Chapter 3 - The Woman in the Dark
“Molly!”
The scream echoed through the cellar.
Molly ran.
Victor caught her around the waist before she reached the stairs.
“Stop.”
“That could be my mother!”
“It could also be someone waiting for you.”
“I don’t care.”
“I do.”
The words startled her.
Victor released her slowly.
Emergency lights clicked on, bathing the hallway in dim red illumination.
Sal’s men spread out.
One moved ahead with a flashlight.
Molly followed anyway.
Victor stayed beside her.
They reached the cellar.
The door had locked again.
Raymond produced a key.
His hands shook so badly that he dropped it.
Victor picked it up.
He unlocked the door.
Sal entered first.
Then Victor.
Then Molly.
Rows of wine bottles disappeared into shadows.
The air smelled of oak, dust, and spilled alcohol.
“Molly?”
A weak voice came from behind a storage rack.
She knew it.
“Mom?”
Molly ran.
Linda Higgins sat on the floor.
Her wrists were tied.
A bruise darkened her cheek.
But she was alive.
Molly dropped beside her.
“Oh my God.”
Linda started crying.
“I’m okay.”
Molly cut the plastic tie with a waiter’s corkscrew.
“How did you get here?”
“A man came to my building.”
“What man?”
“He said you’d been hurt.”
Victor knelt nearby.
“Did you recognize him?”
Linda looked at him, confused.
“No.”
“What did he look like?”
“Tall. Gray coat. Brown hair.”
“Age?”
“Maybe forty.”
Victor and Sal exchanged a glance.
“Dominic?” Molly asked.
Victor shook his head.
“Dominic is fifty.”
Linda grabbed Molly’s face.
“You need to leave.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“They said you’d be next.”
“Who?”
“I only heard voices.”
She looked at Victor.
“One man said your name.”
Victor leaned closer.
“What did he say?”
Linda hesitated.
“He said Victor wouldn’t survive midnight.”
Victor’s jaw hardened.
Molly helped her mother stand.
A phone began ringing somewhere in the cellar.
Nobody moved.
It rang again.
Not Molly’s.
Not Victor’s.
The sound came from a wooden crate.
Sal opened it.
Inside was a cheap prepaid phone.
Victor answered.
“Dominic.”
A man laughed.
Molly heard it from several feet away.
“Still so confident, little brother.”
Victor’s face became unreadable.
Fifteen years disappeared from his expression.
He looked younger.
Hurt.
“Where are you?”
“Close.”
“You threatened an innocent woman.”
“Innocent?”
Dominic’s voice sharpened.
“No one around you stays innocent.”
Victor glanced at Molly.
“Let them go.”
“Who?”
“Molly. Her mother. Raymond’s daughter. Adrian.”
Dominic laughed again.
“You still think this is negotiation.”
“It can be.”
“No. Tonight is accounting.”
Victor’s eyes hardened.
“For Elena?”
Silence.
When Dominic answered, the mockery was gone.
“You said her name.”
“She was my sister too.”
“You buried me for what happened.”
“You drove drunk.”
“You told Father to send me away!”
“You killed her.”
The cellar went silent.
Molly watched Victor.
His hand tightened around the phone.
Dominic spoke softly.
“You always were his favorite.”
Victor laughed once.
“You think that’s what this was?”
“You took everything.”
“No. Father gave me everything because you vanished.”
“You made sure I had to.”
“You could have come home.”
“And faced prison?”
“You should have.”
Dominic’s breathing changed.
Then he whispered, “Midnight.”
The call ended.
Victor lowered the phone.
Molly’s mother clutched her arm.
“We need the police.”
Victor looked at Sal.
“Call Detective Russo.”
Molly blinked.
“You work with a detective?”
“Sometimes.”
“Is he clean?”
Victor gave her a look.
“I wouldn’t call him otherwise.”
Ten minutes later, Linda was taken upstairs.
Adrian received medical attention.
Raymond remained under watch.
Molly refused to leave.
Victor stopped arguing.
Detective Daniel Russo arrived with two officers he trusted.
Russo was fifty-seven, broad, exhausted-looking, and immediately irritated.
“You couldn’t have a quiet dinner?”
Victor handed him the poison sample.
Russo’s sarcasm vanished.
“This is serious.”
“It gets worse.”
“It always does with you.”
Victor showed him the messages.
Russo read them.
“Warehouse address?”
Victor nodded.
“I know it.”
Russo stared.
“I remember.”
Molly looked between them.
“You investigated Elena’s death?”
Russo nodded.
“I was a patrol officer.”
“What actually happened?”
Victor looked at him.
Russo hesitated.
Then he said, “The official report was false.”
Molly wasn’t surprised.
“Who changed it?”
Russo looked at Victor.
“His father.”
Victor’s expression stayed cold.
Russo continued.
“The Hastings family had influence everywhere. A witness claimed another car caused the crash.”
“Was there another car?” Molly asked.
Russo looked uncomfortable.
“Yes.”
Victor’s head turned.
“What?”
Russo rubbed his jaw.
“This is why I never liked talking about that night.”
Victor stepped forward.
“You told me Dominic lost control.”
“He did.”
“But?”
Russo looked at him.
“Another car was following them.”
Victor stared.
“Whose?”
“I never found out.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You were twenty-seven, your father had half the department terrified, and the case disappeared within forty-eight hours.”
Victor’s voice dropped.
“Someone chased them.”
“Maybe.”
“Dominic didn’t tell me that.”
“Maybe he didn’t know who it was.”
Molly felt uneasy.
The story was changing.
Victor’s entire hatred of Dominic rested on one night.
What if someone else had helped cause the crash?
It wouldn’t erase Dominic’s drunk driving.
But it might explain his obsession.
Russo looked at the warehouse address.
“This place was owned by your father.”
Victor nodded.
“It was used for imports.”
Molly asked, “Why would Elena have been near it?”
Victor’s face tightened.
“She worked there.”
Everyone turned.
“My father gave her bookkeeping work during college.”
Russo frowned.
“You never told me that.”
“I didn’t think it mattered.”
Molly did.
“Maybe it mattered.”
Victor looked at her.
“If Elena worked there, maybe the crash wasn’t about Dominic.”
Raymond suddenly spoke from across the room.
“It wasn’t.”
Victor turned.
Raymond sat in a kitchen chair guarded by Sal.
“What did you say?”
Raymond looked terrified.
“I knew Elena.”
Victor crossed the room in three steps.
“How?”
“She came here.”
“Molly,” Dennis once told the staff, “never ask rich people questions.”
Now every question was worth a life.
Raymond swallowed.
“Maison Laurent wasn’t here fifteen years ago, but Laurent owned another restaurant downtown. I was a sous-chef.”
Victor waited.
“Elena came in every Thursday.”
“With who?”
Raymond looked at Russo.
“Claude Laurent.”
Victor went still.
Molly frowned.
“The previous owner?”
Raymond nodded.
“She met him privately.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Victor grabbed Raymond’s jacket.
“You waited fifteen years to mention this?”
“I didn’t know she was your sister!”
Victor released him.
Raymond continued quickly.
“I knew her as Elena Moretti.”
Victor froze.
Molly noticed.
“Moretti?”
“My mother’s maiden name,” Victor said.
Raymond nodded.
“She used it when she made reservations.”
Russo looked thoughtful.
“So Elena was hiding the meetings.”
Molly asked, “From her family?”
Victor’s expression darkened.
“Probably.”
Russo’s phone rang.
He stepped away.
Molly watched Victor.
“Did Elena ever mention Laurent?”
“No.”
“Could she have been dating him?”
Victor shook his head immediately.
“He was twice her age.”
“That doesn’t mean—”
“No.”
The certainty in his voice stopped her.
He wasn’t protecting a theory.
He remembered his sister.
Russo returned.
“We found Dennis.”
Victor turned.
“Where?”
“Dead.”
Molly’s stomach dropped.
“How?”
“Car in a parking garage three blocks away.”
“Suicide?” Sal asked.
Russo shook his head.
“Someone broke his neck.”
The room became colder.
Raymond closed his eyes.
“He was cleaning loose ends.”
Victor looked at Russo.
“Dominic?”
“Maybe.”
Molly’s phone buzzed again.
She flinched.
Victor looked over.
Another photograph.
This time it showed Raymond’s daughter, Sophie, sitting in a coffee shop.
Alive.
Unaware.
A message followed.
ONE HOUR.
Then another.
THE TRUTH IS WAITING WHERE ELENA DIED.
Victor looked at the clock.
10:58 p.m.
Sixty-two minutes until midnight.
Russo said, “Nobody goes to that warehouse without a tactical unit.”
Victor put on his suit jacket.
“That’ll take too long.”
“Then we wait.”
“My brother won’t.”
Molly stood.
“I’m coming.”
Victor shook his head.
“No.”
“The message came to me.”
“That’s why you’re staying.”
“My mother was dragged into your cellar because I stopped you from dying.”
“And I’m going to make sure it ends there.”
Molly stepped closer.
“You don’t get to decide when I become afraid.”
Victor studied her.
Something passed between them.
Respect.
Maybe something more dangerous.
Finally, he nodded once.
Russo cursed.
“This is insane.”
Victor picked up the poisoned fork from the evidence bag.
“No.”
He looked toward the exit.
“This is family.”
They drove to Brooklyn in three vehicles.
Molly sat beside Victor in the back seat of a black SUV.
For several minutes neither spoke.
Finally she asked, “Did you love her?”
“Elena?”
“Yes.”
Victor looked out the window.
“She was the best of us.”
Molly waited.
“She used to steal my coats,” he continued. “Even when they were too big.”
A tiny smile appeared.
“She hated expensive restaurants.”
Molly almost laughed.
“Then she would hate tonight.”
“She would hate most of my life.”
“Would she hate you?”
Victor looked at her.
“I don’t know.”
Molly thought about her brother.
About six years of wondering whether one different decision could have changed everything.
“Maybe you should stop answering for dead people.”
Victor stared at her.
Then he nodded.
The warehouse appeared ahead.
Police units remained several blocks away.
Victor wanted the first approach quiet.
They entered through a side door.
Dust covered the floor.
Old shipping containers lined the walls.
At the center stood a table.
On it sat a portable projector.
And one chair.
Victor approached.
The projector turned on automatically.
A woman appeared on a white wall.
Young.
Dark-haired.
Beautiful.
Victor stopped breathing.
“Elena,” he whispered.
The recording was fifteen years old.
Elena looked directly into the camera.
“If you’re watching this, Victor, then I didn’t get the chance to tell you myself.”
Victor took one step forward.
Molly felt chills.
Elena continued.
“Dominic didn’t betray this family.”
Victor’s face changed.
“He tried to save me.”
The video flickered.
Elena leaned closer.
“The person you need to fear is—”
The warehouse lights snapped off.
A gunshot exploded in the darkness.
Victor fell.
May you like
And Molly heard someone whisper beside her:
“Hello, brother.”
