Chapter 8 - The Dead Woman Who Answered
Anna stared at Desmond.
“My mother is dead.”
“I know.”
“Then who answered?”
“We don't know.”
Bruno was already moving.
“Trace the number.”
Desmond nodded.
“It belongs to a prepaid phone. Signal appeared outside Colorado Springs.”
Anna grabbed her coat.
Bruno looked at her.
“No.”
“Don't start.”
“Carlo escaped custody.”
“And he called a phone using my dead mother's name.”
“Exactly why you're staying here.”
Anna walked directly toward him.
“You don't get to decide that.”
Bruno lowered his voice.
“I’m trying to keep you alive.”
“And I'm trying to stop spending my life running from things my mother was too frightened to explain.”
He had no answer.
Anna took Lucy upstairs and left her with Mrs. Mercer under guard.
Then she returned.
“I'm coming.”
Bruno exhaled.
“Fine.”
Desmond smiled faintly.
Bruno glared.
“Not one word.”
The signal led them to a nursing facility outside Colorado Springs.
Room 214.
Anna stopped outside.
Her hand shook.
Bruno took it.
They entered.
An elderly woman sat beside the window.
Thin.
Silver-haired.
She turned.
Anna stopped breathing.
“Mom?”
Ellen Hart began crying.
Anna did not move.
Then anger overtook shock.
“You died.”
Ellen struggled to stand.
“Anna—”
“You let me bury you.”
“The coffin was empty.”
“I cried over it!”
“I know.”
“You let Lucy think her grandmother was dead!”
Ellen broke.
“I was trying to save you.”
Anna laughed through tears.
“Everyone keeps saying that right before explaining another lie.”
Bruno understood that sentence more than she knew.
Ellen looked at him.
“Vittorio's son.”
“Bruno.”
“You look like him.”
“I hear that often.”
“No.”
Her eyes softened.
“You look like him when he was still good.”
Bruno said nothing.
“Why fake your death?” Anna demanded.
“Carlo found me.”
The room became quiet.
“Four months ago,” Ellen continued. “He knew I still had evidence. Federal investigators helped relocate me after he threatened Lucy.”
Anna sat down.
“You should have told me.”
“I couldn't risk Carlo following you.”
“He did anyway.”
“I know.”
Ellen reached for her daughter.
This time Anna allowed it.
They held each other.
Then Bruno noticed something.
“Carlo called you after escaping.”
Ellen nodded.
“What did he say?”
“That he was coming to finish what Vittorio started.”
Bruno frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Ellen looked toward him.
“He thinks Vittorio hid money.”
“How much?”
“Almost eighty million dollars.”
Desmond whistled.
Bruno did not.
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
“Carlo thinks you do.”
“Yes.”
A sound came from the hallway.
Desmond turned.
Gunfire.
“Down!”
Bruno pulled Anna behind the bed.
Security agents rushed toward the corridor.
A fire alarm erupted.
Smoke poured beneath the door.
Carlo had found them.
Bruno forced open the window.
Second floor.
Too high for Ellen.
Desmond barricaded the door.
“Stairwell's compromised.”
Bruno looked outside.
A maintenance awning extended beneath the window.
“Anna goes first.”
They lowered Anna.
Then Ellen.
Bruno followed.
Shots shattered the window above them.
They reached the ground.
A black SUV sped around the corner.
Desmond fired at its tires.
The vehicle swerved away.
Carlo escaped again.
But he left something behind.
A note taped beneath Ellen's window.
THE GIRL KNOWS.
Anna read it.
“What girl?”
Bruno already knew.
Lucy.
They drove back to the estate at terrifying speed.
Lucy was safe.
She ran into Anna's arms.
Bruno crouched beside her.
“Lucy, I need you to think.”
“Okay.”
“Remember when you found my ledger?”
“Yes.”
“Did you find anything else?”
She nodded.
Every adult froze.
“What?”
“A little paper.”
“What was on it?”
“Numbers.”
“Where is it?”
Lucy looked toward her stuffed rabbit.
Then she opened a torn seam beneath its ear.
A folded paper fell out.
Bruno unfolded it.
Numbers.
Coordinates.
Ellen stared.
“Vittorio.”
The coordinates pointed toward the mountains.
Not a bank.
Not a vault.
A cemetery.
Specifically, the cemetery where Vittorio Castellano was buried.
Anna looked at Bruno.
“Carlo thinks eighty million dollars is buried with your father?”
Bruno stared at the coordinates.
“No.”
He finally understood.
“My father didn't hide money there.”
“What did he hide?”
“The one thing Carlo would kill for more quickly than money.”
May you like
Bruno looked toward his father's grave marked on the map.
“Proof that the eighty million never belonged to the Castellanos at all.”
