Chapter 2 - The Man in the Elevator
Vincent moved before the elevator doors finished opening.
He pulled Lucy behind him.
Luca and Marco drew their weapons.
"Hands where I can see them!"
The man entering the penthouse stopped.
He was perhaps sixty-five, silver-haired, wearing a soaked charcoal coat. His hands rose slowly.
No weapon.
No panic.
Only exhaustion.
Vincent stared.
Something about the man's face tugged at an old memory.
"Who are you?"
The stranger looked past Vincent.
Straight at Lucy.
"Thank God."
Lucy squeezed Vincent's hand.
"That's him."
The man closed his eyes.
"Lucy, I didn't take your mother."
"Don't come closer!" she cried.
He stopped instantly.
Vincent stepped forward.
"You have ten seconds."
"My name is Daniel Hart."
Vincent glanced at Lucy.
"Your grandfather?"
Lucy shook her head.
Daniel answered quietly.
"Her great-uncle."
Vincent's eyes narrowed.
"Evelyn's brother?"
Daniel nodded.
That name again.
Vincent's voice hardened.
"You've got nine seconds."
"Anna was investigating the same people who killed Evelyn."
"Eight."
"She found evidence connecting them to your father."
"Seven."
"Salvatore Moretti didn't order Evelyn's death."
That stopped Vincent.
Daniel continued.
"He tried to prevent it."
Vincent almost laughed.
"My father prevented nothing."
"He spent twenty years pretending otherwise because telling you the truth would have gotten you killed."
"Six."
"Your mother survived the car explosion."
Lucy peeked from behind Vincent.
"I told you."
Vincent stared at Daniel.
Every instinct told him to reject the words.
His mother was dead.
He remembered the funeral.
The black suit.
The closed coffin.
His father's hand on his shoulder.
A priest speaking about heaven while nine-year-old Vincent stared at polished wood and wondered why nobody would let him say goodbye properly.
"You're lying."
Daniel reached slowly inside his coat.
Three weapons aimed at him.
"Careful," Luca warned.
Daniel pulled out an envelope.
"She wrote this."
Vincent didn't take it.
"Put it down."
Daniel placed it on the marble table.
Vincent nodded to Luca.
Luca inspected it before passing it over.
The handwriting on the front stopped Vincent cold.
Vinnie.
Only one person had ever called him that.
His mother.
His fingers tightened around the envelope.
"When was this written?"
"Six months ago."
Vincent looked up so fast Daniel flinched.
"Where is she?"
"I don't know anymore."
Vincent crossed the distance between them and grabbed Daniel's coat.
"Wrong answer."
Daniel didn't fight.
"Anna moved her forty-eight hours ago."
"Where?"
"I wasn't told."
"Why?"
"Because someone inside your organization has been feeding information to the people hunting them."
Silence.
Vincent released him.
His gaze moved slowly toward Luca.
Then Marco.
Both men looked stunned.
Daniel continued.
"Anna didn't trust anyone near you."
"But she sent her daughter to me."
"Because Elena trusted you."
Vincent looked at the envelope.
He opened it.
Inside was a single sheet.
Vinnie,
If you are reading this, then Anna has run out of safe choices.
I need you to believe one thing before anything else.
I never abandoned you.
I survived because someone wanted you to believe I was dead, and I stayed dead because the same person promised to kill you if I returned.
Vincent stopped.
His vision blurred briefly.
He forced himself to continue.
The things you believe about your father are only half true.
The things you believe about your own life may be worse.
Protect Lucy.
Find Anna.
Trust the numbers.
And when you reach 213, do not open the door alone.
Love always,
Mom.
Vincent read it twice.
Then a third time.
Lucy tugged gently at his sleeve.
"Is Grandma Ellie okay?"
Vincent folded the letter.
"I don't know."
It was the most honest answer he could give.
Daniel gestured toward the key.
"That belongs to a locker."
"Where?"
"Union Station."
"Locker 213?"
Daniel nodded.
"Anna discovered it while investigating Evelyn's death."
"What happened to Evelyn?"
Daniel's face tightened.
"My sister uncovered an account used to pay judges, police officers, and city contractors. She copied records. She planned to give everything to federal investigators."
"And somebody killed her."
"Yes."
"Who?"
Daniel looked toward the guards.
"Not here."
Vincent's patience snapped.
"You broke into my building, terrified a child, and walked into my home claiming my dead mother is alive. You don't get to decide where we talk."
Daniel looked at Lucy.
"I followed Anna because I thought she had been compromised. When the men took her, I tried to stop them. Lucy saw me fighting one of them."
The girl frowned.
"You grabbed Mommy."
"I was trying to pull her away."
"You yelled."
"I know."
Daniel crouched several feet away, careful not to approach.
"I'm sorry I scared you."
Lucy watched him.
Children noticed details adults dismissed.
After a long pause, she whispered, "You hit the bad man."
Daniel nodded.
"Yes."
"He fell down."
"Yes."
"Then somebody hit you."
Daniel touched a bruise near his temple.
"That's right."
Lucy looked at Vincent.
"Maybe he's not bad."
Vincent almost smiled.
"That's a glowing endorsement."
Daniel exhaled.
Vincent turned to Luca.
"Pull every camera within six blocks of Anna's apartment."
"Already happening."
"Find the vehicle."
"We're checking."
"And nobody knows about Union Station."
Luca nodded.
Vincent looked at Daniel.
"You come with me."
"I'm not leaving Lucy."
"Neither am I."
Daniel frowned.
"You can't take her."
"I'm not."
Vincent turned to Marco.
"Safe room."
Lucy immediately grabbed his sleeve.
"No."
Vincent crouched.
"I need to find your mother."
"I'm coming."
"It's dangerous."
"So is staying."
The answer startled everyone.
Vincent looked at her more carefully.
She sounded like somebody who had heard adults talk about danger far too often.
"I promised you're safe."
"Mommy promised too."
That broke something inside him.
Vincent lowered his voice.
"I'll come back."
Lucy studied him.
"Promise?"
Again.
That unbearable word.
"I promise."
This time she released his sleeve.
Vincent stood.
"Marco stays with her."
Luca looked concerned.
"Boss, if Daniel's right about a leak—"
"Then nobody knows where the safe room entrance is except us."
Daniel shook his head.
"That's not true."
Vincent turned.
"What?"
"Anna knew."
"How?"
"Elena told her."
Vincent stared.
His mother knew the architecture of a penthouse built twenty years after her supposed death.
He didn't like the implication.
"We leave now."
Union Station was nearly empty.
Vincent hated public places.
Too many angles.
Too many reflections.
Too many strangers pretending not to watch.
They entered from the Canal Street side and moved through the cavernous hall.
Daniel walked beside him.
Luca stayed behind them.
"Tell me about Anna," Vincent said.
Daniel glanced over.
"She's thirty-two. Investigative accountant. Stubborn. Brilliant."
"Why was she investigating my family?"
"Because Evelyn was her mother."
Vincent stopped walking.
"Lucy said Rose was her grandmother."
"Rose raised Anna after Evelyn died. Anna didn't learn the truth until she was twenty-five."
Vincent absorbed that.
"So Evelyn had a daughter."
"Yes."
"And Evelyn knew my mother."
"They were helping each other."
"With what?"
Daniel looked around.
"Getting you out."
Vincent stared.
"Out of what?"
"Your father's world."
Vincent's expression darkened.
"My father built this world around me."
"No," Daniel said. "Someone else did."
They reached the lockers.
213 sat near the bottom row.
Vincent inserted the brass key.
His mother's warning echoed.
Do not open the door alone.
He wasn't alone.
Technically.
He turned the key.
Nothing happened.
Daniel frowned.
"Try again."
Vincent twisted harder.
Click.
The locker opened.
Inside sat a black leather case.
No bomb.
No weapon.
No obvious trap.
Vincent removed it.
Inside were documents.
Photographs.
Bank statements.
And a small digital recorder.
Luca stood lookout while Vincent examined the papers.
The first photograph showed his mother Elena with Evelyn Hart.
The date stamp was seventeen years after Elena's supposed death.
The second showed Salvatore Moretti meeting Elena outside a church.
Vincent stared.
"My father knew."
Daniel nodded.
"Yes."
"He knew she was alive."
"Yes."
"And he never told me."
"Because she asked him not to."
Vincent felt anger rising.
"That's convenient."
Daniel handed him another photograph.
"This isn't."
Vincent looked.
His father was lying in a hospital bed.
The date was six months before Salvatore's death.
Beside him stood Elena.
And behind Elena—
Vincent recognized Luca.
Vincent turned slowly.
Luca stared at the photograph.
"What the hell?"
"You tell me."
"I've never seen this."
"That's you."
"No."
It looked exactly like him.
Same face.
Same scar beside the eyebrow.
Same posture.
But Luca shook his head.
"I swear to you, Vincent, I wasn't there."
Daniel took the photo.
His expression changed.
"Oh, God."
"What?"
Daniel turned it over.
A name was written on the back.
Nico Bellini.
Vincent looked at Luca.
Luca had gone white.
"Nico is my brother."
"You never said you had a brother."
"Because he's dead."
Vincent's eyes hardened.
"When?"
"Fourteen years ago."
Daniel whispered, "Apparently not."
The recorder suddenly activated by itself.
A woman's voice filled the quiet corridor.
Vincent recognized it immediately.
His mother.
"If Vincent is hearing this, then Anna has failed to reach me."
Static cracked.
Then Elena continued.
"The person responsible for Evelyn's death has been beside Vincent for years."
Luca slowly looked at Vincent.
Daniel stopped breathing.
The recorder clicked.
A second voice came through.
A man's voice.
"Vincent."
Vincent froze.
The voice continued.
"You should have stayed away from locker 213."
A red light blinked above them.
The security door at the far end slammed shut.
May you like
Then every light in the corridor went dark.
And from somewhere inside the darkness, someone called Vincent's name.
