Chapter 6 - The Woman Who Never Died
Amelia did not have time to answer.
Vincent dragged the desk against the hotel door while Marco and Sal returned fire into the corridor.
“Back exit?” Vincent shouted.
Del Monaco pointed toward the bathroom.
“Fire stairs outside the window.”
They moved.
Fast.
Marco went first.
Amelia climbed through the broken window onto the rusted metal stairs.
Gunshots echoed inside.
Vincent stayed behind her.
“Go.”
She descended.
One floor.
Two.
A bullet struck metal above them.
Sparks jumped.
Sal cursed.
They reached the alley.
A black SUV waited.
Marco drove.
Nobody spoke for three blocks.
Then Amelia looked at Del Monaco.
“My mother.”
He nodded.
“Where?”
“Safe.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know anymore.”
Amelia stared.
“You just said she was alive.”
“She was alive three months ago.”
“That is not the same thing.”
“I know.”
“Who sent the message?”
“I don’t know.”
Her phone still displayed it.
I AM YOUR MOTHER.
Vincent looked at Del Monaco.
“Start talking.”
The old man lowered his head.
“Carlo asked me to help Evelyn after the crash.”
“You knew Carlo?”
“For thirty years.”
“Why fake her death?”
“Because Raymond’s father, Grant Fletcher, had men watching her.”
Amelia frowned.
“Raymond’s father?”
“Grant ran collection routes through trucking companies. Your father discovered the ledger.”
“And Raymond?”
“Raymond learned everything later.”
Del Monaco looked ashamed.
“He blamed your family for destroying his father.”
“His father destroyed himself.”
“Yes.”
“Why date me?”
“To get close enough to learn whether Evelyn had given you the ledger.”
Amelia’s stomach turned.
Every memory with Raymond felt contaminated.
Vincent asked, “Why didn’t Carlo kill Raymond when he found out?”
Del Monaco looked at him.
“Because Carlo promised Evelyn he would keep Amelia out of bloodshed.”
Vincent absorbed that.
“And yet he left her living with Raymond.”
“He didn’t know until too late.”
Amelia snapped.
“He knew enough to stop my mother from contacting me.”
Del Monaco flinched.
“Yes.”
“That almost got me killed.”
“Yes.”
The old man did not defend himself.
Amelia looked out the window.
Brooklyn passed in gray morning light.
Vincent spoke softly.
“Where is Evelyn’s last known location?”
Del Monaco gave them an address.
A church shelter in New Jersey.
Marco called.
The result came back twenty minutes later.
Evelyn Hayes had used the shelter under another name.
She left three months ago.
With a man.
Description?
Silver hair.
Dark coat.
Approximately sixty.
Del Monaco went pale.
Vincent noticed.
“You know him.”
“No.”
“You do.”
Del Monaco’s hands shook.
“Carlo’s former attorney.”
“Name.”
“Samuel Voss.”
Vincent’s expression changed completely.
Marco swore.
Amelia looked between them.
“Who is Samuel Voss?”
Vincent stared forward.
“The man who handled almost every legal document my uncle ever signed.”
“And?”
“And he disappeared after Carlo died.”
Amelia understood.
“The person inside the organization.”
“Maybe.”
Marco interrupted.
“There’s more.”
He had been reviewing photographs of the ledger.
“Voss’s initials appear on nineteen pages.”
Vincent took the phone.
S.V.
Payments.
Transfers.
Storage numbers.
Then one entry.
E.H. relocation.
Amount: $80,000.
Date: three months earlier.
Amelia’s blood went cold.
“He moved my mother.”
Vincent nodded.
“Looks like it.”
“To where?”
Marco enlarged the line beneath.
A set of coordinates.
They led to a rural property two hours north.
Vincent told Marco to contact Detective Ward.
Amelia looked at him.
“You’re bringing police?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because this stopped being private.”
She studied him.
Her mother’s recording echoed.
Trust Vincent Castellano only if he chooses you over the ledger.
Vincent had the ledger.
He could have hidden it.
Instead he sent copies to a detective.
He chose.
Amelia looked away before he could see what that meant to her.
They reached a secured house Vincent owned outside the city.
Angela was waiting there.
The moment Amelia entered, Angela hugged her.
Then saw the bruising.
Then cried.
Then swore.
Then demanded breakfast.
It was the most normal thing that had happened all night.
By afternoon, Detective Ward arrived.
She had Derek in custody.
And Derek had started talking.
“He says Raymond hired him to scare Amelia,” Ward said.
Amelia’s hands tightened.
“Scare?”
“He claims he was supposed to grab you, cause a scene, slip the note into your pocket, then leave.”
“He punched me.”
“Yes.”
“He almost killed me.”
“He says he lost control.”
Amelia laughed without humor.
“Men like that always call violence an accident after somebody stronger walks into the room.”
Vincent looked at her.
Ward continued.
“Derek says Raymond told him Amelia would go to the warehouse once she saw the note.”
“So the attack was bait,” Marco said.
“Yes.”
“What was Raymond expecting?”
“Amelia.”
“With the ledger.”
Ward nodded.
“He believed she had somehow found it.”
Amelia frowned.
“But I didn’t.”
“No. Voss did.”
Everyone turned.
Ward placed a file on the table.
“Samuel Voss had the ledger years ago.”
Vincent’s eyes narrowed.
“How do you know?”
“We traced one of the storage payments.”
Ward tapped the file.
“Voss moved the ledger into Room 317 eight years ago.”
“Why leave it there?”
“To use as insurance.”
Against whom?
Ward looked at Vincent.
“Your uncle.”
Vincent went still.
“Carlo was planning to expose the network.”
Ward nodded.
“Voss wanted leverage.”
“And Carlo died before he could testify.”
“Yes.”
Vincent’s voice dropped.
“Heart attack?”
Ward held his gaze.
“We reopened the file.”
Amelia saw the answer before Ward said it.
“The original toxicology report is missing.”
Vincent turned away.
For the first time since Amelia met him, his control cracked.
Just slightly.
His uncle had not simply hidden the ledger.
He might have died because of it.
Ward continued.
“We believe Voss has been manipulating Raymond for years. Raymond thought your mother took the ledger. Voss let him believe it.”
“Why?”
“Because Raymond was useful.”
“A violent dog on a leash,” Marco said.
Ward nodded.
Amelia asked, “And now Voss has my mother.”
“We believe so.”
“Then we go.”
Ward shook her head.
“We plan.”
Amelia stood.
“I’ve been waiting twelve years.”
Vincent stood too.
“And if we rush, you may lose her again.”
Amelia looked at him.
“Don’t say that.”
“I’m not trying to hurt you.”
“Well, you did.”
He accepted it.
Ward laid out the coordinates.
Old estate.
Single access road.
Power registered to shell company.
Satellite images showed three vehicles.
Potential guards.
They would move before sunset.
Police tactical support would wait beyond the property line.
Vincent would not be permitted to lead.
He argued.
Ward ignored him.
Amelia would stay in the command vehicle.
She argued.
Everyone ignored her.
By six-thirty, they reached the property.
The estate sat behind iron gates and dense trees.
Ward’s team approached.
No resistance.
Front door open.
Too easy.
The house was empty.
One table.
One chair.
One laptop.
The screen was already on.
Ward called Amelia inside despite earlier instructions.
Because the laptop displayed a live video.
A woman sat in a room somewhere else.
Older.
Thinner.
Gray streaking her brown hair.
But Amelia knew her immediately.
Her mother.
Evelyn Hayes.
Alive.
Amelia stopped.
The woman on the screen looked toward the camera.
“Amelia?”
Her voice broke.
Amelia covered her mouth.
“Mom?”
Evelyn began crying.
Then someone stepped into frame behind her.
Raymond Fletcher.
Older.
Harder.
Still unmistakable.
He placed a hand on Evelyn’s shoulder.
Amelia’s body went rigid.
Raymond smiled at the camera.
“Now we can finally finish what your family started.”
The screen went black.
May you like
Then one final line appeared.
BRING VINCENT CASTELLANO ALONE.
