Chapter 14 - THE WOMAN IN THE PHOTOGRAPH
Victor refused to surrender the microcassette.
Instead, he led Sadi and Sam through the greenhouse’s underground irrigation tunnel. The passage emerged beneath an abandoned church three blocks from the estate.
Detective Ava Reed waited inside.
Her wrists were bruised, but she was alive.
“I escaped when Rafael’s men moved me,” she said.
Victor handed her the microcassette.
She stared at it. “What is this?”
“The evidence that can destroy Rafael.”
“Evidence against Rafael or against you?”
“Both, if necessary.”
Ava studied his face.
Sadi stepped forward. “My father made the recording.”
Ava looked at the cassette.
“Your father was Thomas Hayes?”
“Yes.”
“I remember his name.”
“He was killed because he knew about Rafael’s network.”
Ava nodded. “The judge Rafael murdered was my father.”
Sadi froze.
Ava continued, “He was investigating stolen medical funds. The case disappeared after he died. So did half the evidence.”
“You knew?” Sadi asked.
“I suspected. I never had proof.”
Victor looked at the church doors. “We don’t have time.”
Ava inserted the microcassette into an old recorder.
Static filled the church.
Then Thomas Hayes spoke.
“If this recording survives, Rafael Costello is responsible for the deaths of Judge Reed, Anthony Costello, and several witnesses. But he did not act alone.”
Another voice answered.
Victor’s father.
“I know.”
“Then help me.”
“I cannot.”
“Why?”
“Because my son is already marked.”
Sadi looked at Victor.
The recording continued.
“Rafael has men in the police department, the hospitals, and the city prosecutor’s office. He is building a private empire inside the family.”
Thomas said, “Then expose him.”
“If I do, Victor dies.”
A pause.
Then Thomas said, “Protect the boy.”
“I will.”
Sadi closed her eyes.
Victor’s father had chosen silence to protect his son.
But there was more.
Thomas continued, “My daughter will be used if Rafael finds her.”
Sadi’s breath caught.
“He already knows about the child,” Victor’s father said.
“Then move her.”
“I cannot move both.”
“Your wife can help.”
“My wife is afraid.”
The voice of Sadi’s mother entered the recording.
“I am not afraid for myself.”
Sadi stopped breathing.
Her mother.
Alive in the recording.
“Then take the girl,” Thomas said.
“I will take her,” her mother answered. “But Rafael must believe she died.”
Victor looked at Sadi.
Her mother had hidden her to keep her alive.
The recording continued.
“There is one place Rafael will not search,” Sadi’s mother said. “With the boy.”
Thomas answered, “Victor?”
“Yes.”
Sadi’s eyes filled with tears.
Her mother had given her to Victor’s protection.
But then something changed.
A door opened in the recording.
Rafael’s voice entered.
“You should have trusted me.”
A gunshot exploded.
The recording ended.
No one spoke.
Sadi turned to Victor. “My mother was alive after the shooting.”
“Yes.”
“Where did she go?”
“I don’t know.”
Ava took out her phone. “I might.”
She showed them an old surveillance photograph.
A woman entered a train station two years after the blue house fire.
Her face was partly hidden, but the profile was unmistakable.
Sadi’s mother.
The date was six months before her supposed funeral.
“She left the country,” Ava said. “The trail ends in Montreal.”
Sadi could barely process it.
Her mother had not died.
She had disappeared to protect her.
“Why didn’t she come back?”
“Because Rafael was still watching,” Victor said.
Sadi turned on him. “You knew she might be alive.”
“I suspected.”
“You never searched?”
“I did.”
“Not hard enough.”
Victor accepted the accusation without defending himself.
Ava looked at the church windows.
Headlights appeared outside.
Rafael’s men had found them.
“We need to move,” she said.
Victor took Sadi’s hand.
This time she let him.
They ran through the rear chapel and into the cemetery.
Rain began falling.
Ava led them toward an old crypt where a vehicle waited.
Rafael’s men opened fire.
Victor pushed Sadi behind a stone angel and returned fire.
One of the bullets struck him in the shoulder.
He staggered.
Sadi caught him.
“You’re hurt.”
“I’ve been worse.”
Blood spread across his shirt.
Ava reached the vehicle and shouted for them to hurry.
Victor turned toward the church.
Rafael stood in the doorway.
The silver ring gleamed beneath the rain.
“Victor!” Rafael called. “Your father chose you over the truth. Your mother chose her daughter over you. Everyone leaves you eventually.”
Victor raised his weapon.
Sadi held his arm.
“Don’t.”
Rafael smiled.
Sadi stepped into the open.
“You’re wrong,” she said.
Rafael looked at her.
“My mother didn’t leave me. My father didn’t abandon me. And Victor isn’t alone anymore.”
For the first time, Rafael looked uncertain.
Victor took Sadi’s hand.
Together, they ran toward the vehicle.
Ava drove them through the cemetery gates.
Behind them, Rafael remained beneath the church doorway, watching the people he had failed to destroy.
The microcassette was now in federal hands.
The recording was being copied.
The names were about to become public.
May you like
But Rafael still had one final weapon.
Sadi’s mother.
