Chapter 5 - THE BLUE HOUSE
The alarms stopped after forty seconds.
Forty seconds was long enough for Victor’s men to seal the estate, search every hallway, and remove the staff from the windows.
It was not long enough to erase the fear from Sadi’s body.
Victor led her into a private room beneath the garage. The walls were concrete, the lights harsh, and the only furniture was a table surrounded by chairs.
Sadi sat with her arms folded tightly.
Victor stood across from her.
“Tell me everything you remember.”
“I already told you.”
“You remembered a man.”
“I was four.”
“You remembered his ring.”
“I don’t know if it was real.”
“It was real.”
“You sound very certain.”
“I’ve seen it.”
“On Rafael?”
“No. On the man who killed my father.”
The room became silent.
Sadi stared at him. “Your father was murdered?”
“Six years ago.”
“By Rafael?”
“I don’t know.”
“But you think so.”
“I think Rafael arranged it.”
“Why would he kill your father?”
“Because my father discovered where the money was going.”
“To Dario?”
“To everyone.”
Victor opened a folder.
Inside were old newspaper clippings. Sadi saw a photograph of Victor’s father outside a courthouse. Beside him stood an older man with gray hair and a silver ring.
Rafael.
Sadi touched the photograph.
The moment her finger met the paper, memory struck her.
A blue door.
Her father kneeling in front of her.
His hands smelled like gasoline and metal.
“Whatever happens,” he had whispered, “never tell them about the room.”
“What room?”
“The room under the house.”
A woman’s voice had screamed from outside.
Her father had pushed her through a narrow opening beneath the porch.
“Stay quiet, Sadi.”
She remembered darkness.
Dust.
A small wooden box pressed against her chest.
Then the sound of footsteps above her.
She opened her eyes.
Victor was standing in front of her.
“You saw something.”
“A room,” she whispered. “Under the house.”
“Which house?”
“The blue one.”
Victor placed both hands on the table. “Where is it?”
“I don’t know.”
“I can find it.”
“You said my father sold it.”
“He did. The current owner is a company controlled by Dario Vale.”
Sadi looked at him. “Why would Dario own my childhood home?”
“Because he knew your father hid something there.”
“Then why didn’t he find it?”
“Maybe he didn’t know where to look.”
Sadi laughed bitterly. “And you think I do?”
“You were there.”
“I was four.”
“Children remember what adults forget.”
The door opened.
Elias entered with a tablet. “We traced the number that called the house.”
Victor turned. “Rafael?”
“No. A relay in an abandoned warehouse.”
“Dario?”
“Possibly.”
Elias placed the tablet on the table.
A live security feed appeared.
Sam lay in his hospital bed.
Sadi stood up so quickly the chair fell behind her.
The image was not from the hospital’s cameras. It was from a small device positioned inside Sam’s room.
A man in a dark coat stood beside the bed.
Sadi recognized him.
The kidnapper from the stairwell.
He was holding Sam’s medical chart.
Victor reached for the phone.
A message appeared on the screen:
COME TO THE BLUE HOUSE BY SUNRISE.
BRING THE LEDGER.
COME ALONE.
OR THE BOY STOPS BREATHING.
Sadi turned to Victor. “We have to go.”
“No.”
“He’ll hurt Sam.”
“He wants you to panic.”
“That doesn’t mean he’s bluffing.”
Victor looked at Elias. “How many men can we move?”
“Twenty within ten minutes.”
“Too many,” Sadi said.
Victor looked back at her. “Why?”
“If they see an army, they’ll move Sam.”
“You have a better plan?”
“Not yet.”
The hospital feed changed.
The man beside Sam leaned toward the camera and whispered, “Your sister has forty minutes.”
Then the screen went black.
Sadi’s breathing became shallow.
Victor walked around the table and placed a hand on her shoulder.
She flinched.
He removed it.
“I’ll get him,” he said.
“You can’t promise that.”
“I don’t make promises I can’t keep.”
“You promised Mick the money.”
“I’m not paying him.”
“Then what are you doing?”
Victor’s gaze hardened.
“Making him believe I am.”
He turned to Elias. “Prepare a false ledger. Empty pages, duplicated signatures, enough detail to look authentic under pressure.”
“And the real one?”
Victor looked at Sadi.
She understood.
“The real ledger stays with me.”
Victor nodded.
Elias left.
Sadi stood beside the table, unable to stop shaking.
Victor noticed.
“Sit down.”
“I can’t.”
“You’re exhausted.”
“My brother is being held by men who want me dead.”
“Which is why you need to think clearly.”
“Don’t tell me to think clearly.”
“I’m telling you because I need you alive.”
The words came out sharper than he intended.
Sadi looked at him.
Victor’s face closed immediately.
She saw something beneath his control. Not tenderness. Not yet.
Fear.
He was afraid she would die.
That realization disturbed her more than the gunshots.
At dawn, they drove to the blue house.
The property sat beyond the city, surrounded by dead fields and bare trees. The house had once been painted blue. Now its boards were gray, its windows broken, and its porch sagging toward the earth.
Sadi stepped from the car.
A strange pressure built behind her eyes.
She remembered the porch.
The birdbath.
The door.
Victor stood beside her. “Stay close.”
“I know this place.”
“You were four.”
“I know it.”
They entered through the red door.
Dust covered the floors.
A staircase led to the second level, but Sadi turned left toward the kitchen.
She walked to an old cabinet.
Behind it was a narrow opening in the wall.
Victor crouched and pulled the cabinet away.
A passage descended into darkness.
Sadi stared at the steps.
Then a voice echoed from below.
“You took your time.”
Mick O’Shea stepped into view, holding a gun.
May you like
Behind him stood Dario Vale.
And between them was Sam.
