Chapter 4 - The Man Lauren Called Dad
Lauren's mother lived ninety miles north of Harbor City under a name that wasn't hers.
For fourteen years, Lauren had kept the address out of emails, phones, tax documents, and conversations.
Only three people knew where Maria Hayes lived.
Lauren.
Maria.
And Thomas Keene.
Roman read the threat once.
Then again.
"He knows where she is."
"He always did."
"You said you were in witness protection."
"I was."
"So Keene arranged it."
Lauren nodded.
Roman's face tightened.
"He didn't protect you."
"He stored me."
The realization hurt more when spoken aloud.
For fourteen years Lauren had believed she had escaped.
Now she understood she had merely been placed on a shelf.
Roman called Mateo.
"Two cars. Quietly. Get to Mrs. Hayes."
Lauren shook her head.
"No."
Roman covered the phone.
"What?"
"If Keene is watching her, sending your men creates pressure."
"So we do nothing?"
"We verify first."
Lauren pulled out her phone.
She called her mother.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Third time.
Voicemail.
Lauren's breathing changed.
Roman noticed.
"Stay here."
She ignored him.
The fourth call connected.
"Lauren?"
Her mother's voice.
Lauren closed her eyes.
"Mom."
"Do you know what time it is?"
"Are you home?"
"Where else would I be?"
"Lock every door."
Silence.
"Lauren?"
"Please."
Maria knew her daughter well enough not to ask twice.
Lauren heard the deadbolt slide.
"What's happening?"
"Did anyone follow you tonight?"
"No."
"Anyone talk to you?"
Maria hesitated.
Lauren went still.
"Mom."
"A man came by yesterday."
Roman moved closer.
"What man?"
"He said he knew you."
"What name?"
"Thomas."
Lauren shut her eyes.
Roman mouthed Keene?
Lauren nodded.
"What did he want?"
"He asked about your father."
Lauren's stomach dropped.
"What did you tell him?"
"The truth."
Roman watched her.
Lauren swallowed.
"And what truth was that?"
Her mother became silent.
Too silent.
"Mom."
Maria whispered, "Not on the phone."
Lauren looked toward the photograph from Elena's video.
"Was Patrick Hayes my father?"
A long pause.
Then Maria began crying.
Lauren sat down.
Roman turned away, giving her what little privacy the moment allowed.
"Mom?"
"No."
One word.
Thirty-four years of identity collapsed around it.
Lauren stared at nothing.
"Who was?"
Maria said, "His name was Gabriel Serrano."
Lauren frowned.
She knew that name from nowhere.
Then Mateo walked into the office.
He heard it.
The color left his face.
"What did you say?"
Lauren covered the phone.
"Gabriel Serrano."
Mateo stepped backward.
"My brother."
Roman stared.
Lauren lowered the phone.
Nobody moved.
Maria's voice came through faintly.
"Lauren? Lauren?"
Lauren lifted the phone again.
"Mom, I need you to tell me everything."
Maria took a shaking breath.
Gabriel Serrano had been twenty-five when Maria met him.
Smart.
Funny.
Terrible at staying away from trouble.
He worked as a dock accountant.
Not a gangster.
Not officially.
But Pier Nine had employed everyone eventually.
Gabriel discovered shipping numbers that didn't match cargo.
Weapons listed as machine parts.
Cash listed as frozen seafood.
Politicians paid through shell companies.
He began copying records.
When Maria became pregnant, Gabriel wanted out.
Patrick Hayes was Gabriel's closest friend.
Patrick married Maria and raised Lauren as his own after Gabriel disappeared.
"He didn't die?" Lauren asked.
"I don't know."
"You told me my father died before I was born."
"I was trying to protect you."
"By lying my entire life?"
Maria cried harder.
Lauren's anger rose.
Roman stepped closer but didn't interfere.
"Thomas Keene told me Gabriel was dead," Maria said.
Lauren froze.
"When?"
"After Pier Nine."
"But Pier Nine happened when I was twenty-two."
"I know."
Lauren stood.
"You were still talking to Keene?"
"He contacted me when you joined the task group."
Lauren couldn't breathe.
"You knew?"
"I knew where you worked."
"You let me walk into the same case that got Gabriel killed?"
"I begged Keene to move you."
"And he didn't."
"He said you were safer if you stayed close."
Lauren laughed bitterly.
"Close to what?"
Maria began sobbing.
"The evidence."
Silence.
Lauren felt Roman watching her.
"What evidence?"
"Gabriel left something."
"Where?"
"I don't know."
"Mom."
"I swear. He said only his daughter could open it."
Lauren pressed a hand to her forehead.
"How?"
"He said you'd know when you saw the lighthouse."
The crescent mark.
Three dots.
Lauren's pulse accelerated.
"What lighthouse?"
"I don't know."
A sound came through the phone.
Glass breaking.
Maria gasped.
Lauren stood.
"Mom?"
Roman was already signaling Mateo.
"Maria, get away from the windows."
Footsteps.
Maria whispered, "Someone's outside."
"Go upstairs."
"I can't."
"Mom, move."
A door splintered.
Maria screamed.
Then the call cut off.
Lauren lunged for the office door.
Roman caught her arm.
"Move!"
"You won't get there in time."
"Let go of me."
"Mateo's people can."
"That's my mother!"
"And rushing into a trap gets both of you killed."
Lauren shoved him.
Roman released her.
"Don't ever grab me again."
He nodded.
"Fair."
Mateo's phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
His expression changed.
"What?"
He lowered the phone.
"Our car reached her street."
Lauren waited.
"The house is empty."
"What?"
"Front door damaged. Blood in kitchen."
Lauren went white.
"Whose?"
"Unknown."
Roman grabbed his coat.
"We're going."
This time Lauren didn't argue.
The drive north took fifty-eight minutes.
Lauren spent every one of them replaying her mother's scream.
When they arrived, police had not been called.
Mateo's team had secured the property.
The kitchen window was broken.
A chair overturned.
A small blood smear marked the tile.
But there were no signs of a long struggle.
Lauren walked slowly through the room.
"Something's wrong."
Roman looked around.
"Aside from the obvious?"
"My mother fights."
Roman studied her.
"Like you?"
"Different. Dirtier."
Lauren knelt beside the blood.
"She wouldn't go quietly."
Mateo examined the broken door.
"This was staged."
Lauren looked at him.
He pointed.
"Door kicked inward after the deadbolt was already unlocked."
Roman frowned.
"So she opened it?"
"Or left before they arrived."
Lauren searched the counters.
Her mother's purse was gone.
Phone gone.
Car keys gone.
Roman checked the garage.
"Car's missing."
Hope surfaced.
Small.
Dangerous.
Then Lauren noticed the refrigerator.
A magnet shaped like a lighthouse held an envelope.
She had seen that magnet hundreds of times.
Never thought about it.
Lauren removed the envelope.
Inside was a key.
Old brass.
Stamped with the number 217.
Roman stared.
Lauren turned over the envelope.
Her mother's handwriting.
YOUR FATHER SAID YOU WOULD COME LOOKING.
Mateo stepped closer.
Lauren looked at him.
"Did your brother ever mention a lighthouse?"
Mateo's expression changed.
"Yes."
"Where?"
"Pier Nine had one."
Roman shook his head.
"There hasn't been a lighthouse there in fifty years."
"Not a real one," Mateo said.
He looked at Lauren.
"Warehouse 12 had a lighthouse painted on the eastern wall."
Lauren remembered.
A faded mural.
She had run past it fourteen years ago.
Three minutes before the explosion.
Roman glanced at the key.
"Then that's where we're going."
"No."
They turned toward Lauren.
She held up the envelope.
"There is something else inside."
A thin strip of paper had been folded beneath the flap.
Lauren pulled it free.
One sentence.
IF ROMAN VESCARI IS WITH YOU, ASK HIM WHO KILLED HIS FATHER.
Roman stopped moving.
Lauren looked up.
Mateo looked at Roman.
The kitchen became silent.
Roman's expression turned unreadable.
Lauren repeated the question.
"Who killed Salvatore Vescari?"
May you like
Roman stared at her for several seconds.
Then he said, "I did."
