Chapter 4 - The Road Where Amelia Died
We reached the DeLuca house in twelve minutes.
The front gate stood open.
That should never have happened.
One security guard was unconscious near the booth.
Alive.
Breathing.
Drugged, according to Dominic.
Dr. Morris sat in the foyer with a cut above her eyebrow.
She was furious.
“They showed me a message from your number.”
Gabriel knelt in front of her.
“You did nothing wrong.”
“I handed him over.”
“You were deceived.”
“I should have checked.”
“So should I.”
That ended the argument.
Security footage showed a black sedan entering through the east gate.
The driver wore a DeLuca security uniform.
Leo entered because he recognized the vehicle.
The sedan left six minutes later.
Adrian studied the footage.
“Victor.”
“How do you know?” I asked.
“He trained people to use familiarity as a weapon.”
Gabriel looked at him.
“You sound impressed.”
“I sound ashamed.”
Celeste had remained silent since leaving the storage unit.
Now she sat on the edge of a chair.
Gabriel stood over her.
“Tell me everything.”
She shook her head.
“There's no time.”
“Then speak faster.”
Her eyes filled.
I had not expected tears from Celeste DeLuca.
“Victor was your father's older brother,” she began. “Your grandfather intended the legitimate businesses to go to your father. Victor kept the other side.”
“The criminal side,” Gabriel said.
“Yes.”
“And?”
“Your father tried to dismantle it.”
Gabriel stared.
That contradicted almost every story about his family.
Celeste continued.
“He kept records because he wanted leverage. Judges. City officials. Contractors. Everyone Victor had paid.”
“My mother had those records?” I asked.
Celeste nodded.
“Diane worked in accounting. She copied them.”
“Why?”
“Because Thomas Vale convinced her Victor would eventually kill anyone who knew too much.”
My voice became thin.
“What happened to Thomas?”
Celeste looked at Adrian.
Adrian answered.
“He discovered Victor was laundering money through construction contracts. He planned to testify.”
“And Victor killed him?”
Adrian nodded.
“Three weeks before you were born.”
The room blurred.
I had spent my entire life believing my father left.
My mother had never spoken badly about him.
She had only said, “Some people disappear because staying would hurt more.”
I had thought she meant abandonment.
Now I understood.
“Did my mother know?”
“Yes,” Celeste said.
“Why didn't she tell me?”
“Because Victor thought Thomas had no child.”
I swallowed hard.
“So she changed my records.”
“With my help.”
I looked at her.
“You helped her?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
She closed her eyes.
“Because I was already ashamed of what my family had become.”
Gabriel stared at his mother as if he were seeing a stranger.
“And Amelia?”
“She learned the truth years later.”
“How?”
“Diane contacted her.”
My heart stopped.
“My mother knew Amelia?”
Celeste nodded.
“Briefly.”
Gabriel's face tightened.
“When?”
“Three years ago.”
One year before Amelia died.
One year before Leo stopped speaking.
Gabriel paced away.
“Why didn't anyone tell me?”
“Because your temper was exactly what Victor relied on.”
He turned.
“What does that mean?”
“Amelia feared you would confront him before she had evidence.”
Adrian laughed bitterly.
“She was right.”
Gabriel ignored him.
“What happened the night she died?”
Celeste's hands trembled.
“She had the ledger.”
“What ledger?”
“The original record book your father kept.”
Adrian added, “The only proof Victor couldn't explain away.”
Gabriel looked between them.
“Where is it?”
“No one knows.”
Celeste whispered, “Amelia hid it.”
“And Victor killed her for it?”
Silence.
Gabriel's voice cracked.
“My wife died because of that ledger?”
Celeste nodded once.
He turned away.
For several seconds, I thought he might break something.
Instead he pressed both palms against the wall.
His shoulders rose and fell.
Then he faced us again.
“Where did she crash?”
Adrian named a mountain road north of the city.
Old Quarry Route.
Gabriel's face darkened.
“Victor has a lodge near there.”
“Exactly.”
Dominic checked his phone.
“We can have police there in twenty-five.”
Adrian shook his head.
“Victor owns half the local department.”
Gabriel looked at him.
“Then we use state police.”
“By the time paperwork clears, Leo's gone.”
I stepped forward.
“What does Victor want from him?”
Everyone looked at me.
“Leo was in the car when Amelia died,” I said. “He stopped speaking afterward. Maybe Victor thinks he knows where she hid the ledger.”
Adrian nodded slowly.
“Or she told him.”
Gabriel went still.
“A six-year-old?”
“Children remember strange things.”
Dr. Morris spoke from the sofa.
“Traumatic memory can remain even when verbal communication shuts down.”
Gabriel's face changed.
“So Victor wants Leo to talk.”
My stomach twisted.
“That's why Leo was taken.”
Adrian nodded.
“And why he may have been taken today specifically.”
“Why today?”
Adrian looked at me.
“Because Maya appeared.”
I stared.
“What do I have to do with this?”
“Your mother died eleven months ago.”
“Yes.”
“Victor probably searched her belongings afterward.”
“There was nothing.”
“You sure?”
I almost answered yes.
Then I remembered something.
My mother's old sewing box.
I had left it at a storage charity after losing our apartment.
Buttons.
Needles.
Photographs.
Nothing valuable.
Except…
“She kept a key.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“What kind?”
“Small brass key. She wore it on a string inside her blouse.”
“What did it open?”
“I don't know.”
“Where is it now?”
“I buried her with it.”
Nobody spoke.
Gabriel looked at Adrian.
Adrian swore softly.
“What?”
“The ledger may be in a safe-deposit box.”
Gabriel stared at me.
“And Victor thinks Maya has the key.”
“If he watched her for months, yes.”
“But she doesn't.”
Adrian's expression grew grim.
“He doesn't know that.”
My phone buzzed.
That was impossible.
The phone had no service.
Then I realized Gabriel's assistant had given me a temporary SIM earlier.
A message appeared.
Unknown number.
A photograph.
Leo.
Sitting in a wooden chair.
Alive.
Frightened.
Holding a piece of paper.
My knees weakened.
Gabriel took the phone.
Below the photograph were six words.
BRING MAYA. COME WITHOUT POLICE. MIDNIGHT.
Gabriel looked at me.
“No.”
“I’m going.”
“No.”
“Your son is there because someone thinks I know something.”
“He'll use you.”
“He's already using Leo.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“I don't sacrifice innocent people.”
I nearly laughed.
“I sleep outside, Gabriel. People sacrifice people like me every day because they assume no one will notice.”
His face changed.
I continued.
“Leo noticed me.”
Silence.
“And I noticed him.”
Gabriel looked at the photograph again.
Then at me.
“We go together.”
Adrian spoke.
“Victor said bring Maya.”
“Then he gets Maya.”
Gabriel's eyes hardened.
“And me.”
We left just after ten.
Two cars.
No convoy.
No flashing lights.
Dominic stayed back with a state investigator Gabriel trusted.
Adrian rode with us because he knew the lodge.
Celeste insisted on coming.
Gabriel refused.
She followed anyway.
Halfway into the mountains, my phone rang.
Unknown number.
Gabriel nodded.
I answered.
“Hello?”
A man's voice.
Smooth.
Older.
“Maya Bennett.”
“Yes.”
“You look very much like Thomas.”
My skin went cold.
“Where's Leo?”
“Alive.”
“I want to hear him.”
A pause.
Then Leo's voice.
“Maya?”
I closed my eyes.
“I’m here.”
“Don't come.”
Gabriel gripped the steering wheel.
“Leo,” I said softly, “we're coming to get you.”
The phone shifted.
Victor returned.
“He's an intelligent boy.”
“What do you want?”
“The key.”
“I don't have it.”
Silence.
“Your mother had it.”
“She was buried with it.”
Victor laughed softly.
“You truly know nothing.”
My heartbeat quickened.
“What are you talking about?”
“Diane Bennett was many things. Careless was not one of them.”
The call ended.
Adrian leaned forward.
“What did he say?”
I repeated it.
He swore.
Then Gabriel's phone rang.
Dominic.
“We found something.”
“What?”
“We checked Diane Bennett's burial records.”
I felt sick.
Dominic continued.
“The cemetery reported a break-in three months ago.”
My hands went cold.
Gabriel looked at me.
“Was her grave disturbed?”
“Yes.”
A pause.
“And Maya?”
“What?”
“Someone else visited the grave the same night.”
“Who?”
Dominic sent a security image.
I opened it.
A woman stood beside my mother's grave.
Her face was partly hidden beneath a hood.
But Gabriel recognized her immediately.
His breath stopped.
“No.”
I looked at him.
“Who is she?”
He pulled the car to the side of the road.
Adrian stared at the image.
His face went pale.
“That isn't possible.”
Gabriel enlarged the photograph.
The woman turned just enough for the camera to capture her profile.
Same nose.
Same eyes.
Same face from the recording.
Amelia.
May you like
Gabriel's dead wife.
The photograph had been taken three months ago.
