Chapter 5 - THE DEAD WOMAN'S ROOM
Victor raised his pistol toward the monitor.
Dante smiled from the screen.
“Shoot it if that helps,” he said.
“The files are already everywhere.”
Lily moved Ethan farther from the desk.
The underground room smelled of stone, dust, and the faint perfume Elena had worn.
Rosa sat against the wall, coughing into her sleeve.
Victor looked at the photographs one by one.
Some showed Serena entering hotels with politicians.
Others showed Lucien meeting men from the Crown Saints.
Several showed Dante exchanging envelopes with Detective Bell.
One picture showed Dr. Hale walking into Lucien’s office late at night.
Lily felt a new chill.
Victor noticed the same photograph.
His eyes narrowed.
“Where are you?” he asked Dante.
“In your chair.”
“For the moment.”
Dante leaned back in Victor’s office as if testing the comfort.
“You always believed fear was loyalty.”
“You believed a man who stayed eighteen years would stay forever.”
“I believed you knew what happened to traitors.”
Dante’s smile widened.
“I know exactly what happens.”
“That is why I prepared before becoming one.”
Victor moved toward the desk in the underground room.
A keyboard lay beneath the monitor.
Every key was covered with dust except four.
E.
T.
H.
N.
Elena had used Ethan’s name as a password.
Lily typed it.
A file directory opened.
Dozens of folders appeared, organized by dates from the final year of Elena’s life.
Victor stared at the screen.
“You knew this room existed?”
“No.”
“You knew she was investigating.”
“Yes.”
“What did she tell you?”
“That someone was moving money through the Blackwood Foundation.”
“That children’s charities were being used to wash payments for judges, police officials, and city contractors.”
Victor’s face hardened.
“My foundation funded clinics and shelters.”
“On paper.”
Dante laughed through the monitor.
“Elena discovered your cleanest institution was your dirtiest.”
Victor ignored him.
He clicked the oldest file.
A video appeared.
Elena sat at the same desk where Victor now stood.
She wore a gray sweater, and her dark hair was pulled loosely behind her head.
Her face looked tired.
Lily had seen this recording once before, but only the first minute.
Elena looked directly into the camera.
“If Victor is watching this, then I failed to tell him in time.”
Victor stopped breathing.
Elena continued.
“I do not know whether my husband is innocent.”
“I know he is dangerous.”
“I know he has done terrible things.”
“But I also know he loves our son more than his empire.”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
“I found accounts bearing Victor’s authorization codes.”
“I found orders issued in his name.”
“I found payments connected to disappearances, illegal adoptions, and at least three deaths.”
“Victor says he knows nothing about them.”
“I want to believe him.”
“I cannot afford to.”
Dante watched from the monitor with quiet satisfaction.
Victor’s hand rested on the desk.
His knuckles whitened.
Elena lifted a brass key identical to Lily’s.
“There are two keys.”
“One opens this room.”
“The other opens a deposit box at First Chicago Trust.”
“I gave the second key to someone I trust more than anyone.”
Lily touched the key against her chest.
Elena’s recorded eyes seemed to find her.
“If my sister is watching, I am sorry.”
“I brought you into a war without asking whether you were willing to fight.”
Lily looked down at Ethan.
The baby had fallen into an exhausted sleep against her shoulder.
Elena continued.
“Do not trust the police.”
“Do not trust the foundation board.”
“And do not trust the man who controls the cameras.”
Victor looked at Dante.
The screen split.
On one side, Elena’s recording continued.
On the other, Dante sat calmly in Victor’s office.
Elena said the final line.
“Dante Russo killed my driver once before he killed me.”
Victor’s eyes became black.
Dante clapped slowly.
“There it is.”
“The dead queen speaks.”
Victor’s voice was almost gentle.
“You arranged the crash.”
“I arranged many things.”
“Why?”
“Because you stopped being useful.”
The answer landed without drama.
Dante leaned toward the camera.
“Your father built an empire on fear.”
“You inherited it and started talking about legitimacy.”
“You wanted hotels, unions, contracts, and politicians who smiled for photographs.”
“You forgot the men who made your name possible.”
“So you sold my foundation?”
“I expanded it.”
“You murdered Elena.”
“She found numbers she did not understand.”
“She understood enough to frighten you.”
Dante’s smile faded.
“She understood enough to threaten everyone.”
Lily stepped toward the monitor.
“Where is Serena?”
Dante looked at her.
“Elena’s little secret.”
“You knew who I was.”
“From the day you applied.”
“Then why let me near Ethan?”
“Because you were useful too.”
“For what?”
“To make Victor doubt everyone.”
Victor glanced at Lily.
Dante saw it.
“There,” he said.
“That look.”
“I only had to put a suspicious woman beside a grieving man.”
“The rest happened naturally.”
Lily tightened her hold on Ethan.
“You allowed Serena to hurt him.”
Dante’s face showed no remorse.
“Pain creates movement.”
“Movement exposes loyalties.”
Victor stepped closer to the screen.
“He is a child.”
“He is your weakness.”
The room fell silent.
Dante checked his watch.
“The river warehouse will be burning now.”
“Serena is probably already on the news as the tragic victim of Blackwood violence.”
“Lucien will demand custody of Ethan.”
“The police will find evidence that Lily abducted the baby.”
“And by sunrise, every clean institution you built will turn against you.”
Victor’s phone began to vibrate.
Julian’s name appeared.
Victor answered.
“Tell me.”
Julian spoke quickly.
“The warehouse exploded, but Serena escaped.”
“Three of our men are dead.”
“News crews arrived before the fire department.”
“She told reporters you kidnapped and tortured her after she tried to protect Ethan from Lily.”
Victor’s face remained still.
“What else?”
“Detective Bell has a warrant for Lily’s arrest.”
“For what?”
“Child endangerment, evidence tampering, and conspiracy to commit kidnapping.”
Lily closed her eyes.
Dante had predicted every step.
Julian continued.
“Child Protective Services obtained an emergency order.”
“They are coming for Ethan.”
Victor looked at his sleeping son.
“No one takes him.”
“If you resist, they will call it proof that you are dangerous.”
“I am dangerous.”
“Not to your son.”
“The court will not care about the distinction.”
Victor ended the call.
Dante watched him with satisfaction.
“You cannot shoot a custody order,” Dante said.
Victor picked up the keyboard and smashed it through the monitor.
The screen died.
Rosa flinched.
Lily did not.
Victor turned toward the tunnel.
“We leave through the north garage.”
“And go where?” Lily asked.
“To someone Dante does not know I trust.”
“Does such a person exist?”
Victor looked at her.
“I am beginning to wonder.”
They emerged from the passage into an old carriage house beyond the mansion’s eastern wall.
A black sedan waited outside.
The driver was Father Gabriel Mercer, pastor of a small Catholic church in Bridgeport and the man who had baptized Ethan.
He wore a clerical collar beneath a raincoat.
He looked at Victor, then at the blood on everyone’s clothes.
“You never visit before breakfast unless someone is dead,” he said.
“Several people are.”
Father Gabriel opened the rear door.
“Then get in before more join them.”
They drove through service roads as police vehicles approached the mansion from the opposite direction.
Lily watched red and blue lights wash across the trees.
Ethan stirred against her.
His fingers closed around the fabric of her dress.
Victor sat beside them, silent.
For the first time since the foyer, he allowed himself to touch his son.
He placed one finger in Ethan’s tiny hand.
Ethan gripped it.
Victor looked away toward the window.
Father Gabriel drove them to St. Michael’s Church.
Beneath the sacristy was a basement used during the 1920s to hide bootleg liquor.
It had one narrow entrance and no electronic security.
“No cameras,” Father Gabriel said.
“No staff until eight.”
“No one knows Victor helped restore this place.”
Victor looked at Lily.
“This room is safe.”
She glanced at the old stone walls.
“You said that about the apartment.”
Father Gabriel raised an eyebrow.
“I like her.”
Victor ignored him.
Rosa called her daughter from a church phone.
Sofia answered from her college dormitory, confused but unharmed.
Rosa collapsed with relief.
Lily used a second phone to call Dr. Hale.
There was no answer.
She tried again.
Still nothing.
Victor noticed.
“You saw her photograph in Elena’s room.”
“Yes.”
“She treated Elena after the crash.”
“She declared the death accidental.”
Victor’s voice was flat.
“She also delivered Ethan.”
Before Lily could respond, Father Gabriel turned on a small television.
Serena stood outside the burning warehouse wrapped in a firefighter’s coat.
Her hair was disheveled.
A bruise darkened her cheek.
Reporters crowded around her.
She looked directly into the camera.
“Lily Carter became obsessed with my fiancé and his child,” she said.
“I tried to expose her.”
“She attacked Ethan and then conspired with Victor’s men to abduct me.”
A reporter shouted a question about the recording.
Serena began to cry.
“The recording was edited.”
“She used private moments and manipulated them.”
“I made mistakes.”
“I raised my voice.”
“But I never harmed that baby.”
Lucien appeared behind her and placed a protective hand on her shoulder.
“We are asking Victor Blackwood to surrender Ethan peacefully,” he said.
“The child deserves safety, not a life among criminals and unstable employees.”
The broadcast cut to Detective Bell.
He held up a photograph of Lily.
“Lily Carter is considered dangerous.”
“She may be armed.”
“She may be traveling with the child.”
Father Gabriel turned off the television.
Rosa stared at Lily.
“They made you the monster.”
Lily looked at Ethan.
“No.”
“They made me the distraction.”
Victor understood immediately.
“From what?”
“The deposit box.”
She held up Elena’s key.
“If Dante knew about this room, he knew Elena mentioned the bank.”
“Why has he not taken the box already?”
“Because Elena used two keys.”
“She may have required two people.”
Victor stared at the brass key.
Then he removed a chain from beneath his shirt.
A second key hung against his chest.
Lily had seen it before but assumed it belonged to the mansion.
“Elena gave me this on our wedding day,” he said.
“She told me never to remove it.”
Lily placed her key beside his.
The teeth were different.
Together, they formed a complete pattern.
Father Gabriel looked toward the stairs.
“You have company.”
Footsteps crossed the church above.
More than one person.
Victor reached for his weapon.
A voice came through the basement door.
“Federal agents.”
“Open the door.”
Lily recognized the woman speaking.
Special Agent Naomi Price had questioned her after Elena’s death.
Victor looked at Lily.
“You know her too?”
“Yes.”
“Anyone else you forgot to mention?”
“Probably.”
The basement door shook.
Naomi’s voice became harder.
“Victor Blackwood, we know Ethan is with you.”
“If you do not open this door in ten seconds, we will break it down.”
Victor counted the exits.
May you like
There were none.
THE NANNY'S TESTIMONY
