Chapter 4 - NO FRONT DOOR
“Marco.”
Enzo’s voice cut through the radio.
“Do not enter the warehouse.”
Static crackled.
Then Marco answered.
“We’re two minutes out.”
“Stop three blocks away.”
“Why?”
“Explosives.”
Silence.
Then Marco cursed.
Adeline clutched her phone.
“Lucy?”
“I’m here.”
“Can you see anything?”
“No. I’m in a room.”
“What do you hear?”
Lucy breathed shakily.
“Men. Maybe three. Maybe four.”
Enzo leaned toward the phone.
“Lucy, this is Enzo Marchetti.”
A pause.
Then Lucy whispered, “The scary rich guy?”
Adeline closed her eyes.
Enzo almost smiled.
“Yes.”
“My sister said you were terrifying.”
“So I heard.”
“Are you coming?”
“Yes.”
“Please don’t use the front door.”
“I won’t.”
Adeline looked at him.
He spoke calmly.
“Lucy, I need you to tell me everything around you. Pipes. Smells. Sounds. Anything.”
She described what she could.
Concrete.
Gasoline.
Metal walls.
A humming sound.
Occasional train horn.
Water dripping.
Enzo looked at the driver.
“Pull over.”
The convoy stopped beneath an elevated rail bridge.
Marco’s vehicles arrived seconds later.
Two marked police SUVs followed.
An explosives unit was being dispatched, but Enzo knew waiting too long could get Lucy killed.
Marco approached the car.
Enzo stepped into the rain.
Adeline followed.
“You stay here,” he said.
“No.”
“Adeline.”
“No.”
He turned.
“You being brave does not make you bulletproof.”
“And being Enzo Marchetti doesn’t make you immortal.”
Marco looked away to hide a reaction.
Enzo stared at her.
She stared back.
Finally, he said, “Stay behind me.”
“That’s all I’m asking.”
“No, it isn’t.”
But he let her come.
Marco spread a map across the hood of an SUV.
“Ashford Commercial Storage has twelve buildings.”
“Lucy heard trains,” Enzo said.
Marco pointed.
“Only four are close enough to the freight line.”
“Humming sound.”
“Industrial refrigeration?”
One officer nodded.
“Building Nine has cold storage.”
Enzo looked at Adeline.
She spoke into the phone.
“Lucy, is it cold?”
“Very.”
“Building Nine,” Enzo said.
Marco pointed to the rear.
“Service road along the drainage canal.”
“No front door.”
“Agreed.”
They moved.
Police established a perimeter.
Explosive specialists were still several minutes away.
Enzo hated every second.
He crouched beside Marco behind an abandoned truck.
Building Nine stood across the service road.
One-story.
No windows on the west wall.
Loading bays on the south.
A small maintenance door near the canal.
Marco whispered, “I see two exterior cameras.”
Enzo’s phone vibrated.
Dante.
He answered.
“What?”
“You need to know something before you go inside.”
“Now?”
“Yes, now.”
Enzo listened.
Dante continued.
“I checked Ashford Commercial Storage leases. Building Nine was leased seven months ago.”
“To whom?”
“A shell company.”
“Who owns it?”
“That’s the interesting part.”
Enzo watched the warehouse.
“Dante.”
“The shell company traces back to Marchetti Family Charitable Services.”
Enzo went still.
“That’s Beatrice’s foundation.”
“Exactly.”
Adeline heard.
Her face changed.
Beatrice.
Not Harrison.
Not merely Ashford property.
Beatrice had deliberately chosen a warehouse connected to both families.
If anything happened, blame could be shifted either direction.
Enzo understood the elegance of it.
His aunt had always been intelligent.
He had once admired that.
Now it made him sick.
Dante continued.
“There’s more.”
“What?”
“Rebecca Sloan, the missing notary, volunteered for Beatrice’s foundation.”
Enzo’s jaw tightened.
“Of course she did.”
“And Ruth Croft did too.”
Adeline grabbed Enzo’s arm.
“What?”
Dante heard.
“Who’s that?”
“My mother,” Adeline said.
Silence.
Then Dante’s voice softened.
“I’m sorry.”
“What did my mother do for the foundation?”
“I only found an old tax filing. She was listed as an accounting assistant fifteen years ago.”
Adeline closed her eyes.
Her mother had never told her.
Why?
Because Ruth Croft had spent the last years of her life terrified.
Changing apartments.
Refusing to answer unknown calls.
Warning her daughters never to trust wealthy people who offered favors.
Adeline had believed it was bitterness.
Now she wondered whether it had been survival.
A gunshot sounded from inside the warehouse.
Adeline screamed Lucy’s name into the phone.
The connection died.
Enzo moved instantly.
“Marco.”
“I know.”
They ran toward the maintenance side.
Police followed.
Marco cut the exterior camera feed using a portable device from security.
The maintenance door was locked.
Enzo stepped back.
One officer used a hydraulic spreader.
The door opened six inches.
No explosion.
Marco raised a hand.
Slowly.
Quietly.
They entered.
Adeline remained behind two officers.
The corridor smelled of refrigeration fluid and oil.
Lights flickered overhead.
A man appeared at the far end.
“Gun!”
He raised a pistol.
Officers shouted.
The man fired.
The shot struck metal.
Police returned fire.
The man dropped behind a crate.
Enzo pulled Adeline against the wall.
“Stay down.”
“I’m down!”
“That was not a suggestion.”
Marco and two officers advanced.
Another man ran through a side door.
Then alarms began screaming.
Red lights flashed.
Marco yelled.
“Evacuate!”
Adeline’s heart stopped.
“Bomb?”
“Could be.”
She pushed past Enzo.
“Lucy!”
He grabbed her.
“No!”
“She’s inside!”
“I know!”
A faint scream came through a closed metal door.
“ADDIE!”
Adeline twisted.
“LUCY!”
Enzo heard it too.
He released her and ran toward the door.
Marco shouted, “Enzo!”
Enzo ignored him.
The door was chained from the outside.
He kicked once.
Nothing.
A second time.
The lock bent.
An officer arrived with bolt cutters.
The chain snapped.
Enzo ripped open the door.
Lucy sat tied to a chair.
A red digital device blinked beneath it.
02:11.
02:10.
02:09.
Adeline froze.
“Oh my God.”
Enzo grabbed her shoulders.
“Back.”
“No!”
“BACK!”
For the first time, he shouted at her.
She stumbled into Marco.
Enzo stared at the device.
Marco swore.
“Pressure trigger?”
An officer crouched.
“Could be.”
Lucy sobbed.
“Don’t leave me.”
Adeline tried to move.
Marco held her.
Enzo knelt in front of Lucy.
“Look at me.”
She did.
Her face was streaked with tears.
“Are your feet touching anything?”
“A metal plate.”
“Do not move them.”
“I won’t.”
“Good.”
01:42.
Enzo studied the wires.
He knew enough to know he knew nothing.
Bad place for arrogance.
“Where’s explosives?”
“Three minutes,” the officer said.
“We don’t have three.”
01:28.
Lucy began shaking.
Enzo looked into her eyes.
“What do you study?”
“What?”
“Your sister said you were studying tonight.”
“Chemistry.”
“Good.”
“Why?”
“Because chemists understand instructions.”
She almost laughed through her tears.
“Okay.”
“I’m going to cut your wrist restraints.”
“The bomb?”
“I’m not touching the plate.”
01:04.
Enzo cut one rope.
Then the other.
“Keep your hands on the chair.”
00:52.
“Enzo,” Marco warned.
“I know.”
The room’s alarm shrieked.
Adeline sobbed from the doorway.
Lucy looked at her sister.
“Addie.”
“Don’t move, baby.”
Enzo examined the floor.
The plate under Lucy’s shoes connected by two wires.
Maybe pressure release.
Maybe bluff.
Maybe both.
00:37.
He looked at the wall.
A cable ran from the device to a junction box.
“Power source.”
The officer shook his head.
“Could have battery backup.”
“Could.”
00:29.
Enzo made a decision.
“Marco.”
“No.”
“I haven’t told you anything.”
“I know your face.”
00:22.
Enzo looked at Lucy.
“When I say lift your feet, you lift them.”
Adeline shouted.
“No!”
“Trust me.”
Lucy stared at Enzo.
00:15.
He grabbed the entire chair.
Marco understood.
“You’re insane.”
“Yes.”
00:10.
Enzo positioned himself.
“Lucy.”
00:08.
“Feet up.”
She lifted them.
Enzo ripped the chair backward.
The metal plate sprang upward.
Everyone flinched.
00:05.
00:04.
00:03.
Nothing.
The clock stopped at 00:03.
Silence.
Lucy screamed.
Adeline ran forward.
She dropped to her knees and wrapped both arms around her sister.
Enzo stared at the device.
Marco crouched.
“Fake?”
The officer examined it.
“Timer was real. Trigger wasn’t wired to the explosive.”
“So where’s the explosive?”
Nobody answered.
Then the warehouse lights died.
A deep mechanical click sounded somewhere above them.
Marco looked up.
“Everybody out.”
They ran.
Enzo pulled Lucy to her feet.
Adeline supported her.
The corridor filled with smoke.
Not fire.
Something chemical.
Enzo covered Adeline’s mouth with the edge of his shirt.
“Move!”
They reached the maintenance door.
Outside, police dragged them toward the canal.
Ten seconds later, an explosion blew out the loading bays on the opposite side of the warehouse.
Flames erupted.
Glass rained across the yard.
Adeline turned.
Enzo shielded her and Lucy with his body.
A second explosion followed.
Then silence.
The building burned.
Lucy clung to Adeline.
“I thought I was dead.”
“You’re okay.”
“I heard them say they were going to kill you too.”
Adeline kissed her forehead.
“I’m here.”
Lucy looked at Enzo.
“You came inside.”
He brushed dust from his suit.
“So did several police officers.”
“You came first.”
Enzo said nothing.
Adeline looked at him differently.
Not because he was powerful.
Because he had knelt beside a terrified twenty-year-old girl while a timer counted down and had not once told her to stop crying.
Marco approached.
“We found one suspect alive.”
Enzo turned.
“Who?”
“The man police shot in the corridor.”
“Conscious?”
“Barely.”
“Hospital?”
“Ambulance.”
“Identification?”
Marco hesitated.
“You’re not going to like it.”
“Try me.”
Marco handed him a wallet.
Enzo opened it.
The identification belonged to Philip Raines.
He recognized the name.
Everyone close to the Marchetti family did.
Philip Raines had been Beatrice’s personal driver for seventeen years.
Adeline closed her eyes.
Enzo stared at the card.
One more thread leading to his aunt.
Then Lucy spoke.
“There was a woman here.”
Everyone turned.
“What woman?” Enzo asked.
“I never saw her.”
“How do you know?”
“I heard her shoes.”
Marco frowned.
“Shoes?”
“Heels. She came into the hallway before they tied me down.”
“What did she say?”
Lucy looked at Adeline.
“She told the men not to hurt my face.”
Adeline swallowed.
“Why?”
Lucy’s eyes filled with fear.
“Because she said I looked too much like our mother.”
Enzo’s expression darkened.
“What else?”
Lucy hesitated.
“She called our mother Ruth.”
Adeline gripped her hand.
“And then?”
“She said something strange.”
“What?”
Lucy looked directly at Enzo.
“She said, ‘Ruth took one daughter away from me.’”
Adeline felt the world tilt.
Lucy whispered the rest.
“‘I won’t let the other one ruin everything too.’”
Adeline stared at her sister.
Enzo stared at both of them.
Then Marco’s phone rang.
He answered.
His face changed immediately.
“What happened?”
He listened.
Then looked at Enzo.
“Beatrice is gone.”
Enzo went still.
“What do you mean gone?”
“She left the mansion.”
“How?”
“Kitchen service tunnel.”
“Camilla?”
“Still there.”
“Harrison?”
“Still there.”
“Beatrice had help.”
“Yes.”
Enzo looked toward the burning warehouse.
Then at Adeline.
The woman who had raised him had vanished.
A dead driver connected her to the kidnapping.
A missing notary connected her to the forged trust.
Adeline’s dead mother connected her to something fifteen years old.
And now Lucy had repeated a sentence none of them understood.
Ruth took one daughter away from me.
Adeline slowly released her sister’s hand.
“What did she mean?”
Enzo had no answer.
But Lucy did.
Her face had become pale.
“Addie…”
“What?”
Lucy reached toward Adeline’s neck.
Adeline wore a tiny silver locket she had owned since infancy.
Their mother had told her never to remove it.
Lucy touched it.
“I remember something.”
Adeline frowned.
“What?”
“When those people grabbed me, the woman touched your picture.”
“What picture?”
“The one they had of you.”
Lucy swallowed.
“She looked at your necklace.”
Adeline instinctively covered the locket.
“And she said…”
May you like
Lucy’s voice became almost inaudible.
“‘She still has it.’”
