Chapter 6 - BAY 17B
The old warehouse had been closed for two years.
Vittorio owned it, but Marcus still controlled the maintenance company.
Bay 17B was locked from the outside.
Ruiz cut the chain.
Inside were no people.
Only files.
Boxes of them.
Photographs of Vittorio losing his temper at meetings.
Copies of police reports from his twenties.
Tabloid stories about his father.
Medical notes.
Wedding guest lists.
Lucy’s school schedule.
A whiteboard carried one phrase in black marker:
FITNESS REVIEW - WEEK 6.
Maya stared at it.
"This was never about a wedding."
A laptop sat on a folding table.
Its drive had been wiped, but Ruiz recovered one cached email.
FROM: M. HALE
SUBJECT: CLARA
She has agreed to leave. Payment will be delivered after final statement is signed.
Attached was a nondisclosure agreement.
Clara had signed it.
But beneath her name was a second signature.
Witness: Bianca Moretti.
"So she's alive," Emma said.
"Or she was when she signed this," Maya replied.
Vittorio hated the uncertainty.
They found another box labeled ELENA.
He stopped breathing for a second.
Inside were photographs of his late wife’s car after the crash.
Insurance reports.
A copy of the police reconstruction.
And a handwritten note from Marcus:
E. D'ANGELO WOULD NOT AGREE TO TRUST REVISION.
Vittorio read it twice.
Elena had died before Lucy's trust was finalized.
He had always believed the timing was tragic.
Now it looked like a sentence written by someone who had been keeping score.
Ruiz lifted a sealed evidence envelope.
Inside was a key card from the parking garage where Elena's car had been serviced the week before she died.
The card belonged to Marcus.
Vittorio's voice went flat.
"Call the detective who handled the crash."
Maya caught his arm.
"Vittorio, if this connects to Elena, you cannot handle it privately."
"I know."
"Do you?"
He looked at Lucy's school schedule pinned to the wall.
"I do now."
Then Ruiz's phone rang.
May you like
Clara Jensen had just used her old bank card.
Twenty miles away.
