Chapter 5 - THE BOY WHO SAW THE CAR
Adrian survived the first shot for less than two minutes.
The bullet entered beneath his collarbone and severed a major artery.
Marisol’s detectives attempted to save him.
He died before the ambulance reached the estate gate.
The shooter escaped through a wooded service road.
Security footage showed a dark sedan leaving the property.
The license plate had been stolen.
Every guard assigned to the eastern boundary was questioned.
One guard was missing.
His name was Victor Lane.
He had worked for Salvatore for nine years.
Luca ordered Gabriel to find him.
Tommy arrived the next morning before Elena could stop him.
He came through the hedge carrying a torn backpack.
Maya ran toward him.
“My mom said we might have to leave.”
Tommy shrugged.
“Adults say that when they’re scared.”
Elena heard him.
“Sometimes adults say it because danger is real.”
Tommy looked at Luca.
“The black car was here again.”
Luca’s attention sharpened.
“What black car?”
“The one that watches the hedge.”
Tommy explained that a sedan had parked near the vacant lot behind Elena’s apartment several times.
He had also seen it near the estate.
The driver wore dark glasses and had a scar near his left ear.
Luca showed him a photograph of Victor Lane.
Tommy nodded immediately.
“That’s him.”
Elena sat beside the boy.
“Why didn’t you tell anyone?”
Tommy stared at his shoes.
“People don’t listen until something bad happens.”
Luca understood the answer.
Tommy lived with his aunt three streets from Elena.
His father, Samuel Reyes, had worked as a gardener at the estate twelve years earlier.
Samuel disappeared six months after Luca’s collapse.
Everyone assumed he had abandoned his son.
Tommy never believed it.
“My dad didn’t leave,” he said.
“He found something.”
“What?” Luca asked.
Tommy opened his backpack.
He removed an old metal lunchbox.
Inside were receipts, photographs, and a small notebook damaged by water.
Samuel had hidden it beneath loose boards in their former apartment.
Tommy found it after his aunt received an eviction notice.
The notebook listed deliveries made to the estate medical wing.
The shipments began three months before Luca collapsed.
Each was signed by Adrian Bell.
Several were approved by Salvatore Costello.
The final page contained a hand-drawn map of the estate.
An X marked a location beneath the abandoned greenhouse.
Beside it, Samuel had written, “If I disappear, the proof is underground.”
Luca looked through the porch window toward the greenhouse.
It had been locked since his father’s death.
No one had entered it in years.
Maya took Tommy’s hand.
“We’re going to find your dad.”
Tommy looked at her with a sadness too old for his face.
“My dad is dead.”
May you like
Luca closed the notebook.
“Then we will find out who took him from you.”
