Chương 10
“He said they were just reusable tissues pretending to be classy.”
A laugh escaped Dominic before he could stop it.
Sophia stared at him.
He shook his head.
“Sorry.”
“No.”
Her mouth twitched.
“That was his exact goal.”
The brief humor died as the industrial district appeared beyond the windshield.
Warehouses lined the river side of the road, some renovated, others abandoned behind rusting chain-link fences.
Dominic slowed two blocks from the pin.
Vincent’s voice came through a small radio.
“Second vehicle holding.”
Dominic answered.
“No headlights.”
“Already off.”
“Thermal?”
“Two heat signatures inside the target building near the east wall.”
Sophia’s head snapped toward the radio.
“Only two?”
Vincent continued.
“Three more moving deeper inside.”
Dominic looked at her.
“Children count?”
“Two smaller signatures together.”
Sophia closed her eyes briefly.
“They’re alive.”
“For now.”
Dominic regretted the words immediately.
Sophia stared straight ahead.
“Don’t say things like that.”
He nodded once.
They parked behind an abandoned machine shop.
Dominic checked the watch in his pocket.
Sophia checked the key.
Vincent appeared from the darkness with two men.
“The building has three obvious entrances.”
“Obvious?”
“There’s an old loading door on the river side that may still open.”
Dominic looked at Sophia.
“Do you remember the workshop layout?”
“Barely.”
“Anything.”
She pictured it.
Michael had brought her there once when she was pregnant because the apartment smelled of paint and she wanted to yell at him somewhere else.
She had spent most of the visit complaining about money.
Now she hated herself for remembering that.
“There was an office near the front.”
“What else?”
“Workbench area.”
“Storage?”
“A back room.”
She frowned.
“Michael told me never to go in there.”
Dominic and Vincent exchanged a look.
“Where?”
“Northwest corner.”
Vincent studied the building.
“That’s near the rail side.”
Dominic said, “We enter east.”
Sophia grabbed his sleeve.
“The children are east.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you going somewhere else?”
“Because Gabriel wants the watch.”
“He may be with them.”
“He may want me focused on them while someone empties whatever Michael hid.”
Sophia stared at him.
The logic was unbearable because it made sense.
Dominic lowered his voice.
“Vincent gets the children.”
“And us?”
“We find out why Gabriel brought them here.”
Vincent disliked it.
His face made that clear.
But he nodded.
“Ten minutes.”
“Five.”
“Seven.”
Dominic almost argued.
Then he saw Sophia looking between them.
“Seven.”
They separated.
Dominic and Sophia moved along the north wall beneath broken windows and old security lamps.
The river wind smelled like diesel and mud.
Sophia found the side door where she remembered it.
A new electronic lock had been installed.
Dominic crouched beside it.
“Not seven years old.”
“No.”
He touched the casing.
“Recent.”
Sophia looked around.
“Why would an abandoned workshop have a new lock?”
“Because it isn’t abandoned.”
Dominic pulled a small bypass tool from his pocket.
Sophia stared.
“What?”
“You just carry that?”
“I have hobbies.”
“You mock Julian for motorcycles.”
“Motorcycles kill people.”
“And this doesn’t?”
Dominic almost smiled.
The lock clicked.
Inside, the corridor smelled of damp concrete and machine oil.
Emergency strips glowed near the floor.
Someone had prepared the building.
They moved quietly.
Sophia recognized the office first.
Its glass had been covered with black film.
The old workbench remained beyond it.
New crates stood where Michael’s tool cabinets had once been.
Dominic touched one.
Fresh dust marks crossed the lid.
He pointed toward the northwest corner.
Sophia nodded.
The back-room door was open.
Inside, rows of metal shelves held nothing but empty plastic bins.
Sophia stepped in.
“This is wrong.”
“How?”
“There used to be a cabinet.”
“Where?”
She pointed toward the far wall.
“Built into the concrete.”
Dominic crossed to it.
Only a rectangular outline remained.
Something heavy had been removed recently.
Scrape marks ran across the floor.
Sophia looked at the brass key.
“Maybe they already found it.”
Dominic crouched.
“No.”
He touched one scrape.
“Moved, not removed.”
The marks ended at the opposite wall.
He pushed one shelf aside.
Behind it stood an old gray steel locker.
Sophia stopped breathing.
“That was Michael’s.”
“You’re sure?”
“He painted the handle blue because he kept losing it against the gray.”
A faded strip of blue remained.
The brass key fit the lock.
Sophia’s hand shook too badly to turn it.
Dominic covered her fingers with his.
Together, they twisted.
The mechanism clicked.
Inside were three shelves.
The top contained old electrical diagrams.
The middle held a sealed plastic document pouch.
The bottom held a small wooden box.
Sophia reached for the pouch.
Dominic stopped her.
“Photograph first.”
He took pictures of the cabinet, shelves, and contents with a phone disconnected from the estate network.
Then he handed Sophia a pair of gloves.
She opened the pouch.
Inside were photocopied invoices, handwritten notes, and several photographs.
One photograph showed Daniel Moretti entering a Manhattan hotel.
Another showed Gabriel beside a woman Sophia did not recognize.
Dominic did.
His face changed.
“That’s Elena.”
Sophia looked at him.
The photograph had been taken months before Ethan was born.
Gabriel stood several feet behind Elena outside a medical office.
He did not appear to be speaking to her.
He appeared to be watching.
Dominic took the photo.
His thumb trembled once against the edge.
Sophia pretended not to notice.
A noise sounded beyond the room.
Both froze.
A man’s voice came faintly through the corridor.
“Dominic.”
Sophia’s skin went cold.
Dominic put the documents back inside the pouch.
The voice came again.
Closer.
“You always did search the wrong room first.”
Dominic stepped in front of Sophia.
Gabriel appeared in the doorway.
He looked older than the photograph, but not fragile.
Gray had spread through his hair.
His coat was dark.
In one hand he held the silver mint tin.
He clicked it open.
The sound was tiny.
Sophia recognized it anyway.
Behind Gabriel stood a man with a pistol.
Dominic did not reach for his own.
Gabriel smiled.
May you like
“There he is.”
Dominic’s voice stayed flat.
