Chapter 3 - Twenty-Four Hours
Marco drew a gun.
Penny stared at it.
"Please tell me that's licensed."
"Now?" Marco muttered.
Lorenzo motioned for silence.
The adjoining door had supposedly been locked from both sides.
Another knock came.
Soft.
Deliberate.
Penny's phone rang.
Unknown number.
Lorenzo looked at her.
"Answer."
She did.
"Hello?"
A distorted voice said, "Ask Lorenzo what happened at Pier Nine."
The call ended.
Penny looked at him.
"Pier Nine."
Lorenzo's expression gave her the answer before his mouth did.
"You know it."
"Yes."
"What happened there?"
"Twenty-eight years ago, my father used Pier Nine for shipments."
"Shipments of what?"
"Things I don't intend to romanticize."
Marco checked the adjoining room.
Empty.
A housekeeping cart stood outside its second entrance.
Whoever had knocked was gone.
Penny sat down.
"My mother was connected to your family."
"Yes."
"And she's alive?"
"I saw a woman who looked like her."
"You said you saw Elaine."
"I was certain until thirty seconds ago."
Penny stood.
"Then take me to her."
"No."
Her expression hardened.
Lorenzo corrected himself.
"I don't know where she is."
"Find her."
"I intend to."
The next morning brought worse news.
Derek had been released pending further proceedings.
Penny laughed when she heard.
Not because it was funny.
Because the sound that wanted to come out was something else.
"He knows where I work."
"We'll arrange protection," Lorenzo said.
"We?"
"Penny—"
"No. I have a job. An apartment. Friends. I can't disappear into your world because Derek threatened me."
Lorenzo placed the memory card on the table.
"We recovered part of it."
Her anger faded.
"What was on it?"
"Financial records."
"Whose?"
"Mine."
Penny stared.
"And several photographs of you."
"What?"
"Some date back years."
Her face drained.
"How many?"
"Enough."
"Why?"
"We don't know."
Marco entered carrying a laptop.
"We found one more file."
He turned the screen.
A scanned document appeared.
Penny's birth certificate.
Her mother's name: Elaine Brooks.
Father: blank.
But someone had circled Penny's date of birth.
Beneath it was a handwritten number.
"What does twenty-four mean?" Penny asked.
Lorenzo didn't answer.
Marco did.
"Hours."
"Until what?"
"We got another message."
He showed her.
TWENTY-FOUR HOURS. GIVE US THE MORETTI LEDGER OR PENNY LEARNS WHY HER MOTHER LIED.
Penny looked at Lorenzo.
"What's the Moretti ledger?"
"Something people have died looking for."
"And you have it?"
"No."
"Do you know where it is?"
Lorenzo's silence answered.
Penny backed away.
"You knew this wasn't just about Derek."
"I suspected."
"You used me."
"No."
"You kept me here because you thought whoever wanted the ledger would come after me."
"I kept you here because someone photographed you sleeping."
"Same result."
She grabbed her bag.
Lorenzo stepped aside.
That surprised her again.
"You're letting me leave?"
"I told you last night. You choose."
Penny reached the door.
Then he said, "But take Marco."
She almost refused.
Almost.
Then she remembered the photograph beside her bed.
"Fine."
Her apartment had been searched.
Nothing looked destroyed.
That was worse.
Drawers had been opened and carefully closed.
Her mother's old boxes had been moved.
Penny knelt beside one.
Inside were photographs, birthday cards, school reports.
Then she found an envelope she'd never seen.
PENNY — WHEN YOU ARE READY.
Her hands trembled.
Inside was a key.
Brass.
Old.
Stamped with one number.
There was also a note.
Sweetheart,
If you ever find this, then someone has started asking questions.
Do not trust the man who says he loved me.
Trust the man who admits what he did.
Penny read it twice.
Marco was standing behind her.
"What?"
She handed him the note.
He went pale.
"Marco?"
He stared at the handwriting.
"I know what 317 opens."
"Where?"
He looked toward the hallway.
Before he could answer, Penny's bedroom door slowly swung shut by itself.
Then a man's voice came from behind it.
"Penny?"
May you like
She knew that voice.
Derek was inside.
