Chapter 10 - THE WOMAN IN APARTMENT 4C
10
Federal agents surrounded the abandoned hospital before midnight.
Vincent wanted to go.
Agent Brooks refused.
Mom wanted to go.
Brooks refused harder.
I wanted to go too.
Nobody even answered me.
The building had been empty for twelve years.
Windows boarded.
Parking lot cracked.
Old emergency signs still hanging above doors.
Thermal cameras detected three people inside.
Possibly four.
Then the power came on.
Every light in the abandoned hospital lit at once.
Brooks whispered, “That's not good.”
A message appeared on Vincent's phone.
COME IN ALONE.
He showed Brooks.
“No.”
“Salvatore is inside.”
“No.”
“He's family.”
“So is Anthony.”
Vincent looked at her.
“That's the problem.”
In the end, Brooks compromised.
Vincent entered wearing a transmitter.
Tactical teams surrounded the building.
We listened from a command van.
His footsteps echoed through hallways.
Carlo's voice came through speakers.
“Second floor.”
Vincent climbed.
“Room 214.”
He entered.
Salvatore sat in a chair.
Not tied.
Not injured.
Vincent stopped.
“Sal.”
Salvatore looked miserable.
“I'm sorry.”
Vincent's face changed.
“For what?”
Carlo stepped from the shadows.
He was nearly eighty.
Thin.
Silver-haired.
Alive.
“You always trusted too easily, Vincent.”
Salvatore stood.
Vincent stared at him.
“You brought me here?”
Salvatore shook his head.
“I didn't know he was alive until this morning.”
“Then why aren't you restrained?”
“Because I stayed.”
That hurt Vincent more than betrayal would have.
“Why?”
Salvatore looked at his father.
“To hear the truth.”
Carlo smiled.
“The Kane family destroyed mine long before Lakefront.”
Vincent said, “Save the history lesson.”
Carlo's smile vanished.
“You want Anthony?”
“Yes.”
“So do I.”
That surprised everyone listening.
Carlo explained that Anthony had seized Lakefront from him.
The identity system became more violent.
More profitable.
Carlo staged his death because Anthony ordered him killed.
Rebecca Mercer helped him disappear.
“She was working for you?” Vincent asked.
“For herself.”
“Where is she?”
Carlo glanced toward a door.
Rebecca walked out.
Mercer, listening in the command van, whispered his sister's name.
Rebecca looked exhausted.
Not evil.
Not frightened.
Vincent said, “You kidnapped yourself.”
“Yes.”
“You burned Sterling's.”
“Yes.”
“You marked Mia Carter red.”
Rebecca closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To get her removed from the restaurant.”
Mom leaned toward the speaker.
Rebecca continued.
“Red wasn't always an execution list. Originally it meant extract.”
David Sterling didn't know because Anthony had changed the system.
Rebecca had been secretly using old red-list procedures to move threatened workers.
Some she saved.
Others Anthony reached first.
“And Mia?”
“I knew Daniel was alive.”
Mom stopped breathing.
Rebecca looked directly at the camera in Vincent's lapel.
“Mia, if you're listening, I'm sorry.”
Mom whispered, “Where is he?”
Rebecca continued.
“Daniel contacted me eight months ago. He said Anthony had found Rory.”
Mom grabbed my hand.
“He asked me to keep Rory visible because disappearing would confirm he was alive. As long as Rory lived normally, Anthony believed Daniel might truly be dead.”
Vincent frowned.
“Then why photograph the child?”
“To send Daniel proof she was safe.”
Mom began crying.
Every photograph that looked like surveillance had been reassurance.
Every preschool image.
Every note.
Daniel had been watching me grow through pictures sent by Rebecca.
“Where is he?” Mom said again.
Vincent asked it for her.
Rebecca looked at Carlo.
Carlo nodded toward the hallway.
“Apartment 4C.”
It wasn't an apartment.
It was an old hospital room marked 4C on architectural plans.
Tactical teams moved.
The room was empty.
Bed.
Desk.
Food containers.
Medical supplies.
Someone had lived there recently.
On the desk were hundreds of photographs.
Mom.
Me.
Our apartment.
My preschool recital.
My third birthday at the park.
The day I lost my first tooth.
Beside them was a cassette recorder.
A note:
FOR RORY, IF I FAIL AGAIN.
Agent Brooks brought the recorder to the van.
Mom pressed play.
My father's voice filled the room.
“Hey, Bug.”
Mom broke.
That was what Daniel had called me before I was born.
“Your mom probably told you I used to talk to you when you were still inside her. I'm sorry I haven't been there to talk to you since.”
I stared at the recorder.
“I wanted to come home every day.”
He explained.
After escaping the hospital, Daniel discovered Anthony's network had access to police records, hospitals, schools, and financial databases.
Any attempt to return home would expose us.
So he disappeared.
For five years he moved between cities collecting evidence.
Rebecca and Carlo helped him.
Carlo wasn't innocent.
But he wanted Anthony stopped.
Daniel believed only one thing could end the network.
The master ledger.
Anthony maintained a physical book containing every shell company, corrupt official, fake death, payoff, and hidden account.
“Where is it?” Vincent whispered.
Daniel's recording continued.
“Anthony keeps it where he thinks nobody will ever search.”
Pause.
“In Vincent Kane's house.”
Vincent went white.
The command van became silent.
“My house?”
Daniel explained.
Anthony had built Vincent's mansion before his supposed death.
During renovations, he created a secure chamber beneath the wine cellar.
Vincent had unknowingly lived above Anthony's most valuable evidence for eight years.
Agent Brooks ordered a team dispatched immediately.
Then alarms erupted at the hospital.
Brooks shouted.
The building's east entrance had been breached.
Not by federal agents.
Armed men.
Carlo stood.
“Anthony.”
Gunshots echoed.
Rebecca ducked.
Salvatore pulled Vincent behind a wall.
Federal teams moved.
Mom covered my ears.
Then through the chaos, another voice came over Vincent's transmitter.
A man shouted from the hallway:
“Rebecca!”
She froze.
Mom froze.
I didn't know the voice.
But she did.
“Daniel.”
My father was inside the building.
Alive.
Gunshots erupted again.
The transmitter went dead.
May you like
Mom screamed his name.
And for fourteen terrible minutes, nobody knew whether Daniel Carter had survived long enough to come home.
