Chapter 6 - THE BOY WHO CARRIED A KEY
Leo refused to speak to police.
He refused to speak to Luca.
He spoke only to Penelope.
At the hospital, he sat beside her mother with a blanket around his shoulders. Linda had not been physically harmed, but shock left her pale and trembling.
Penelope crouched in front of Leo.
“Where is your father?”
“Grandpa took him.”
“Carlo?”
The boy nodded.
“When?”
“I don’t know. Three sleeps.”
“Where were you before the theater?”
“In a room underground.”
“Can you remember anything about it?”
“There were trains, but not passenger trains. Big ones.”
“Freight trains?”
“Maybe.”
“What did the room smell like?”
Leo considered.
“Wet rocks. Oil. And burnt sugar.”
Penelope knew the industrial corridor well enough from hotel charity events and city tours.
“There’s a candy factory near the Calumet rail yard.”
Matteo stood behind her.
“Closed six years ago.”
Leo looked at him with fear.
Penelope moved slightly, keeping herself between them.
Matteo noticed.
Pain entered his expression before he hid it.
“Leo,” Penelope said, “Matteo is not going to hurt you.”
“Grandma said he kills people.”
She did not know how to answer.
Matteo did.
“Your grandmother told you the truth in a way designed to frighten you.”
Penelope looked at him.
He continued.
“I have killed people.”
Leo went still.
“But I did not kill your father.”
“Did you kill Grandpa?”
“No.”
“Do you want to?”
Matteo’s silence lasted too long.
Penelope touched his hand.
He looked down at her fingers.
Then he told the boy, “I want to stop Carlo from hurting anyone else.”
It was not a promise of mercy.
But it was honest.
Leo removed the key from around his neck.
It was old brass with the number 214 stamped into it.
“Dad said the dead room has proof.”
“Proof of what?” Penelope asked.
“That Grandpa started everything.”
Matteo took the key.
His older brother Adrian had been nineteen when the car exploded. Matteo had believed his parents and brother died together.
“How did Adrian survive?” Penelope asked after Leo fell asleep.
Matteo stood near the hospital window.
“He may not have been in the car.”
“You thought he was?”
“Carlo identified three bodies.”
“And Sofia?”
“A fourth coffin was buried empty.”
Penelope joined him.
“Carlo raised you after murdering your family. Meanwhile, he kept your brother alive.”
“If Leo is telling the truth.”
“You believe him.”
“Yes.”
“Why keep Adrian prisoner for twenty years?”
“Leverage. Information. Punishment.”
“Against whom?”
Matteo looked at the city.
“My father had begun moving the organization toward legitimate business. Carlo saw that as betrayal. Adrian was Father’s heir. I was sixteen and easier to control.”
“Until you weren’t.”
“No.”
Penelope studied him.
“Did you kill Carlo?”
“I shot him.”
“Where?”
“On his boat.”
“You saw him fall into the lake?”
“Yes.”
“But not his body.”
“No.”
She took a slow breath.
“Did he deserve it?”
Matteo looked at her.
“That is not the same question as whether I had the right.”
“No.”
“I believed he ordered the murder of an accountant and his family. I confronted him. He drew first.”
“Then you defended yourself.”
“I went there intending to kill him if he did not surrender.”
There was no pride in his voice.
Only fact.
Penelope could have stepped away.
Instead, she remained beside him.
“I don’t know what to do with that,” she admitted.
“You do not have to do anything.”
“I’m pretending to be your wife.”
“That arrangement ended.”
“You keep ending it without consulting me.”
His gaze met hers.
“This is not a game.”
“I know.”
“Your mother was kidnapped.”
“I know.”
“You were struck by a man carrying a gun.”
“I remember.”
“And now you stand beside me as though proximity is safe.”
“It isn’t.”
“Then why?”
Penelope looked toward Leo.
“Because that boy trusts me. Because my sister’s wedding is tomorrow. Because Bradley and Richard made choices that endangered my family. And because every time you try to push me away, you look less like a dangerous man and more like a frightened one.”
Matteo’s face hardened.
“That is a mistake.”
“Which part?”
“Believing fear makes me harmless.”
“I didn’t say harmless.”
She touched the scar through his eyebrow.
He went completely still.
“I said frightened.”
His hand closed around her wrist.
Not painfully.
As though he needed to stop the touch before it reached something deeper.
“Penelope.”
“What?”
“You should not feel sorry for me.”
“I don’t.”
That answer surprised him.
“I feel sorry for the boy you were,” she said. “The man standing here is responsible for his own choices.”
Matteo released her wrist.
“And what do you think of the man?”
“I haven’t decided.”
“Smart.”
Her mouth almost curved.
Luca entered.
“We traced the theater explosives to a demolition contractor owned by North Meridian. Ward obtained an emergency search order for the Calumet property.”
“Carlo will move before police arrive,” Matteo said.
“He may already have.”
Penelope looked at Leo.
“The room underground. We can use the key.”
Luca shook his head. “You are not going.”
She crossed her arms. “Why does every man in this story begin with that sentence?”
“Because you have no tactical training.”
“I manage luxury guests. I handle dangerous narcissists daily.”
Matteo almost smiled.
Luca remained unimpressed.
“We can locate room 214 without you.”
“Leo gave the key to Matteo because he trusts me. If Adrian is alive and frightened, seeing an army of armed men may cause him to hide.”
“He is not a child,” Luca said.
“He has been controlled for twenty years. You don’t know what condition he’s in.”
Matteo considered.
“You remain in the vehicle until we secure the building.”
Penelope pointed at him. “That was almost a request.”
“Will you remain in the vehicle until Luca declares the site secure?”
“Yes.”
Luca looked between them.
“This process is going to get us killed.”
The candy factory stood beside abandoned rail lines south of the river. Its old smokestack rose against the night.
Police surrounded the main entrance.
Matteo used a private tunnel beneath an adjacent warehouse.
Penelope stayed inside the armored vehicle with Leo.
Ten minutes passed.
Then twenty.
The radio crackled.
Gunfire sounded through it.
Leo covered his ears.
Penelope pulled him close.
The vehicle’s rear door opened.
Sofia stood outside with a pistol.
The driver slumped over the wheel.
“Come with me,” she said.
Penelope held Leo tighter.
“No.”
Sofia aimed at her.
“Do not make me choose between you.”
“You already did. At the theater.”
“I saved you from Carlo’s men.”
“You kidnapped my mother.”
“Richard did that.”
“For you.”
Sofia’s face tightened.
“Carlo has Adrian. He has had my son for twenty years.”
“Then help us free him.”
“I tried.”
“You used Bradley. Framed me. Threatened Matteo.”
“Because Matteo controls the property.”
“You could have asked him.”
“He killed Carlo.”
“Carlo survived.”
“I did not know that until last month.”
Leo looked at his grandmother.
“You said Dad was dead.”
Sofia’s eyes filled.
“I needed you to be brave.”
“You lied.”
“Yes.”
The boy pulled away from Penelope.
Sofia’s weapon lowered slightly.
Penelope moved.
She slammed the armored door into Sofia’s wrist.
The pistol fell.
Leo kicked it beneath the vehicle.
Sofia grabbed Penelope’s coat.
Then the factory alarms began screaming.
Steam erupted from vents around the rail yard.
A voice came through the outdoor speakers.
“Matteo.”
Carlo Duca sounded old but strong.
“You always did enter through the back door.”
Searchlights illuminated the factory roof.
Men with rifles appeared along the edge.
Matteo and Luca emerged from the tunnel entrance below.
Carlo’s voice continued.
“Bring me Leo and the key.”
Matteo looked toward the vehicle.
He saw Sofia.
His weapon lifted.
She raised both empty hands.
Then a man was dragged onto the roof.
He was thin, gray-haired, and chained at the wrists.
Adrian Duca.
Matteo stared at the brother he had mourned for twenty years.
Carlo stepped beside him.
His face appeared on a large factory screen.
A scar crossed the place where Matteo’s bullet had entered his neck.
“You left me in the lake,” Carlo said.
Matteo’s voice carried through the yard.
“I should have waited to watch you drown.”
Carlo smiled.
“Give me the boy.”
“No.”
“Then watch your brother die for the second time.”
A rifle pressed against Adrian’s head.
Leo ran from the vehicle.
“Dad!”
Penelope chased him.
Matteo moved toward the open yard.
Carlo’s men aimed.
“Stop!” Adrian shouted. “The key isn’t for room 214.”
Everyone froze.
Adrian looked directly at Penelope.
“It’s for locker two-fourteen at the Lakeshore Grand.”
Penelope’s heart dropped.
She knew that locker.
It was in the employee changing area.
May you like
And she suddenly remembered who had asked to borrow it three weeks earlier.
Madison.
