Chapter 6 - The Man in the Kitchen
Panic swept through Bellarosa.
Diners dropped beneath tables. Waiters fled behind marble columns. Lorraine screamed for Victor while Adrian pulled Celeste to the floor.
Emily did not move.
The gunshot had come from the kitchen corridor where Margaret had disappeared.
“Mom.”
She ran.
Victor caught the back of her dress, but the fabric tore from his hand. Emily crossed the hall, ignored the manager’s warning, and pushed through the service door.
The kitchen was a world of steel, steam, and frightened faces.
Chefs crouched behind counters. A tray of glasses had fallen near the ovens. At the far end, a security guard leaned against the wall, gripping his bleeding shoulder.
Margaret knelt beside him.
The scarred man was gone.
“What happened?” Emily asked.
“He fired once,” Margaret said. “The bullet passed through.”
The guard grimaced.
“He went downstairs.”
“To where?”
“Wine cellar. Storage rooms. Delivery tunnel.”
The manager arrived behind Emily.
“There is no delivery tunnel.”
The guard pointed toward an open metal door.
“There is now.”
Beyond it, concrete stairs descended into darkness.
Margaret stood.
“Call an ambulance.”
“The phone lines are dead,” the manager said. “Mobile signals are failing because of the storm.”
Emily looked toward the stairs.
“Did he take the flash drive?”
“I don’t know.”
“You followed him.”
“I saw something in his hand.”
The injured guard tried to rise.
Margaret stopped him.
“You’re staying here.”
“I can go,” Emily said.
“No.”
“He knew my father.”
“We do not know that.”
“I saw him outside the police station after Dad disappeared.”
Margaret stared at her.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I wasn’t sure until tonight.”
Footsteps sounded behind them.
Victor entered the kitchen with Lorraine.
“You brought a gunman into the restaurant,” Lorraine accused.
Margaret turned.
“Your concern for everyone’s safety is touching.”
Victor grabbed Emily’s arm.
“We’re leaving through the kitchen.”
“The exits are locked.”
“Then they’ll open one.”
The manager stepped forward.
“No doors open until police arrive.”
Victor released Emily and approached him.
“My family owns three buildings on this street. Open the door.”
“No.”
Victor’s voice became dangerous.
“You’ll lose this restaurant.”
The manager did not blink.
“My sister worked for Ashford Holdings.”
Lorraine went still.
The manager continued.
“Her name was Hannah Ruiz.”
Emily remembered the name from one of Margaret’s accusations.
Three employees had disappeared from company records.
“Where is she?” Emily asked.
The manager’s eyes remained on Victor.
“She died two years ago.”
Victor shook his head.
“I don’t know who that is.”
“She was an internal auditor.”
Lorraine interrupted.
“Hundreds of people have worked for the company.”
“Hannah discovered a group of accounts receiving transfers from employee pension funds. She arranged to meet federal investigators. Her car went over a bridge the night before the meeting.”
Victor’s face showed practiced confusion.
“A tragic accident.”
“She was terrified of water.”
“So?”
“So she would never have taken the river road during a storm.”
The manager glanced toward the open stairwell.
“Three weeks before her death, Hannah told me there was a hidden records room beneath Bellarosa.”
Margaret looked around the kitchen.
“Why here?”
“The Ashford family owned the building before it became a restaurant.”
Lorraine stepped backward.
It was small, almost imperceptible.
Margaret saw it.
“You knew.”
Lorraine’s eyes flashed.
“This building belonged to my husband’s company decades ago. I know nothing about hidden rooms.”
The manager took a ring of keys from his belt.
“Hannah left me a map.”
Victor laughed harshly.
“A map you waited two years to use?”
“I couldn’t find the entrance.”
He pointed toward the metal door.
“It opened tonight during the power failure.”
Emily looked down the stairs.
The scarred man had not been escaping blindly.
He knew where he was going.
Margaret removed a small flashlight from her handbag.
Victor stared at it.
“You planned all of this.”
“I planned for you.”
Margaret switched on the flashlight.
“The rest appears to have planned itself.”
She started down.
Emily followed.
Victor seized her arm again.
“Do you understand what will happen if you go down there?”
Emily turned.
“No. But you do.”
His grip weakened.
That was answer enough.
Emily pulled free and descended beside her mother.
The manager followed, carrying a larger flashlight. After a moment, Adrian joined them.
Victor called after his brother.
“Stay out of this.”
Adrian looked back from the stairs.
“I’ve stayed out of it my entire life.”
Then he continued downward.
Lorraine whispered, “Adrian.”
He did not stop.
At the bottom of the stairs, they found a narrow corridor lined with old brick. Dust covered the floor except for a fresh trail of footprints.
The scarred man’s path led deeper beneath the restaurant.
Margaret’s flashlight moved across the wall.
Numbers had been written in chalk.
302.
303.
304.
305.
Margaret stopped.
She removed the brass key from her handbag.
The same number was engraved upon it.
317.
A metal door stood at the end of the corridor.
The scarred man’s footprints disappeared beneath it.
Emily touched the photograph inside her pocket.
May you like
On the other side of the door, someone began to whistle.
It was the melody Thomas Bennett used to sing whenever Emily was afraid.
