Chapter 5 - A Message From a Dead Man
Victor Hale called Roman at 2:17 in the morning.
They were inside Tommy’s apartment when Roman’s phone vibrated.
Sadie sat at the kitchen counter wearing one of Tommy’s late wife’s old sweaters.
Her clothes still smelled faintly of smoke from standing outside the damaged apartment.
Roman looked at the caller ID.
Nobody spoke.
VICTOR.
Roman answered.
“Good evening.”
Victor’s voice flowed through the speaker with its familiar polished warmth.
“Roman. You’re awake late.”
“So are you.”
“I’m an old man. Sleep becomes optional.”
Roman leaned against the counter.
Sadie watched him carefully.
Victor had attended birthdays.
Funerals.
Christmas dinners.
He had once given Nora an antique bracelet and told her Roman needed a woman stubborn enough to survive him.
Now Sadie wondered whether he had been studying her even then.
Victor continued.
“I heard there was trouble at Lombardi’s.”
“News travels.”
“It always has.”
Roman’s face revealed nothing.
“What do you want?”
“I wanted to make certain you were well.”
“I’m touched.”
Victor laughed softly.
Then he said, “And Nora?”
Sadie’s blood ran cold.
Roman’s eyes met hers.
“Who?”
“Don’t insult me.”
Victor’s voice remained pleasant.
“You were never convincing when you lied.”
Roman said nothing.
Victor continued.
“Three years is a long time to chase a ghost.”
“I stopped chasing her.”
“Yes.”
A pause.
“That was your mistake.”
Roman’s jaw tightened.
“Careful.”
“There he is.”
Victor sounded almost affectionate.
“The boy I raised.”
“I’m not a boy.”
“No. You certainly proved that.”
Sadie could hear the smile in Victor’s voice.
Roman’s tone cooled.
“If you have something to say, say it.”
“I do.”
Victor paused.
“Elias Mercer was a coward.”
Roman said nothing.
“He spent years hiding, then convinced himself death was close enough that conscience mattered.”
“You killed him.”
“No.”
“Another lie?”
“Believe whatever comforts you.”
Roman looked toward Tommy.
Tommy was tracing the call.
Victor continued.
“Mercer stole something from me a long time ago.”
“A ledger.”
Victor laughed.
“So Nora told you.”
Sadie felt exposed.
Roman’s voice remained flat.
“What’s in it?”
“You know better than to ask questions you already understand.”
“I want to hear you say it.”
Victor sighed.
“Your father suffered from the same sentimental desire for confession.”
Roman’s face changed.
Only slightly.
Sadie saw the wound open behind his eyes.
“You poisoned him.”
Silence.
Victor did not answer immediately.
Then he said, “Anthony became weak.”
Tommy stopped typing.
Sadie stared at the phone.
Roman’s voice was barely audible.
“He trusted you.”
“He became frightened of what we had built.”
“You built it behind his back.”
“I expanded what he lacked the imagination to finish.”
Roman’s hand tightened around the phone.
“He was going to expose you.”
“He was going to destroy everything.”
“So you killed him.”
Victor’s pleasant tone disappeared.
“I preserved what belonged to us.”
Roman’s face went blank.
Victor continued.
“And I preserved you.”
“By murdering my father?”
“By keeping his enemies from tearing a nineteen-year-old boy apart.”
Roman closed his eyes briefly.
Victor’s voice softened.
“You think you survived because you were strong? Roman, you survived because I taught half this city to fear you before you were old enough to understand what fear cost.”
Sadie saw the truth in Roman’s expression.
Victor had not simply manipulated an organization.
He had built Roman himself.
“Where is the ledger?” Victor asked.
Roman opened his eyes.
“I don’t have it.”
“Neither do I.”
Sadie’s attention sharpened.
Roman said, “You searched Nora’s apartment.”
Victor chuckled.
“Did I?”
“The fire was sloppy.”
“Perhaps someone else is interested.”
“There is no someone else.”
“You’ve always had an unattractive habit of believing your enemies form orderly lines.”
Roman glanced at Tommy.
The call trace was still running.
Victor continued.
“The book was disappointing.”
Sadie’s heart jumped.
So Victor had taken it.
Roman saw her reaction.
“What did you find?”
“A photograph.”
Sadie leaned forward.
Victor laughed softly.
“You didn’t know.”
Roman said nothing.
“Daniel was more clever than I gave him credit for.”
Sadie could not stay silent.
“What photograph?”
Roman looked at her, but the damage was done.
Victor stopped speaking.
Then:
“Nora.”
Her stomach turned.
“I wondered whether you were listening.”
She stared at the phone.
Roman started to move it away.
Sadie shook her head.
“No.”
Then she spoke.
“What was in the book?”
Victor’s voice became almost gentle.
“I’m sorry about your brother.”
“You had him killed.”
“He placed himself in dangerous company.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“Answers are expensive.”
“I’ve already paid.”
Victor paused.
“Yes.”
Something about the word made Sadie shiver.
“What photograph?”
Victor said, “Your brother standing beside a woman.”
Sadie frowned.
“What woman?”
“One you should recognize.”
“Who?”
Victor’s voice lowered.
“Your mother.”
Sadie stopped breathing.
Her mother had died when Nora was eighteen.
Cancer.
At least that was what she had always believed.
Roman straightened.
“That’s impossible,” Sadie whispered.
Victor sounded amused.
“Is it?”
“My mother never knew Daniel’s work.”
“Perhaps Daniel knew hers.”
Sadie gripped the edge of the counter.
“Where was the photograph taken?”
“Ask Roman.”
She looked at him.
Roman frowned.
“I have no idea what he’s talking about.”
Victor laughed.
“I think you do.”
“Victor.”
“Ask him about St. Agnes.”
Roman became motionless.
Sadie saw recognition.
Again.
“You know.”
Roman looked at her.
“Roman?”
Victor spoke before he could.
“Good night, Nora.”
“Wait.”
“And Roman?”
Roman lifted the phone.
“Yes?”
“You were always going to choose her over me.”
Victor’s voice carried something dangerously close to disappointment.
“I simply hoped I would be dead before you realized it.”
The call ended.
Tommy looked at his laptop.
“Lost the trace.”
Roman remained silent.
Sadie stood.
“What is St. Agnes?”
He looked at her.
“An orphanage.”
Her confusion deepened.
“What does that have to do with my mother?”
“I don’t know.”
“You recognized the name.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Roman walked toward the window.
“Because my father funded it.”
Sadie stared.
“When?”
“For years.”
“What kind of orphanage?”
“Catholic home. Closed in 2002.”
“My mother died in 2001.”
Roman turned.
Sadie’s breathing quickened.
“My mother volunteered at a church.”
“Which one?”
“I don’t know. She never talked about it.”
Tommy opened another laptop.
“St. Agnes Children’s Home.”
He searched.
A grainy photograph appeared.
Stone building.
Cross above the entrance.
Roman moved closer.
“That's it.”
Tommy scrolled.
“Board members…”
He stopped.
Anthony Vale.
Victor Hale.
Elias Mercer.
Sadie stepped closer.
Another name appeared.
Rebecca Callahan.
Her mother.
Sadie stared.
“No.”
Tommy looked at her.
“Your mother sat on the advisory board.”
“She was a nurse.”
“Could have volunteered.”
Sadie shook her head.
“She never mentioned Roman’s father.”
Roman looked disturbed.
“My father never mentioned her either.”
Tommy found a scanned newspaper clipping.
ST. AGNES CHARITY FUND EXPANDS SERVICES FOR AT-RISK YOUTH.
The photograph beneath it showed Anthony Vale cutting a ribbon.
Victor stood beside him.
Elias Mercer stood behind them.
And at the far edge was Rebecca Callahan.
Sadie touched the screen.
Her mother.
Younger.
Smiling.
Alive.
A second photograph loaded.
Rebecca was speaking with Anthony privately.
Daniel stood nearby.
Teenage Daniel.
Sadie’s chest tightened.
“This was before Mom died.”
Roman looked at the date.
“Four months.”
Sadie looked at him.
“Daniel knew your father.”
“Apparently.”
Tommy continued searching.
“St. Agnes closed after allegations of financial misconduct.”
“What allegations?” Roman asked.
“Records sealed.”
“By whom?”
Tommy’s eyes narrowed.
“Judge Samuel Hale.”
Victor’s older brother.
Roman muttered something under his breath.
Sadie sat down again.
Her entire childhood suddenly felt unstable.
Daniel.
Her mother.
Roman’s father.
Victor.
Mercer.
They had all been connected long before she ever met Roman.
“What if us meeting wasn’t an accident?” she whispered.
Roman looked at her.
They had met at a charity gala five years ago.
Nora had attended with a coworker.
Roman had approached her after she spilled champagne on his jacket.
He had made a joke.
She had expected arrogance.
Instead he made her laugh.
That night had changed everything.
Roman said, “I didn’t know who you were.”
“Maybe someone else did.”
Tommy’s phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
Then his expression darkened.
“What?”
Tommy ended the call.
“One of our people searched Mercer’s apartment.”
Roman waited.
“They found a safe.”
Sadie stood.
“The ledger?”
“No.”
Tommy looked at her.
“A video.”
“Of what?”
“Elias Mercer.”
“When?”
“Recorded six days ago.”
Roman grabbed his coat.
“Where?”
“Secure office.”
Sadie was already reaching for hers.
Roman looked at her.
“You should rest.”
She gave him a look.
He corrected himself.
“Would you like to rest?”
“No.”
“I assumed not.”
Thirty minutes later, they entered an anonymous office above a closed pharmacy.
A laptop waited on the desk.
Tommy inserted a drive.
Elias Mercer appeared on screen.
He looked seventy.
Thin.
Exhausted.
Terrified.
He stared into the camera.
“If Nora Callahan is watching this, then Victor finally made a mistake.”
Sadie stopped breathing.
Mercer continued.
“The ledger is real.”
He coughed.
“But it is not a book.”
Roman frowned.
Mercer looked directly into the camera.
“It is a person.”
Sadie stared.
Roman stepped closer.
Mercer’s next words changed everything.
“Victor has spent twenty-two years looking for her.”
Sadie whispered, “Her?”
Mercer nodded as though answering from beyond the grave.
“The only living witness to what happened at St. Agnes.”
He paused.
“And Nora…”
Sadie’s heart pounded.
“You already know her.”
May you like
The screen went black.
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