Chapter 18
The Window Across The Street
Teresa and Livia were moved to a protected location before sunset. Alessandro didn't tell Livia they were running. He told her they'd be spending a few nights in a house with a garden and a very friendly old dog.
“Can Rosalie come?” she asked.
“If she wants to.”
Rosalie arrived with her overnight bag and a small box of crayons. “I want to,” she said. “But I want you to promise not to do something reckless.”
He almost smiled. “That may be the first reasonable order anyone's given me in years.”
Police watched Teresa's apartment. Shortly before midnight, a man approached the rear stairs carrying a canvas bag. He was arrested without anyone being hurt. Inside the bag were gloves, cash, a copied key, and a phone that connected him to Enzo's assistant.
Ortiz's team searched the assistant's apartment. The assistant agreed to provide messages about the false death certificate and pressure put on the original crash investigators. They also recovered photographs of a modified brake assembly taken before Sofia's car was towed.
Enzo was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy, fraud, and witness intimidation. Investigators were still building the case related to Sofia's death. Alessandro wanted certainty. Ortiz refused to sell it to him.
“We'll follow what the evidence proves,” she said. “Not what any of us wishes it proved.”
At the protected house, Livia drew a picture of three people beneath a yellow sun: herself, her father, and a woman with blue ribbons in her hair.
“Is that Mama?” Alessandro asked.
Livia shook her head. “That's me before.”
He knelt beside her. “You can still be you now.”
May you like
She looked at him, troubled. “Then why did Bianca say Daddy needed a different little girl?”
