Chapter 13 - THE LAST HOUR
The city woke to news of the courthouse fire.
By noon, every television station reported that an old criminal archive had been destroyed. No one mentioned Rafael Costello. No one mentioned the missing doctor or the kidnapped children.
Victor watched the reports from the estate.
Sadi sat beside Sam’s bed.
Her brother’s face was pale, but his breathing had steadied.
“You should sleep,” Victor told her.
“So should you.”
“I’m accustomed to not sleeping.”
“You’re accustomed to pretending you don’t need anything.”
Victor looked at her.
She had begun to understand him too well.
His wound had been stitched, but he had refused pain medication. He had barely spoken since the courthouse collapsed.
Sadi reached toward his temple. “You’re bleeding again.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not.”
Victor remained still as she cleaned the cut with gauze.
His eyes followed her hands.
“I’m not used to anyone touching me without fear,” he said.
“I’m still afraid.”
“Of me?”
“Of what happens when I’m not.”
Victor’s gaze softened.
Before he could answer, every light in the house went out.
The security system failed.
Sadi turned toward the window.
A red laser dot appeared on the glass.
Victor pulled her to the floor.
The window shattered.
A bullet struck the wall above them.
Guards shouted throughout the estate.
Victor drew his weapon and moved toward the door.
Sadi grabbed his sleeve. “Where are you going?”
“To find the breach.”
“Don’t leave Sam.”
Victor looked at the bed.
Sam was awake now.
“I can protect him,” Sadi said.
Victor hesitated.
Then he nodded.
The estate erupted with gunfire.
Sadi pushed Sam beneath the bed as another window shattered.
A figure crossed the courtyard below.
She recognized the silver ring.
Rafael.
He had come himself.
Victor moved through the hallway, following the sound of footsteps. His men searched the lower floors, but Rafael had entered through the old service tunnel beneath the wine cellar.
Sadi remembered the tunnel.
She had cleaned near it many times.
A narrow door behind the wine racks led to the basement.
She pulled Sam toward it.
“We’re leaving,” she whispered.
“Where?”
“Somewhere Rafael won’t expect.”
They entered the tunnel.
Sadi moved quickly, carrying the medical bag Dr. Morales had left behind.
At the far end, they reached the old greenhouse.
It was abandoned, filled with broken pots and overgrown vines.
Sam leaned against the wall.
“Sadi, I can’t run anymore.”
“I know.”
She opened the medical bag and checked his medication.
A phone rang inside.
Not hers.
A second phone lay beneath the supplies.
She answered.
Rafael spoke.
“You have one hour.”
Sadi looked toward the dark greenhouse.
“You’ve used that threat before.”
“I’m giving you time to say goodbye.”
“What do you want?”
“The original recording.”
“It’s gone.”
“No. You found the wrong tape.”
Sadi froze.
Rafael continued, “Your father made three copies. One was in the courthouse. One was in the blue house. The third is with you.”
Sadi looked at the metal box.
“The letter,” she whispered.
“The truth is in the person who saved you,” Rafael said. “Your father was not speaking about Victor.”
“Then who?”
“Ask your mother.”
“My mother is dead.”
Rafael laughed softly. “Is she?”
The call ended.
Sadi’s hands went cold.
Her mother had supposedly died two years after her father.
But the photograph from the blue house showed her mother standing beside Rafael.
On the back, her father had written a date.
The date of her mother’s funeral.
Sadi stared at the handwriting.
It had always seemed strange that the body had been covered.
She had never been allowed to see her mother’s face.
Victor burst into the greenhouse.
He stopped when he saw Sadi holding the phone.
“Where’s Sam?”
“Here.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
Victor looked toward the tunnel. “Rafael entered the estate. He has men inside.”
Sadi stepped toward him.
“Is my mother alive?”
Victor went still.
She showed him the photograph.
He studied it.
Then his face changed.
“I remember seeing her.”
“Where?”
“At the blue house.”
“When?”
“The night your father died.”
“Was she alive?”
“Yes.”
“Then why was I told she died?”
Victor looked toward Sam.
“Because Rafael needed you to believe you were alone.”
Sadi felt something inside her break.
“My mother left me.”
“Maybe she was forced.”
“Maybe she chose them.”
Victor stepped closer. “We don’t know.”
“Then we find out.”
A gunshot sounded outside the greenhouse.
Victor pushed both Sadi and Sam behind the stone wall.
Rafael’s voice echoed through the glass.
“Victor! Bring me the box.”
Victor raised his gun.
Sadi whispered, “He said the third copy is with me.”
“Do you have it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Think.”
She remembered the metal box.
The cassette.
The letter.
The photograph.
Nothing else.
Then she remembered the key around her neck.
Her mother had given it to her before dying.
The key had opened the box, but the box had contained no third tape.
Sadi turned it over.
A tiny seam appeared along the edge.
She pressed it.
The key split open.
Inside was a microcassette.
Victor stared.
Sadi’s father had hidden the third copy inside the key.
Rafael’s men began breaking through the greenhouse doors.
Victor looked at the tape.
“We need to get this to someone outside.”
“Who?”
“Someone Rafael cannot control.”
Sadi thought of Dr. Morales.
“No. Someone with evidence experience.”
Victor’s phone rang.
The caller was Detective Ava Reed, a federal investigator who had once tried to bring Victor down.
Victor answered.
A woman’s voice said, “You’re out of time.”
Rafael had taken her.
May you like
Sadi looked at Victor.
The final hour had begun.
