Chapter 7 - Two Targets
Mateo slammed the van door shut.
“You gave Helena the ledger?”
Sofia flinched.
“Years ago.”
“How many?”
“Eleven.”
Mateo stared.
“You told me it was lost.”
“I thought I was protecting you.”
He laughed bitterly.
“Everyone in this family should stop using that sentence.”
Adrian sat between them.
“Explain.”
Sofia pressed both palms to her knees.
“Eleanor told me Helena was her safest friend.”
“She was wrong,” Adrian said.
“I know that now.”
“Did you give Helena the original?”
Sofia looked up.
“No.”
Mateo stopped breathing.
“What?”
“Eleanor had one rule.”
Sofia’s voice steadied.
“Never give anyone the original.”
Adrian leaned forward.
“Where is it?”
Sofia looked toward Ernesto.
He sat in the front seat with headphones on again.
“She made me encode the location into something I would never forget.”
“What?”
“A lullaby.”
Mateo’s face changed.
“The one you sing Ernesto.”
Sofia nodded.
They drove to an old train station locker bank on the South Side.
The lyrics gave them numbers.
Platform four.
Row seven.
Locker twenty-two.
The key was hidden inside an old music box in Sofia’s apartment.
Adrian turned it.
Locker opened.
Empty.
Sofia went white.
“No.”
Mateo searched the corners.
Nothing.
Marcus pulled the station security archive.
One access three days earlier.
A man in a baseball cap.
He knew where the camera was.
He kept his face down.
But the walk was familiar.
Adrian stared.
“No.”
Marcus froze the frame.
Daniel Price.
The security chief who had betrayed Adrian once already.
Mateo swore.
Sofia whispered, “Why would Daniel know the lullaby?”
Adrian’s phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
Text only.
I HAVE THE LEDGER. DO NOT TRUST HELENA. COME ALONE.
Location attached.
Abandoned church parking lot.
Marcus shook his head.
“Trap.”
“Probably.”
Mateo said, “Then we don’t go.”
Adrian looked at Daniel’s frozen image.
“If he wanted Helena to have it, she’d have it.”
Sofia nodded slowly.
“So he stole it from her first.”
“No.”
Marcus enlarged the date.
“Three days ago. Before Helena knew we were looking.”
Adrian’s chest tightened.
Daniel had been running his own game.
He went to the church with Marcus two blocks behind.
Daniel stepped from the shadows holding a black ledger wrapped in plastic.
Adrian kept both hands visible.
“You stole it.”
“I saved it.”
“From who?”
Daniel looked toward the street.
“Everyone.”
He handed Adrian the book.
Page one carried three signatures.
William Cole.
Victor Cole.
Helena Cross.
Adrian turned pages faster.
Bribes.
Land deals.
Security payments.
Then a line near the end.
E. COLE - TERMINATION CONTINGENCY.
Payment date:
Three days before Eleanor died.
Adrian looked up.
“Termination?”
Daniel’s face tightened.
May you like
“That payment was made before your mother’s overdose.”
CUT.
