Chapter 4 - The Basement Under the Burned Warehouse

The warehouse stood outside Baton Rouge.

Abandoned road.

Rusting fence.

Burned front wall.

But Eleanor was right.

The rear structure still stood.

Nico arrived after sunset.

Samuel.

Victoria.

Me.

Isabella stayed behind.

Nico did not want his mother walking into another family trap.

This time, he got to decide one thing.

The basement entrance was hidden beneath an old loading platform.

Samuel found it.

“How?”

Victoria asked.

He smiled without humor.

“Gardeners notice foundations.”

Nico opened the steel door.

Dust.

Concrete stairs.

One light still worked.

That surprised everyone.

Someone had maintained the place.

At the bottom:

Shelves.

Boxes.

Files.

Twenty-five years of secrets.

Samuel whispered:

“My God.”

Nico found Romano names.

Hale names.

Property deeds.

Cash ledgers.

Police payments.

Then Victoria found a box marked:

A.G.

Anna Greene.

Samuel stopped.

His daughter’s initials.

Inside:

Photographs.

Anna at eighteen.

Twenty-one.

Twenty-six.

Thirty.

Alive.

Samuel’s eyes filled.

“She lived.”

Victoria picked up the newest.

Dated four years earlier.

Anna standing beside a man outside a courthouse.

Nico knew him.

“My uncle’s lawyer.”

Samuel stared.

“Why was she with him?”

A voice answered from the stairwell.

“Because she worked for me.”

Everyone turned.

Carlo Romano.

Nico’s uncle.

Sixty-two.

Gray hair.

Dark coat.

Two men behind him.

Nico stepped in front of Victoria.

“You followed us.”

Carlo smiled.

“No.”

Then looked at Samuel.

“I followed him eleven months ago.”

Samuel’s face hardened.

“That was you.”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you kill me?”

Victoria went pale.

Carlo laughed.

“Because murder attracts attention.”

Nico said:

“What happened to Anna?”

Carlo looked at him.

“She is alive.”

Samuel almost collapsed.

“Where?”

Carlo ignored him.

Nico stepped closer.

“Where is she?”

“Safe.”

Nico laughed bitterly.

“That word again.”

Carlo’s smile disappeared.

“She made herself useful.”

Samuel whispered:

“To you?”

“Yes.”

Victoria stared.

“My sister worked for Carlo?”

Carlo looked at her.

“Half-sister.”

Samuel said:

“Do not correct her.”

Carlo glanced at him.

Then back at Nico.

“Anna found the warehouse seventeen years ago.”

“She knew about the ledgers.”

“Yes.”

“She threatened you.”

“No.”

Carlo smiled faintly.

“She offered a deal.”

Nico frowned.

“What deal?”

“She would help me clean the financial trail.”

Samuel stared.

“No.”

Carlo continued.

“In exchange, I would tell her where you were.”

Samuel’s face changed.

“You knew where I was?”

“Yes.”

“Then why didn’t she come?”

Carlo’s expression shifted.

“She did.”

Silence.

Samuel whispered:

“What?”

“Sixteen years ago.”

Samuel shook his head.

“No.”

“You were working at the Romano winter estate.”

“Yes.”

“She came.”

“I never saw her.”

Carlo looked at him.

“Because Henry Hale stopped her.”

Victoria went still.

“My grandfather.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because Anna knew too much.”

Samuel’s face hardened.

“What did he do?”

Carlo looked at the files.

“Ask the records.”

Nico moved toward him.

One of Carlo’s men reached inside his coat.

Nico stopped.

Carlo said:

“This does not need to become stupid.”

Nico smiled.

“You buried financial records beneath a burned warehouse for twenty-five years.”

Then looked around.

“We passed stupid a long time ago.”

Samuel found a folder.

HENRY HALE.

Inside:

A payment.

Private clinic.

Date:

Sixteen years ago.

Patient:

ANNA G.

Victoria stared.

“A clinic?”

Samuel grabbed the page.

“What clinic?”

Carlo said nothing.

Nico read the name.

Saint Mercy Behavioral Center.

Closed ten years ago.

Samuel whispered:

“He committed her.”

Carlo looked at Henry’s file.

“Against my advice.”

Victoria stared.

“You knew?”

“Yes.”

“And did nothing?”

Carlo’s face hardened.

“I was not her father.”

Samuel stepped forward.

“No.”

His voice shook.

“But you knew hers.”

Carlo said nothing.

Nico looked at the payment.

“Where did she go after the clinic closed?”

Carlo finally answered.

“I don’t know.”

Samuel did not believe him.

Neither did Nico.

Then a sound came from the shelves.

Metal scraping.

Everyone turned.

I saw a narrow door behind a cabinet.

Nico moved it.

A hidden room.

Inside:

A cot.

Water bottles.

Fresh food.

Medication.

Someone had been staying there recently.

Victoria picked up a scarf.

Her face changed.

“This belongs to my grandmother.”

Nico turned.

“Eleanor?”

Samuel looked toward the stairs.

Carlo’s men were gone.

So was Carlo.

On the cot was a phone.

One new voice message.

Nico pressed play.

Eleanor’s voice.

Shaking.

“If you found this, Carlo knows where Anna is.”

Samuel grabbed the phone.

Eleanor continued:

“And he is going to reach her before we do.”

The message ended with an address.

Mississippi.

A convent.

Samuel looked at Nico.

“My daughter.”

Nico nodded.

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“Then we go now.”

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