody.
Mara watched twice.
“They mentioned me.”
Elliot nodded.
“They knew your shift.”
“Why me?”
“I don’t know.”
Mara suddenly remembered the photograph of her mother.
Her fear returned.
“This wasn’t about you,” she whispered.
Elliot looked confused.
“What?”
“They chose you because I trusted you.”
Dominic looked at her.
Mara continued.
“They wanted me to see Elliot touch the bottle. They knew I’d recognize him. They knew I might hesitate because he was my friend.”
Carlo frowned.
“But she didn’t.”
“No,” Dominic said.
“She warned me.”
Mara looked at the poisoned bottle through the office window in the door.
A terrible idea formed.
“What if that was the point?”
Carlo stared at her.
“What point?”
“What if they wanted me to warn him?”
Nobody answered.
Mara’s thoughts accelerated.
She saw the evening differently now.
Elliot conspicuously touching the bottle.
The cloudy swirl.
Dominic arriving.
Her noticing.
Her breaking the glass.
The check.
The warning.
The threatening text.
Her mother’s photograph.
“What if the poison wasn’t meant to kill you?”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
Marco had confirmed the concentration could kill.
But that didn’t answer Mara’s question.
She looked at him.
“What happened the second I warned you?”
Dominic thought.
“My people reacted.”
“Exactly.”
She pointed toward the restaurant.
“Your men moved. Carlo approached. Marco tested the wine. The exits were watched.”
Carlo’s expression slowly changed.
“They wanted to see our response.”
Dominic nodded once.
“A test.”
Anthony swore under his breath.
Mara looked at him.
“What?”
Anthony shook his head.
“Nothing.”
Dominic noticed.
“Anthony.”
“I said nothing.”
“You reacted.”
Anthony looked toward Carlo.
That was another mistake.
Dominic saw it.
“So did I,” Mara said.
She moved toward the desk.
“Elliot was told to make me suspicious. Somebody poisoned the wine afterward. Whoever did it needed access between the time Elliot touched the bottle and when I carried it out.”
She looked at Elliot.
“How long was it unattended?”
“Maybe thirty seconds.”
“Where?”
“Service station three.”
Mara knew the station.
It sat beside the kitchen corridor.
Staff passed it constantly.
So did managers.
And security.
Dominic asked, “Cameras?”
Elliot nodded.
“Hallway camera covers it.”
“Show me.”
Elliot tried to stand.
Pain folded him over.
Mara caught him.
“You’re not going anywhere.”
“I can access it here.”
He pointed toward the computer.
Anthony helped him into the desk chair.
Mara watched him log into the restaurant security system.
His hands shook badly.
He selected camera twelve.
9:09 p.m.
The service corridor appeared.
Mara entered carrying dessert plates.
Elliot appeared.
He stopped beside the wine.
He deliberately moved his hand over the bottle.
Mara watched from the end of the hallway.
Then Elliot walked away.
Onscreen Mara hesitated.
She disappeared into the kitchen.
The bottle remained alone.
Five seconds.
Ten.
Fifteen.
A busboy passed.
Then Bernard Cole entered the frame.
The restaurant manager.
Mara leaned closer.
Bernard stopped beside the tray.
He looked directly at the camera.
Then the image froze.
“What happened?” Carlo asked.
Elliot clicked.
Nothing.
The timestamp jumped.
9:10:31.
Thirty-seven seconds were missing.
When the picture returned, Bernard was gone.
The bottle remained.
Mara entered.
She picked it up.
Nobody spoke.
Dominic said, “Who can delete camera footage?”
Elliot looked sick.
“Me.”
“Who else?”
“Bernard.”
Mara remembered Bernard standing in the dining room after the glass broke.
Pretending to inspect the reservation book.
Watching.
“He knew,” she whispered.
Carlo moved toward the door.
Dominic stopped him.
“No.”
“Dom, he’s ten yards away.”
“Was.”
Carlo opened the door enough to look through.
He turned back.
“Bernard’s gone.”
Dominic’s expression hardened.
“Find him.”
Carlo left with Anthony.
Mara stayed beside Elliot.
Dominic picked up the burned inventory sheet.
“What was he destroying?”
Mara studied it.
Several wine deliveries had been circled.
All expensive vintages.
All received on Tuesdays.
She looked at the initials.
BC.
Bernard Cole.
Another set appeared beside them.
EV.
“Elliot Vale?” Dominic asked.
Elliot shook his head.
“My last name is Crane.”
Mara stared at Anthony’s abandoned chair.
“Anthony Vale.”
Dominic looked toward the doorway.
Mara’s stomach dropped.
Anthony had claimed to find Elliot destroying the records.
But Anthony’s initials were on them.
“Carlo just left with him.”
Dominic pulled out his phone.
Before he could call, the lights went out.
The office became black.
A second later, emergency lights glowed red in the corridor.
Someone screamed in the restaurant.
Then came the crash of overturned tables.
Dominic opened the office door.
“Stay here.”
Mara ignored him.
She stepped into the hallway.
Guests were rushing toward the entrance.
Staff shouted.
Emergency lights painted everything red.
Carlo was nowhere in sight.
Neither was Anthony.
Mara grabbed a passing busboy.
“What happened?”
“Kitchen breaker, I think.”
“Where’s Bernard?”
“I don’t know.”
“Carlo?”
The boy shook his head.
Dominic appeared beside her.
His phone rang.
He answered.
No greeting.
He listened.
His face changed.
“What?”
Mara watched him.
Dominic lowered the phone.
“Carlo’s car just left the garage.”
“That’s impossible.”
“He wasn’t driving.”
Mara’s phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
A video attachment.
Her fingers went cold.
She opened it.
The footage had been recorded seconds earlier in the underground garage.
Carlo was unconscious in the passenger seat of a black sedan.
Anthony was driving.
Mara nearly dropped the phone.
Text appeared beneath the video.
YOU KEEP LOOKING AT THE WRONG MAN.
Then another message.
CHECK MARA’S LOCKER.
Dominic read it.
They looked at each other.
“My locker?”
“Where?”
“Staff basement.”
Dominic called two of his men.
They descended the service stairs.
The basement corridor was empty.
Mara could hear her own footsteps.
Locker 28 stood near the end.
Her lock was gone.
The door hung slightly open.
“I locked this before my shift.”
Dominic positioned himself beside her.
“Don’t touch anything.”
He pulled the locker open with the edge of his handkerchief.
Inside sat Mara’s purse.
Her coat.
Her sneakers.
And a white envelope.
Her name was written across the front.
MARA.
Dominic opened it.
A photograph slid onto the floor.
Mara picked it up.
Her mother.
Her brother.
Elliot.
Sophie.
Carlo.
All photographed secretly.
All on different days.
On the back was a handwritten list of times.
Schedules.
Addresses.
Routes.
At the bottom was one more name.
DOMINIC MORETTI.
Beside it:
9:17 P.M. — WAITRESS INTERVENES.
Mara stared.
“They knew.”
Dominic took the photograph.
“They knew exactly when you would warn me.”
“But how?”
A sound came from behind the lockers.
Dominic turned.
His hand disappeared beneath his jacket.
“Come out.”
Nothing.
Mara stepped backward.
“Who’s there?”
A phone began ringing.
Not Mara’s.
Not Dominic’s.
The sound came from inside locker 29.
Dominic opened it.
A cheap prepaid phone lay on the shelf.
Still ringing.
He put it on speaker.
“Who is this?”
A distorted voice answered.
“You were always difficult to kill, Dominic.”
Dominic’s face went completely still.
Mara watched him.
The voice continued.
“But tonight was never about killing you.”
Mara’s heart hammered.
“What do you want?”
A quiet laugh.
Then the caller said something that made Dominic turn slowly toward her.
“Ask Mara what happened to her father.”
Mara stopped breathing.
“My father died twelve years ago.”
The voice answered immediately.
“No, Mara.”
A door clicked open at the far end of the basement.
May you like
Footsteps entered the corridor.
Then a man Mara had buried twelve years earlier stepped into the red emergency light.
