Chapter 9 - THE WAREHOUSE
Years later, I learned how close everything came to going wrong.
At four and a half, I knew only that I was sitting in Elena’s bakery basement wearing headphones while Elliot made me repeat Daddy’s song.
“Again,” he said.
“Rocket girl, rocket bright…”
He adjusted a microphone.
“Slower.”
I frowned.
“You’re bossy.”
“So I’ve been told.”
Marco paced behind him.
Vincent had already left for the warehouse.
Mom was still gone.
Every minute felt like an hour.
Elliot created three recordings.
One clean.
One distorted.
One mixed with background noise.
“Why three?” I asked.
“To keep bad people guessing.”
“Are you good?”
He paused.
“I’m a lawyer.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Marco laughed.
Elliot didn’t.
At the warehouse, Vincent arrived alone.
At least that was how it looked.
He carried a metal case.
Leon Voss stood on the second-floor loading platform.
Mom was beside him.
David was on his knees near the wall.
Twenty armed men filled the building.
Vincent looked up.
“You always liked dramatic rooms?”
Leon smiled.
“You brought the data?”
“Show me Megan walks.”
Leon nodded.
A man cut Mom’s hands free.
She stumbled forward.
“Stop,” Leon said.
She stopped.
Vincent’s eyes scanned the building.
Entrances.
Windows.
Catwalks.
Men.
He had been doing that since he was nineteen.
“You said she walks out.”
“She will.”
“Now.”
“After verification.”
Vincent lifted the metal case.
“Then bring her down.”
Leon nodded.
Two men escorted Mom to the floor.
She looked at Vincent.
“Where’s Rory?”
“Safe.”
“Do not bring her here.”
“She’s safe.”
Mom almost collapsed with relief.
Leon descended the metal stairs.
He moved like a man who had never expected consequences.
“Daniel Carter was a very intelligent man,” he said.
Vincent didn’t respond.
“Too intelligent.”
“You killed him.”
Leon smiled.
“People die every day.”
Mom lunged toward him.
One guard grabbed her.
Vincent’s eyes changed.
“Touch her again and your arm stays here after you leave.”
The guard released her.
Leon smiled.
“I understand why Chicago likes you.”
“Chicago doesn’t like me.”
“Respects you, then.”
“Fear and respect are different.”
Leon looked amused.
“You think so?”
“Yes.”
Vincent nodded toward David.
“He feared you.”
David raised his head.
“He also betrayed you.”
Leon’s smile disappeared.
Vincent continued.
“Megan feared losing her job.”
Mom looked at him.
“She still exposed David.”
Leon’s jaw tightened.
“Your system creates desperate people, Leon.”
“And yours creates corpses.”
Vincent’s face didn’t change.
“I never withheld a waitress’s paycheck.”
Mom almost laughed despite everything.
Leon held out his hand.
“The case.”
Vincent placed it on a table.
Leon opened it.
The data strip sat inside.
He connected it to a laptop.
VOICE AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED.
Leon looked at Vincent.
“Where is she?”
“Safe.”
“The voice.”
Vincent took out a small speaker.
Leon smiled.
“Clever.”
He pressed play.
My voice filled the warehouse.
“Rocket girl, rocket bright…”
Mom covered her mouth.
“Fly through every darkest night…”
The laptop screen changed.
BIOMETRIC MATCH: 97%.
Leon leaned closer.
“When you’re lost and cannot see…”
A progress bar appeared.
“Follow love and come back to me.”
AUTHORIZED.
Leon smiled.
Then the screen went black.
One line appeared.
SECOND AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED.
Leon’s smile vanished.
“What?”
Vincent looked at Mom.
“Daniel was smarter than you thought.”
Leon turned toward her.
“What is the second authorization?”
“I don’t know.”
He grabbed her arm.
Vincent moved.
Guns raised everywhere.
“Let go.”
Leon looked at him.
“What did Daniel tell you?”
“Nothing!”
Leon tightened his grip.
Mom cried out.
David suddenly shouted.
“Her birthday!”
Everyone turned.
Leon looked at him.
“What?”
“Daniel used her birthday.”
“You know?”
“Maybe.”
David was shaking.
“He talked about April seventeen.”
Leon shoved Mom away.
“Try it.”
He entered 0417.
ACCESS DENIED.
He entered 1704.
Denied.
Vincent watched.
Leon’s composure cracked.
“What did he use?”
Mom stared at the note Vincent had brought.
Mom knows the song.
Then something changed in her face.
“The song.”
Leon spun.
“What?”
Mom whispered the lyrics.
“When you’re lost and cannot see, follow love and come back to me.”
Vincent understood.
“Come back.”
Mom looked at him.
“Home.”
Leon snapped, “What?”
“Daniel always said home wasn’t an address.”
“Then what was it?”
Mom started crying.
“Me.”
Leon stared.
Mom stepped toward the laptop.
“He used to tell Rory, ‘Mom is home.’”
Vincent’s eyes narrowed.
“What word?”
Mom whispered, “Megan.”
Leon typed it.
Denied.
Mom closed her eyes.
“Not my name.”
She looked at me, though I wasn’t there.
“Mommy.”
Leon typed MOMMY.
The screen unlocked.
Folders appeared.
Hundreds.
Bank accounts.
Audio.
Video.
Contracts.
Scanned signatures.
Leon exhaled.
Then laughed.
“All these years.”
Vincent said, “You lost.”
Leon looked at him.
“No.”
He pulled out a gun.
Mom froze.
“You brought me everything.”
Vincent didn’t move.
Leon pointed the weapon at him.
“You know what separates men like us?”
Vincent’s voice stayed calm.
“I pay my staff?”
David laughed from the floor.
Leon struck him.
Then he pointed the gun at Mom.
“Tell me where Rory is.”
Vincent’s expression changed.
Leon smiled.
“You thought this ended with a clever speaker?”
Vincent looked toward the laptop.
“No.”
Leon frowned.
“It ended when you opened the files.”
A small green light blinked on the side of the data reader.
Leon noticed.
“What is that?”
Elliot had modified the device.
The moment Leon unlocked the master archive, it transmitted a duplicate.
Not to Vincent.
Not to Bell.
To twelve different recipients.
Federal investigators.
Journalists.
Two judges outside Illinois.
The state attorney general’s office.
An inspector general.
And an encrypted server overseas.
Leon stared at the screen.
TRANSFER COMPLETE.
His face finally changed.
“You.”
Vincent smiled.
“You wanted Rory’s voice.”
Leon aimed.
Gunfire exploded.
Not from Vincent’s side.
From the roof.
Police tactical teams breached the east wall.
Federal agents flooded the loading dock.
Leon’s men scattered.
Mom dropped to the floor.
Vincent covered her.
David crawled beneath the table.
Bell came through the side entrance wearing a tactical vest.
“Police!”
Leon ran.
Vincent followed.
They disappeared up the metal staircase.
I didn’t see what happened next.
But Mom told me years later.
Leon reached the roof.
A helicopter waited.
Vincent cornered him near the edge.
Leon pointed his gun.
“You think law makes you clean now?”
Vincent stopped.
“No.”
“You’re still what you are.”
“Yes.”
“Then kill me.”
Vincent looked at him.
Leon smiled.
“That’s the only language men like us understand.”
Vincent lowered his weapon.
“No.”
Leon’s smile vanished.
“You don’t deserve the easy ending.”
Bell appeared behind him.
“Leon Voss, drop the gun.”
Leon turned.
He fired once.
Bell fired back.
Leon collapsed.
Alive.
The helicopter never left.
Twenty-six minutes later, Mom walked into Elena’s bakery.
I ran so fast I tripped.
She dropped to her knees.
I hit her like a tiny red missile.
She held me and cried into my hair.
“You came back.”
“So did you.”
Vincent entered behind her.
His sleeve was torn.
Mom looked at him.
“You kept your promise.”
He looked at me.
“I had to.”
I pointed at the blood.
“Are you hurt?”
“Scratch.”
Marco looked at it.
“Bullet graze.”
Vincent glared.
Marco shrugged.
“She asked.”
Then Detective Bell entered.
His expression was grim.
“Vincent.”
“What?”
Bell held up his phone.
“We have a problem.”
Mom went pale.
“Voss?”
“No.”
Bell looked at the files that had been transmitted.
“One of the names in Daniel’s archive is still active.”
Vincent’s face hardened.
“Who?”
Bell turned the phone.
Mom looked.
Then collapsed into a chair.
The name belonged to a man she knew.
A man who had attended Daniel Carter’s funeral.
A man who had hugged her afterward.
A man who had paid for Daniel’s coffin.
My grandfather.
Thomas Carter.
May you like
And according to Daniel’s files, he hadn’t helped Leon Voss after Daddy died.
He had been working with him for years before.
