Chapter 4
I drove to Brooklyn myself.
Tony told me I should stay away.
My men told me it could be a trap.
Detective Harris told me to preserve evidence and let the department handle it.
I told all of them the same thing.
“No.”
Bruno sat in the passenger seat, eyes forward, body stiff.
He had not left my side since the coffin opened.
When we reached the storage facility, rain had started to fall.
The manager took one look at me and decided questions were bad for his health.
“Unit 118,” he said, sliding the key across the counter.
“Who rented it?”
He checked the screen.
“Cash account. Name says Maria Lane.”
A fake name.
Of course.
I walked down the row of metal doors with Tony behind me and Detective Harris close enough to complain but too smart to stop me.
Bruno stopped at unit 118.
He sniffed.
Then growled.
Tony raised his gun.
I unlocked the door.
It rolled upward with a scream of metal.
Inside were boxes.
Children’s drawings.
Restaurant receipts.
A little pink backpack.
And one security DVR.
Luis’s restaurant.
My stomach clenched.
Elena had not just seen something.
She had saved something.
Tony plugged the DVR into a portable monitor.
The first clips were ordinary.
Luis sweeping floors.
Customers leaving.
Elena sitting at a booth, coloring horses.
Then the timestamp changed.
Three nights ago.
6:02 p.m.
Marco entered through the alley door.
Victor Salerno followed him.
Alive.
Older.
Thinner.
But alive.
My dead enemy walked on the screen like a ghost with polished shoes.
Marco handed him a folder.
Victor opened it.
Smiled.
Then Elena appeared in the corner of the frame.
She had come from the pantry holding her stuffed bunny.
Victor saw her.
Marco turned.
Elena froze.
Then she ran.
The next camera showed the alley.
Rafael’s black sedan jerked forward.
Elena disappeared beneath the headlights.
I stopped breathing.
The clip continued.
She moved.
She was alive.
Marco ran to her.
Rafael got out.
Victor walked slowly, almost bored.
Marco said something.
Victor slapped him.
Then pointed to the trunk.
Detective Harris whispered, “My God.”
The video ended.
But there was another file.
Tony clicked it.
This one was recorded later.
Inside a room I did not recognize.
Elena lay on a cot.
Her eyes fluttered.
Victor stood over her.
“She heard enough,” he said.
Marco’s voice shook.
“She’s a kid.”
Victor smiled.
“Then she’ll be easy to silence.”
Bruno barked so sharply everyone jumped.
Harris turned to me.
“This is evidence of kidnapping and murder.”
I stared at Victor’s face.
“No,” I said.
Harris frowned.
“What do you mean, no?”
I pointed at the corner of the screen.
Elena’s chest had moved.
“She was still breathing there.”
Tony leaned closer.
“And look at the timestamp.”
May you like
My blood ran cold.
“It’s from this morning.”
