Chapter 5 - The Man Who Saw My Father Alive
Samuel Pierce had been declared missing eighteen months earlier.
Maeve had never met him.
Yet here he stood beneath the cathedral doors holding a battered leather folder.
Federal agents moved toward him.
Pierce raised both hands.
“I came voluntarily.”
Maeve walked down the aisle.
“Tell me what happened.”
Pierce looked exhausted.
“The crash didn’t kill your father.”
Maeve’s knees weakened.
Luca moved beside her.
She did not pull away.
“What did?”
Pierce glanced around.
“Not here.”
Maeve laughed bitterly.
“Everyone keeps saying that.”
Pierce nodded toward Brandon.
“He knows enough to be dangerous, but not enough to understand who used him.”
Brandon shouted, “He’s lying.”
One federal agent restrained him.
Pierce continued.
“I inspected Patrick Callahan’s vehicle after the crash. The brake line had been deliberately damaged. But Patrick survived the impact.”
“Where was he taken?”
“A private ambulance arrived before city paramedics.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It wasn’t an ambulance.”
Maeve felt cold.
“Who took him?”
Pierce looked at Thomas.
Maeve’s uncle closed his eyes.
“Tommy?”
Thomas whispered, “I didn’t know.”
Pierce nodded.
“He didn’t. Not then.”
Maeve stared at him.
“Who?”
Pierce opened the leather folder.
He removed a photograph.
A private medical transport van.
The logo belonged to a clinic that had closed years earlier.
“Victor Hayes owned the clinic through a proxy,” Pierce said.
“Brandon’s father was dead by then.”
“Yes.”
“So who controlled it?”
Pierce looked at Brandon.
“His mother.”
Brandon stopped struggling.
Maeve stared.
“Elaine Hayes?”
Brandon’s mother had supposedly lived in Arizona for years.
She claimed chronic illness prevented her from attending the wedding.
Maeve had spoken to her three days ago.
Elaine had cried over the phone.
Called Maeve “the daughter I never had.”
Maeve felt nauseated.
“Where is she?”
Pierce answered quietly.
“Chicago.”
Brandon’s face tightened.
Maeve saw it.
He knew.
“You knew your mother was here.”
“No.”
“You’re lying.”
Pierce handed another photograph to a federal agent.
Elaine Hayes entering a downtown condominium two nights earlier.
Luca looked at Brandon.
“You were never running this.”
Brandon’s expression cracked.
“Shut up.”
“You were a middleman.”
“I said shut up.”
Maeve stared.
“You thought you were stealing Callahan for yourself.”
Brandon looked away.
She understood.
Elaine had manipulated her own son.
The scheme was older than Brandon.
Older than their relationship.
Maybe older than Maeve had ever imagined.
Pierce said, “Patrick discovered Elaine had taken over Victor’s network after his death. He planned to expose her.”
Maeve swallowed.
“So she ordered the crash.”
“Yes.”
“Then what happened?”
Pierce’s eyes darkened.
“I followed the private van.”
“To where?”
“A warehouse.”
“The one by the river?”
“No. Another property near Cicero.”
Maeve’s breathing became shallow.
“Was my father conscious?”
“Yes.”
“Did you speak to him?”
“No.”
“What did you see?”
Pierce hesitated.
Maeve stepped closer.
“What did you see?”
“They carried him inside.”
“And?”
“I waited.”
“You waited?”
“I was one detective against people I didn’t understand.”
Maeve’s anger flared.
“My father needed help.”
“I know.”
“You left him.”
“I know.”
The shame in Pierce’s face stopped her.
He had lived with it.
Perhaps every day.
“What happened next?”
“Elaine arrived.”
Maeve closed her eyes.
“Then Thomas.”
Maeve looked at her uncle.
Thomas shook his head frantically.
“I came later.”
Pierce nodded.
“That’s true.”
Thomas spoke quickly.
“I received a call from Patrick’s phone. A man told me Patrick was hurt. I drove there.”
“And you didn’t call police?”
“They said they’d kill him if I did.”
Maeve whispered, “What did they want?”
“Access codes.”
“To the accounts?”
“Yes.”
“Did you give them?”
Thomas’s voice broke.
“I gave them everything.”
Maeve stepped back.
Her uncle had always been weak where Patrick was strong.
She had never thought weakness could become deadly.
“Did they release him?”
Thomas began crying.
“No.”
Silence swallowed the cathedral.
Maeve could hear the faint buzz of a light fixture high above.
“What happened?”
Pierce answered.
“Patrick refused to tell Elaine where he had hidden the complete ledger.”
“The deposit box.”
“Yes.”
Maeve looked at Luca.
“The box Thomas emptied.”
Pierce nodded.
“They never knew which bank.”
“Then how did Thomas know?”
“Patrick told me later.”
Maeve froze.
“Later?”
Pierce looked at her.
“I helped him escape.”
Everything stopped.
“What?”
“Your father got out.”
Maeve could not process the words.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where did he go?”
“I don’t know.”
“You said he told you about the box.”
“Two nights after the crash.”
Maeve grabbed Pierce’s sleeve.
“You saw my father alive two nights after everyone told me he was dead?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t he come home?”
Pierce looked devastated.
“Because he believed coming home would get you killed.”
Maeve released him.
The cathedral tilted.
Luca caught her elbow.
This time she let him.
“My father survived.”
“At least for two days,” Pierce said.
“What happened after that?”
“He made me promise to disappear. He said Elaine had people in law enforcement and inside Callahan.”
“Did he tell you where he was going?”
“No.”
“Did he contact you again?”
Pierce hesitated.
“Once.”
Maeve’s heart nearly stopped.
“When?”
“Eleven months ago.”
“So he could have been alive last year.”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
Pierce removed a small digital recorder.
“He sent this.”
Maeve stared.
“Play it.”
Pierce pressed a button.
Static.
Then Patrick Callahan’s voice.
Older.
Weak.
But unmistakable.
Maeve covered her mouth.
“If Maeve ever hears this, tell her I’m sorry.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“I made choices I thought would protect her. Some did. Some didn’t.”
Maeve began crying silently.
Luca stood beside her.
Patrick’s recording continued.
“Tell her Luca Moretti kept his word when others didn’t.”
Maeve looked at Luca.
His jaw tightened.
“And tell Luca he does not owe me his life.”
The recording clicked off.
Maeve whispered, “What does that mean?”
Luca did not answer.
Pierce did.
“Patrick saved him.”
Maeve turned.
“From what?”
Luca looked toward the altar.
“From my father.”
The story came in pieces.
Years earlier, Luca had tried to leave the criminal side of his family’s organization.
His father saw it as betrayal.
Patrick Callahan learned Luca was being targeted during a property negotiation.
He warned him.
Helped him escape an ambush.
Luca never forgot.
“When Patrick called me before his crash,” Luca said, “I owed him.”
Maeve stared.
“And after?”
“I looked for him.”
“Did you find him?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
She believed him.
That realization frightened her.
Brandon suddenly laughed.
Everyone turned.
“You all think this ends with Elaine?”
Maeve wiped her tears.
“What now?”
“My mother never worked alone.”
Luca’s eyes narrowed.
“Who?”
Brandon looked at Thomas.
Then Pierce.
Then Maeve.
“She had someone inside Moretti’s organization.”
Luca became very still.
Brandon smiled.
“You know it too.”
One of Luca’s men approached from the cathedral entrance.
He whispered something.
Luca’s face changed.
“What?” Maeve asked.
He looked at her.
“My office was broken into twenty minutes ago.”
“What was taken?”
“The copy of Patrick’s ledger.”
Thomas cursed.
Pierce looked toward the doors.
Luca’s phone buzzed.
A photograph appeared.
A chair.
A man tied to it.
Maeve leaned closer.
Her blood turned cold.
Patrick Callahan.
Older.
Thinner.
Gray-haired.
But alive.
A newspaper lay across his knees.
Today’s date.
Maeve stopped breathing.
Beneath the photograph were six words.
BRING MAEVE.
NO POLICE.
NO LUCA.
May you like
Then another message appeared.
SHE COMES ALONE OR HE DIES.
