Chapter 6 - The Daughter of the Second Dead Man)
Elena refused to speak to Nora.
She refused to speak to police.
She would only speak to Mia.
"Why me?" Mia asked.
"Because your father trusted mine."
They arranged to meet in the basement chapel of St. Catherine's Hospital.
Elena chose the location because it had multiple entrances, security cameras, and twenty four hour staff.
Mia arrived with Nora anyway.
Nora stayed outside.
Inside, Elena Ortega looked nothing like Mia expected.
She was twenty, thin, with dark hair cut to her shoulders.
She looked exhausted.
A bruise darkened one side of her face.
Mia sat beside her.
"Did Owen do that?"
Elena nodded.
"How did you escape?"
"He left me with someone else."
"Who?"
"A man named Curtis Vale."
Nora had mentioned the name before.
Curtis was one of Mayor Price's longtime political advisers.
Elena continued.
"They kept asking where the box was."
"The metal box from your mother's house."
"Yes."
"Did you give it to them?"
"No."
"Where is it?"
Elena looked around the chapel.
"I mailed it."
"To Elias?"
"No."
"Then who?"
"You."
Mia stared.
"I never received anything."
"I sent it to Bellrose."
Mia's thoughts raced.
"When?"
"Five days ago."
Bellrose had accepted employee mail occasionally.
Owen controlled the office where packages were stored.
"He intercepted it."
Elena nodded.
"Probably."
"What was in the box?"
"A cassette tape. A key. And a letter from my father."
"The key to what?"
"I don't know."
Mia showed Elena the brass key from Thomas's medical bag.
Elena shook her head.
"Different."
"What did your father's letter say?"
Elena swallowed.
"He wrote it in Spanish because he thought fewer people at the warehouse could read it."
"What did it say?"
"That Thomas discovered a second set of financial records. They copied the evidence onto microfilm."
Mia blinked.
"Microfilm?"
"It was eleven years ago. My father said digital files could be traced or deleted. Thomas wanted something physical."
"Where did they hide it?"
"Under the city."
"Tunnel C."
Elena stared at her.
"You know."
"We found a map."
Elena's eyes filled with relief.
"Then he really left a second clue."
"Why didn't your father take the evidence to police?"
"He tried."
Elena looked down.
"He met Detective Finch."
Mia's jaw tightened.
"The corrupt detective."
"My father realized Finch was working for Price. So he told Thomas."
"What happened next?"
"They split the clues. Thomas kept the map. My father kept the key."
Mia understood.
"Neither man could reveal the evidence alone."
"Exactly."
"And the brass key?"
Elena shrugged.
"Maybe another lock."
Mia looked at her.
"What happened after Owen took you?"
Elena's face went pale.
"He kept saying Elias had started asking questions again. He wanted to know whether I had contacted him."
"You had."
"Only through an investigator."
"How did you escape?"
"Curtis got drunk."
Elena rubbed her wrists.
"I hit him with a lamp and ran."
Mia tried not to smile.
"Our fathers would probably approve."
Elena laughed once, then covered her mouth as emotion overtook her.
"I don't remember mine very well."
Mia felt the familiar ache.
"I remember mine too well."
They sat in silence.
Then Elena reached into her coat and removed a folded paper.
"I took this from Curtis before I ran."
It was a list of dates and payments.
Several names appeared repeatedly.
Owen Calder.
Detective Finch.
Jonathan Price.
And one more.
Arthur Vance.
Elias's father.
Mia stared.
Elena whispered, "Your father wasn't destroyed by one bad man."
"No."
"It was a network."
Mia folded the paper.
"And Elias was born inside it."
"Do you trust him?"
Mia thought about the hospital room.
About Elias admitting that he had given Thomas's evidence to his father.
"No."
Elena looked disappointed.
Mia continued.
"But I believe he wants the truth."
"Is that enough?"
"For now."
Outside the chapel, Nora received a call.
Her expression changed.
"Elias left the hospital."
Mia frowned.
"He what?"
"He discharged himself."
"Why?"
Nora's voice sharpened.
"Because he received a message from Owen."
Mia's phone rang at the same moment.
Elias.
She answered.
"Where are you?"
"Don't worry about that."
"That's a terrible way to start."
"Owen sent me a photograph."
"What photograph?"
"Your mother."
Mia stopped breathing.
"What?"
"She's safe."
Mia nearly collapsed with relief.
"He took the photo from across the street."
Mia's hands shook.
"What does he want?"
"Me."
"Why?"
"He knows we found the map."
"And you're going to meet him."
Elias said nothing.
Mia understood.
"Don't."
"This is my problem."
"My father's evidence. My mother in his threats. My former manager. It became my problem a long time ago."
"Mia."
"No. You don't get to disappear and decide you're protecting everyone."
Nora held out her hand for the phone.
Mia ignored her.
"Where are you meeting him?"
Elias exhaled.
"Pier 6."
Elena suddenly stood.
"What?"
Mia looked at her.
"Pier 6."
Elena went pale.
"That's where they kept me."
Nora swore quietly.
Mia asked Elias, "Are you there?"
"Almost."
"Turn around."
"No."
"Elias."
"I owe your father."
"You owe him the truth, not another body."
The call ended.
Mia stared at the phone.
Then at Nora.
Nora was already moving.
"Let's go."
At Pier 6, rain fell hard across rows of abandoned shipping buildings.
Elias's motorcycle stood outside an old customs shed.
The door was open.
Inside, a single light burned.
Mia entered behind Nora and two security officers.
They found Elias tied to a chair.
His face was bleeding from a cut above the eyebrow.
Owen stood ten feet away holding a gun.
Beside him was Curtis Vale.
And behind them, on a folding table, sat the missing metal box Elena had mailed to Bellrose.
Owen smiled when Mia appeared.
"I knew you'd come."
Mia looked at Elias.
He shook his head.
Don't.
Owen pointed the gun toward the table.
"You want the truth about your father?"
Mia stared at the box.
"Open it."
Owen smiled wider.
"No."
May you like
Then he aimed at Elias.
"First, you're going to give me the map."
