Chapter 6 - Someone at the Table
Daniel Price had been dead for forty-eight hours.
That meant someone had deliberately made him look guilty.
Alfred spent the night going through names.
Mina watched from across the room.
Lev.
Pauly.
Accountants.
Drivers.
Lawyers.
Men Alfred had known since childhood.
By sunrise, Alfred looked exhausted.
“This is what your life does,” Mina said quietly.
He looked up.
“What?”
“It makes trust impossible.”
He didn't argue.
Lev entered carrying a folder.
“The call came through a relay, but the original signal was near St. Vincent's.”
Alfred frowned.
“The hospital?”
Lev nodded.
“Pauly.”
Mina's heart sank.
Pauly had survived the warehouse shooting and remained hospitalized.
Alfred stood immediately.
“No.”
“We don't know it's him,” Lev said.
Alfred's expression hardened.
“He's my cousin.”
“Which means he has access.”
Alfred drove to the hospital despite every warning.
Mina insisted on going.
Pauly looked terrible.
Pale. Thin. Bandaged.
When Alfred entered, Pauly smiled weakly.
“You look like hell.”
“So do you.”
Then Pauly saw Mina.
His smile vanished.
Alfred closed the door.
“Who knows she's pregnant?”
Pauly's eyes widened.
Mina knew immediately.
He knew.
Alfred knew too.
“Pauly.”
Tears appeared in his cousin's eyes.
“I didn't have a choice.”
Alfred went completely still.
Pauly began crying.
“They took Sophie.”
His four-year-old daughter.
The Morettis had kidnapped her two weeks earlier.
They threatened to kill her unless Pauly gave them information.
Warehouse locations.
Schedules.
Eventually, Mina's medical records.
“I didn't know she was pregnant,” Pauly said. “I swear to God, Alfred. They found that part themselves.”
Alfred looked devastated.
Not angry.
Devastated.
“Why didn't you come to me?”
“Because they sent me a video of Sophie sleeping.”
Pauly covered his face.
“They said if I told you, the next video would be different.”
Mina looked at Alfred.
Here was the answer to everything.
This was what leverage looked like.
Not theory.
Not paranoia.
A terrified father betraying his own family because someone had taken his little girl.
Alfred walked to the window.
For a long time, nobody spoke.
Then Mina approached him.
“This is what I was afraid of.”
“I know.”
It was the first time he had said it.
Not I can protect you.
Not trust me.
I know.
Alfred turned to Pauly.
“Where is Sophie?”
“I don't know.”
“Then we'll find her.”
Pauly stared.
“You're not going to kill me?”
Alfred's eyes briefly hardened.
“You betrayed me.”
Pauly lowered his head.
“But you did it for your daughter.”
Alfred looked at Mina's stomach.
“I understand more about that today than I did yesterday.”
Then Lev called.
May you like
They had found a vehicle connected to Sophie's kidnapping.
And it was heading toward the river.
