Chapter 5 - MIDNIGHT AT THE ASHLAND
The Ashland Theater had been abandoned for fifteen years.
Its marquee was dark. Plywood covered the lower windows, and faded posters hung behind cracked glass.
At eleven fifty-seven, Matteo parked across the street.
Penelope sat beside him.
Luca was hidden in a surveillance van two blocks away, which technically violated the kidnappers’ instructions without placing him visibly at the scene.
“Stay in the car,” Matteo said.
“No.”
“This is not negotiable.”
“Then stop trying to negotiate.”
“They asked for me.”
“They took my mother.”
Matteo looked toward the theater.
“I can move more effectively if I am not protecting you.”
“I don’t need you to protect me every second.”
“That is demonstrably untrue.”
Penelope took a slow breath.
“Ask.”
His jaw tightened.
“Will you please remain in the car?”
“No.”
He stared.
“You said asking mattered.”
“It does.”
“You still ignored the answer you wanted.”
“Accepting my choice is the difficult part.”
Matteo gave a quiet, humorless laugh.
“Apparently.”
He opened the glove compartment and removed a small transmitter.
“This button alerts Luca.”
“You told them no weapons.”
“It is not a weapon.”
She clipped it inside her coat.
Matteo removed his gun and locked it beneath the seat.
Penelope noticed a second weapon at his ankle.
“That one too.”
He looked at her.
“No weapons means no weapons.”
“They kidnapped your mother.”
“And they’ll search you.”
Reluctantly, he locked the second gun away.
Inside the theater, emergency lights illuminated the decaying lobby.
A man searched them.
He found no weapons.
Penelope’s mother sat on the stage inside the auditorium, tied to a chair. Duct tape covered her mouth.
“Mom!”
She started forward.
Matteo caught her hand.
A spotlight came on.
Bradley’s father, Richard Jenkins, stepped from backstage.
Penelope stopped.
Richard was a broad man in his sixties with Nathan’s eyes and Bradley’s habit of adjusting his cuffs.
“You?”
Richard looked exhausted.
“I’m sorry, Penelope.”
“You kidnapped my mother.”
“I didn’t have a choice.”
“There is always a choice,” Matteo said.
Richard stared at him.
“You would know.”
“Release Linda.”
“I can’t.”
A woman appeared in the balcony.
She wore a red coat and dark gloves. Her silver hair fell to her shoulders.
Matteo went still.
“Sofia.”
She smiled.
“My little nephew.”
Penelope looked between them.
Sofia Duca had survived.
Time had altered her, but the resemblance to Matteo remained around the eyes.
“You were in the car,” he said.
“I was supposed to be.”
“You killed them.”
Sofia descended the aisle.
“I saved myself.”
“Did Carlo know?”
“He planned it.”
Matteo’s face became empty.
Sofia stopped several rows away.
“Your parents intended to turn evidence over to federal prosecutors. Carlo believed they would destroy the family. He placed the bomb. I learned about it and made sure I was not inside.”
“You let them die.”
“I was twenty-eight and afraid.”
“You had twenty years to tell me.”
“And lose everything I built?”
Penelope looked at Richard.
“What does she want from you?”
Richard closed his eyes.
“My construction company moved money for Carlo. I thought it was over after he disappeared. Then Sofia contacted me.”
“She owns North Meridian,” Matteo said.
“Yes.”
Sofia smiled. “Carlo left me many useful things.”
“Where is he?”
“Dead.”
“Did you kill him?”
“No. You did.”
Penelope turned toward Matteo.
He did not deny it.
Sofia continued.
“Carlo raised you, and you repaid him with a bullet.”
“He murdered my parents.”
“You did not know that then.”
“I knew enough.”
The auditorium seemed to shrink around them.
Penelope remembered Matteo saying there were parts of his life she would be safer not knowing.
Now she understood.
He had killed the man who raised him.
Sofia held out one gloved hand.
“The Calumet documents.”
“They are with police,” Matteo said.
“Copies exist.”
“What do you want from them?”
“Beneath that property is a freight tunnel built during Prohibition. Carlo used it to move weapons. Your father later used it to store records.”
“What records?”
“Every judge, officer, mayor, and businessman the Duca family ever paid.”
Matteo looked at Richard.
“You tried to steal the acquisition file so she could locate the tunnel.”
Richard nodded.
“Sofia threatened my sons.”
“And you gave her Penelope.”
“No. Bradley chose Penelope’s credential. I told him to find another way.”
Penelope felt no comfort.
Her mother remained tied beneath the spotlight.
“Release her,” Penelope said.
Sofia regarded her.
“So this is the woman.”
“I’m nobody.”
“No.” Sofia smiled faintly. “Matteo does not enter abandoned theaters for nobody.”
Penelope felt Matteo shift beside her.
Sofia noticed.
“You chose well, nephew. She is softer than your usual companions.”
Bradley’s insult lived inside the word.
Penelope’s spine straightened.
Sofia continued.
“Women like her inspire loyalty. Men want to protect them. Families trust them.”
“Do not speak about her,” Matteo said.
His voice became so quiet that Richard stepped backward.
Sofia smiled wider.
“There you are.”
She gestured.
A man emerged behind Linda Hayes and pressed a pistol against her head.
Penelope’s courage evaporated.
“What do you want?”
“Matteo will sign control of the Calumet property to North Meridian.”
“And then?”
“You leave with your mother.”
Matteo looked at the contract waiting on a music stand.
“If I sign, you kill us after obtaining the tunnel.”
“If you refuse, Penelope watches her mother die.”
Penelope turned to him.
“Sign it.”
Sofia laughed softly.
Matteo’s face did not change.
“The property cannot be transferred without board approval.”
“I know. That is why your board members are currently attending a private meeting arranged by Luca.”
Matteo looked toward the dark balcony.
Sofia had anticipated their security.
“And before you ask,” she continued, “my men found Luca’s van.”
Penelope touched the transmitter beneath her coat.
Sofia’s eyes dropped to the movement.
“Remove it.”
Penelope hesitated.
The guard behind her mother cocked the gun.
She took out the transmitter and placed it on the floor.
Sofia crushed it beneath her heel.
Matteo approached the contract.
Penelope watched him sign.
The instant the pen left the paper, the theater lights went out.
Gunfire erupted.
Matteo threw himself over Penelope.
Bullets struck the stage.
She heard her mother scream.
Emergency lights flashed.
Richard had tackled the guard holding Linda.
They struggled near the edge of the stage.
Penelope ran toward them.
“Mom!”
The guard fired.
Richard jerked.
He fell, blood spreading across his shirt.
Penelope grabbed the gunman’s wrist and bit down hard enough to taste blood. He shouted and struck her.
She hit the floor.
Matteo appeared behind him.
One blow broke the man’s grip.
A second sent him into the orchestra pit.
Matteo freed Linda.
Sofia retreated backstage.
Luca entered through a side door with armed men.
“I thought they found your van,” Penelope said.
“They found a van.”
Despite everything, she almost laughed.
Richard lay near the curtain.
Matteo pressed a hand against his wound.
“Ambulance.”
Luca called emergency services.
Richard looked at Penelope.
“I’m sorry.”
“Save your strength.”
“My sons…”
“You can tell them yourself.”
Richard seized Matteo’s sleeve.
“Carlo is alive.”
Matteo stared.
“Sofia lied,” Richard gasped. “Carlo controls her.”
“Where?”
“Beneath Calumet.”
The stage shook.
An explosion came from below.
Sofia had triggered charges under the theater.
Flames rose behind the curtains.
Luca carried Linda toward the exit.
Matteo lifted Richard with another guard.
Penelope followed until she heard a child crying backstage.
She stopped.
“Did you hear that?”
Matteo turned. “Penelope, move.”
The crying came again.
She ran toward it.
Behind a locked dressing-room door, she found a boy of perhaps eight years old tied to a chair.
A photograph hung around his neck.
It showed Sofia beside him.
“My grandson,” she had written across the bottom.
Matteo broke the lock and carried the boy out moments before the roof collapsed.
Outside, paramedics surrounded Richard.
Linda held Penelope and cried.
The boy stared at Matteo.
“My name is Leo,” he whispered. “Grandma said you killed my father.”
Matteo lowered himself in front of him.
“Who is your father?”
“Adrian Duca.”
Matteo’s face changed.
Adrian had been his older brother.
The brother who supposedly died with their parents twenty years earlier.
Leo pulled a key from inside his shirt.
“Dad told me to give you this.”
Matteo accepted it.
May you like
“What does it open?”
“The room where Grandpa keeps all the dead people.”
