Chapter 7 - DAVID STERLING CAME BACK WITHOUT HIS PORSCHE
David Sterling looked twenty years older.
The expensive jacket was gone.
His shirt was torn.
One eye was swollen shut.
He sat in an interview room surrounded by police.
Mom refused to let me inside.
So naturally I listened from the hallway.
Vincent noticed.
He didn’t send me away.
He just moved a chair near the door and told Marco to sit beside me.
Mom faced David across the table.
“You put a key in my daughter’s hoodie.”
David looked down.
“Yes.”
“You used her.”
“I was trying to keep it away from Voss.”
“She is four years old.”
“Four and a half,” I yelled through the door.
Everyone inside stopped.
Mom turned toward the glass.
Marco covered his face.
David actually laughed.
Then his laugh turned into something like a sob.
“I’m sorry.”
Mom looked at him.
“You stole seventy-seven days of my wages.”
“Yes.”
“You threatened me.”
“Yes.”
“You framed me for theft.”
David closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He looked at her.
“Because Leon Voss owned me.”
Mom’s face hardened.
“That isn’t an excuse.”
“No.”
David leaned forward.
“I gambled.”
Vincent’s expression showed zero sympathy.
David continued.
“Six years ago. Sports. Cards. Private rooms. I lost more than I had.”
“How much?” Bell asked.
“Four hundred thousand.”
Mom almost laughed.
“You owed four hundred thousand dollars and somehow that became my grocery problem?”
David flinched.
“Voss paid it.”
“And you paid him back by laundering money through the restaurant,” Vincent said.
David nodded.
“At first.”
“At first?”
“He started asking for favors.”
“Names?”
“Employees. Customers. City inspectors.”
“What kind of favors?”
“Information.”
Mom’s face tightened.
“About me?”
David looked at her.
“Daniel Carter’s widow applied to work at my restaurant three years ago.”
Everyone went still.
Mom stared at him.
“What?”
“I didn’t know who you were.”
“You hired me.”
“My manager hired you.”
“When did Voss find out?”
“A month later.”
“And?”
“He told me never to fire you.”
Mom looked stunned.
Vincent leaned closer.
“Why?”
“He said if Megan ever moved, changed jobs, remarried, left Chicago, or started asking questions about Daniel, I was supposed to tell him.”
Mom sat back.
Three years.
Every double shift.
Every conversation.
Every time she asked for a schedule change.
David had been watching.
“You were keeping me there.”
David nodded.
“The late wages?”
His face tightened.
“That part was me.”
Vincent looked disgusted.
“Explain.”
“The business was drowning. Voss kept taking cash. I started delaying payroll.”
“Then bought a Porsche,” Mom said.
David’s face flushed.
“I was trying to make the restaurant look successful.”
“You bought a car while my daughter counted how many nights we skipped dinner.”
He looked toward the glass.
Toward me.
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
David stared at the table.
Mom continued.
“You went home after threatening me. You ate dinner. You slept. You woke up and did it again.”
David said nothing.
“You don’t get forgiveness because someone worse scared you.”
Vincent watched Mom.
Something almost like respect appeared in his face.
David nodded.
“You’re right.”
Bell opened a notebook.
“Why did you put the key on Rory?”
“Voss’s people were searching me.”
“Why not go to police?”
David laughed bitterly.
“I did. Three years ago.”
Bell froze.
“Who?”
“Officer Hale.”
Bell’s jaw tightened.
“Martin Hale?”
“Yes.”
“He worked patrol then.”
“He took my statement.”
“And?”
“He delivered me to Voss.”
The room went cold.
Vincent’s expression became dangerous.
“What did Voss want from Daniel?”
David looked at Mom.
“Access.”
“To what?” Bell asked.
“Chicago Metropolitan Workers Pension Fund.”
Mom frowned.
“My husband didn’t work for them.”
“He audited a contractor that did.”
Vincent understood first.
“Voss was skimming pensions.”
David nodded.
“Construction contracts, ghost employees, inflated invoices, fake vendors.”
Bell stared at him.
“Eighty-seven million?”
“That’s what’s documented.”
Vincent’s eyes narrowed.
“There’s more.”
David swallowed.
“A lot more.”
“How much?”
“Maybe three hundred million.”
Even Marco stopped moving.
Mom whispered, “Daniel found it.”
“Yes.”
“What happened to him?”
David looked terrified.
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t lie.”
“I don’t!”
“Voss killed him?”
“I don’t know.”
Vincent said, “But?”
David closed his eyes.
“The night Daniel died, Voss held a private dinner at my restaurant’s old location.”
Mom’s face went white.
“Who was there?”
“Judge Kessler. Martin Hale. Two union officials. A banker.”
“Name.”
“Richard Fane.”
Bell started writing.
“And Voss?”
“Yes.”
“What time did they leave?”
“After midnight.”
“Daniel’s crash was at 1:40 a.m.,” Bell said.
David nodded.
Mom wrapped her arms around herself.
“What does Rory have to do with any of this?”
David looked at her.
“I heard something that night.”
“What?”
“Voss said Daniel had insurance.”
Mom frowned.
“What insurance?”
“Not a policy.”
David looked toward me through the one-way glass.
“He said, ‘Carter thinks keeping a copy with the girl will save him.’”
Mom stared.
“Copy of what?”
“I don’t know.”
“Rory was one.”
“I know.”
“She couldn’t keep anything.”
“I know.”
Mom stood.
“This is insane.”
Vincent said quietly, “Unless Daniel hid something in an object connected to her.”
Mom stopped.
I thought about my things.
My bunny.
My blanket.
The silver bracelet Grandma gave me.
My music box.
Mom turned toward the glass.
Then she ran.
She opened the interview-room door.
“Rory.”
“What?”
“Your bunny.”
“What about him?”
“The stuffed rabbit Grandma made.”
“Mr. Buttons?”
“Where is he?”
“At home.”
Her face changed.
Our apartment had been broken into.
The message said GIVE IT BACK.
Mom grabbed Vincent’s arm.
“They weren’t searching for the key.”
Vincent stood.
“They were searching for whatever Daniel hid.”
Bell called two officers.
“We secure the apartment.”
Vincent shook his head.
“Too late.”
“What?”
“If Voss has been watching them, he knows the rabbit exists.”
Mom went pale.
I tugged her hand.
“I took Mr. Buttons to preschool yesterday.”
She turned.
“What?”
“I forgot.”
“Forgot what?”
“To bring him home.”
Everyone stopped.
Vincent looked at me.
“Your rabbit is at preschool?”
“Yes.”
Mom grabbed her phone.
She called.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
She looked at the clock.
The building was closed.
Marco was already moving.
“I’ll get the car.”
Bell grabbed his jacket.
“I’ll send units.”
David suddenly stood.
“No.”
Everyone looked at him.
“If Voss knows about the rabbit, he’ll be there.”
“That’s why we’re going,” Mom said.
“No. You don’t understand him.”
David’s voice rose.
“He doesn’t care about witnesses anymore.”
Vincent looked at him.
“Then he should be worried about me.”
David laughed.
“You still think this is about Chicago criminals.”
Vincent’s face hardened.
“What does that mean?”
David shook his head.
“The names in that ledger reach outside Illinois.”
“How far?”
David looked at Bell.
“Federal.”
The room went silent.
Then the lights flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Bell looked toward the hallway.
Vincent immediately reached for his phone.
No signal.
Just like the bakery.
Marco rushed back in.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“Garage cameras are down.”
Bell swore.
The fire alarm suddenly exploded overhead.
Red lights flashed.
Officers poured into the hallway.
“Evacuate!” someone yelled.
Vincent grabbed Mom.
Marco grabbed me.
Smoke rolled from the far corridor.
Bell shouted for backup.
David stared at the ceiling.
“No.”
Vincent turned.
“What?”
David whispered, “This is how Voss took me.”
The hallway doors burst open.
People ran.
Someone dressed as a firefighter appeared through the smoke.
Then another.
Then another.
One of them looked directly at me.
And pulled a gun.
Marco threw me behind the interview-room wall.
Gunshots cracked through the station.
Mom screamed my name.
May you like
When the smoke cleared enough for me to see again, David Sterling was gone.
And so was my mother.
