Chapter 6 - A Guest Who Couldn’t Leave
Vanessa stood in the center of Warehouse C as though she had been placed beneath the hanging lamp for a photograph.
Crimson evening gown.
Diamond necklace.
Perfect hair beginning to come loose around her face.
No Victor.
No visible guards.
No weapon.
Roman stepped from the SUV.
Cross remained near the driver door.
Emily climbed out behind Roman.
Vanessa saw her.
Her mouth tightened.
“You brought her.”
Roman walked forward.
“You told me to come alone?”
“I didn’t send the message.”
Roman stopped.
Emily studied Vanessa.
For the first time all night, the polished socialite looked genuinely frightened.
Not caught.
Not defensive.
Frightened.
“Where’s Victor?” Roman asked.
“I don’t know.”
“You were with him in the garage.”
Vanessa glanced toward the shadows.
“He told me if I didn’t cooperate, my father would die.”
Roman laughed softly.
No humor.
“Convenient.”
“I knew you wouldn’t believe me.”
“You tore up the letter.”
Vanessa’s eyes moved to Emily.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I recognized Thomas’s handwriting.”
Roman stared.
“You knew Thomas well.”
Vanessa closed her eyes.
“I did.”
“How well?”
“He worked for Luca.”
“I know.”
“No.”
She stepped toward Roman.
“You think Thomas was just Luca’s driver.”
Roman said nothing.
Vanessa continued.
“He was helping Luca investigate Victor.”
Cross moved closer.
Emily watched Roman absorb it.
“How long did you know?”
Vanessa looked ashamed.
“Four years.”
Roman’s face became stone.
“Before Luca died.”
“Yes.”
“And you said nothing.”
“My father made me promise.”
Roman’s voice lowered.
“Your father?”
“Conrad discovered Victor had been stealing from joint projects. At first Dad wanted to expose him.”
“What changed?”
“Victor had evidence against my father too.”
“Of what?”
Vanessa looked away.
“Bribes. Permits. Payments to city inspectors.”
Roman exhaled.
“So Conrad chose himself.”
“He thought he could manage Victor.”
“Men always think that until Victor manages them.”
Emily listened.
She did not know these people.
But she understood shame.
Vanessa’s looked real.
That did not make her innocent.
Roman asked, “Why tear Thomas’s letter?”
“Because I knew what it meant.”
“What?”
“Luca.”
Roman stepped closer.
Vanessa’s voice shook.
“The night Luca died, Thomas called me.”
Roman froze.
“He said Luca had confronted Victor.”
“And?”
“I was supposed to meet them.”
“Where?”
Vanessa stared at the concrete floor.
“Warehouse C.”
Roman stopped breathing.
Emily looked around.
The same building.
Everything seemed to circle back here.
Vanessa continued.
“I arrived late.”
“How late?”
“Twenty minutes.”
“What did you see?”
“Luca’s car leaving.”
“Who was driving?”
Vanessa began crying.
“I don’t know.”
Roman’s eyes narrowed.
“You’re lying.”
“I couldn’t see.”
“Vanessa.”
She looked at him.
“I swear.”
Roman’s jaw tightened.
“What happened inside?”
“Victor was here.”
“And Thomas?”
“Gone.”
“My brother?”
“Gone.”
“You never told me.”
“No.”
Roman’s voice became dangerously calm.
“You stood beside me at Luca’s funeral.”
Vanessa cried harder.
“I was afraid.”
“Of Victor?”
“Of everybody.”
Emily looked at Roman.
He was hurt more deeply than he would ever show.
This was not merely betrayal from a fiancée.
Vanessa had spent years standing beside him while carrying a piece of the mystery that destroyed his family.
Roman turned away.
Cross said, “Mr. Moretti.”
A vehicle approached outside.
Everyone froze.
Headlights swept through broken windows.
Vanessa panicked.
“He found us.”
“Victor?” Roman asked.
“Yes.”
“How do you know?”
“He brought me here.”
Roman looked toward Cross.
Cross signaled his men to spread out.
Emily moved behind a concrete column.
Vanessa suddenly grabbed Roman’s arm.
“Listen to me.”
He pulled away.
“There’s a room beneath the freight elevator.”
Emily looked over.
“What?”
Vanessa turned to her.
“Your father built it.”
Emily’s body went cold.
“How do you know?”
“Thomas told Luca.”
Roman asked, “Where?”
Vanessa pointed toward the far side of the warehouse.
Old freight elevator three.
Rust covered the doors.
A faded maintenance sign hung crookedly.
Emily remembered her father’s recording.
Beneath elevator three.
The vehicle outside stopped.
A door closed.
Then another.
Roman whispered to Cross, “Delay them.”
Cross nodded and disappeared into the shadows.
Roman looked at Emily.
“Come.”
Vanessa followed.
They reached elevator three.
No power.
Roman pulled open the outer gate manually.
A dark shaft extended below.
Emily shone Roman’s phone flashlight downward.
Concrete.
Cables.
Debris.
No room.
Vanessa pointed.
“Emergency ladder.”
Roman descended first.
Emily followed.
Vanessa hesitated.
Then came after them.
They reached the bottom.
Roman swept the light across the wall.
Nothing.
Emily thought of her father.
Elevator mechanic.
He would not hide something behind an obvious panel.
She examined the rails.
The old counterweight assembly.
Then she saw three bolts marked green.
Green book.
Green paint.
“Here.”
Roman joined her.
The bolts held a steel plate.
He removed them with a maintenance wrench found nearby.
Behind the plate was a small lever.
Emily pulled.
A section of concrete wall released.
Vanessa gasped.
Hidden room.
Roman opened it.
Inside sat metal filing cabinets.
Old equipment.
Three sealed document boxes.
And a desk.
Emily stepped inside.
Dust covered everything.
On the desk sat a framed photograph.
Her family.
Her father.
Her mother.
Emily at twelve.
She stopped.
Roman said nothing.
Emily picked it up with shaking hands.
“He knew.”
“Knew what?”
“That something could happen.”
Her father had built a room and placed his family’s photograph there.
He had left evidence expecting someone to find it.
Eventually.
Roman examined the boxes.
Labels.
MORETTI.
SINCLAIR.
SARTO.
Then a fourth.
CARTER.
Emily opened it.
Inside were maintenance records.
Photographs.
Copied contracts.
A handwritten notebook.
Her father’s handwriting.
Roman looked through the Moretti box.
He stopped.
“What?”
Roman pulled out an invoice.
Signed by Salvatore Moretti.
Emily felt dread.
“Your father?”
Roman nodded.
The document authorized payment to Victor Sarto’s consulting company three days after Edward Carter died.
Amount:
$250,000.
Emily stared.
Roman’s face hardened.
“Payment for what?”
No description.
Only code.
C-3 resolution.
Emily whispered, “Elevator three.”
Roman looked sick.
A sound came from above.
Metal scraping.
Vanessa looked toward the shaft.
“They’re here.”
Roman closed the boxes.
“We take what we can.”
Emily grabbed her father’s notebook.
Then they heard Cross shouting above.
“Roman!”
A gunshot followed.
Emily flinched.
Roman moved toward the ladder.
Cross shouted again.
“Do not come up!”
Then a different voice echoed down the shaft.
Victor Sarto.
Calm.
Smooth.
Almost amused.
“Roman.”
Roman looked upward.
Victor continued.
“You always were impatient.”
Roman climbed one rung.
Victor said, “I wouldn’t.”
A pause.
“I have Cross.”
Roman stopped.
Emily’s stomach tightened.
Victor’s voice echoed through the shaft.
“And I have another guest.”
Roman’s expression changed.
“Who?”
A weak voice answered.
“Roman?”
Roman went pale.
Thomas Vale.
Alive.
Victor laughed softly.
“Come upstairs.”
Roman looked at Emily.
She whispered, “It’s a trap.”
“Yes.”
“What are you going to do?”
Roman closed the hidden-room door behind them.
Then looked toward the ladder.
“What my brother should have done three years ago.”
“Which is?”
“Stop playing by Victor’s rules.”
Roman handed Emily his phone.
“Find every document with the word C-3.”
“What about you?”
“I’m going upstairs.”
“No.”
He looked at her.
Emily surprised herself by grabbing his sleeve.
“You walk up there angry, he wins.”
Roman stared at her hand.
She released him.
“Sorry.”
“No.”
His voice softened.
“You’re right.”
Vanessa looked between them.
Then said something neither expected.
“I can get Victor to talk.”
Roman turned.
“Why would he?”
“Because he believes I’m still afraid of him.”
“Aren’t you?”
Vanessa wiped her tears.
“Yes.”
Then she looked toward the shaft.
“But fear is the reason I helped him for three years.”
Her voice changed.
“And I’m tired of paying interest.”
Roman studied her.
“What are you proposing?”
Vanessa removed her diamond necklace.
Inside the clasp was a tiny microphone.
Roman stared.
“Your jewelry records audio?”
“My father insisted after Victor started threatening us.”
“Is it transmitting?”
“To a secure cloud.”
Roman almost smiled.
“Conrad is more paranoid than I thought.”
“He learned from you.”
Emily found a document.
“Roman.”
He turned.
She held it out.
An old maintenance authorization.
Signed by Victor Sarto.
And witnessed by Conrad Sinclair.
Roman read it.
Then looked at Vanessa.
Her face collapsed.
“My father signed that?”
Roman nodded.
Vanessa whispered, “Then he knew.”
Emily looked at the last line.
“No.”
“What?”
She pointed.
Conrad’s signature was dated two days after the mechanical work.
“He didn’t authorize it.”
Roman understood.
“He certified it after.”
Vanessa looked confused.
Emily explained.
“Your father may not have known before the sabotage. But he helped cover it afterward.”
Silence.
Vanessa closed her eyes.
Above them, Victor called:
“You have sixty seconds, Roman.”
Roman looked at the evidence.
At Vanessa.
At Emily.
Then whispered:
“Let’s give him exactly what he wants.”
Emily frowned.
“What’s that?”
Roman’s expression became calm again.
May you like
“The chance to believe he’s won.”
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