Chapter 2 - THE SECOND DEATH
Lucia began chest compressions.
Rosa knelt near Elena’s feet, praying in Spanish.
Tomas stood frozen beside the coffin.
I had watched men die from bullets, knives, and broken promises.
Nothing had ever made a room feel smaller than the sight of Lucia pressing down on a seven-year-old child’s chest.
“Come on,” she said.
“Come back.”
Bruno paced around them, whining.
Marco closed his eyes.
I saw relief cross his face when Elena stopped breathing.
That was when I knew his confession had not reached the bottom.
Lucia forced air into Elena’s lungs.
The monitor beside her remained flat.
Tony grabbed Marco by the collar.
“What did they give her?”
“I don’t know.”
“You worked with Harlan.”
“I moved merchandise.”
“What drug?”
“I never saw the medical side.”
I walked toward him.
Lucia continued counting behind me.
“Twenty-seven.”
“Twenty-eight.”
“Twenty-nine.”
Marco stared at the gun in my hand.
“Boss, I told you what happened.”
“No.”
“You told me what Elena saw.”
“You did not tell me why she was buried alive.”
“I didn’t know.”
I pressed the barrel beneath his chin.
“Elena said blue truck.”
His eyes shifted.
Only for a second.
“What blue truck?”
Marco’s mouth remained closed.
Tony punched him in the stomach.
Marco folded but did not fall.
“The truck carried girls,” he gasped.
“What girls?”
“Harlan’s people bring them through Queens.”
“Runaways.”
“Immigrants.”
“Kids nobody reports quickly.”
My hand tightened around the weapon.
I had suspected Harlan was moving something through the freight yards.
I thought it was fentanyl.
I had sent Marco to investigate.
Instead, he joined him.
“Elena saw the truck,” I said.
“She saw me opening the gate.”
“She recognized me from her father’s restaurant.”
“She took pictures.”
“Where are they?”
“We never found her phone.”
A sharp alarm sounded behind us.
Lucia stopped compressions.
The monitor showed a weak rhythm.
Elena’s heart had started again.
Rosa cried into both hands.
Tomas lowered his forehead to the carpet.
Lucia did not celebrate.
“We need a hospital.”
“No public hospital,” I said.
She looked up sharply.
“She needs pediatric intensive care.”
“Crane’s people may control the ambulance system.”
“I have a secure clinic in Astoria.”
“It is fifteen minutes away.”
“Then move.”
My men brought a transport stretcher.
Lucia secured Elena to it.
Bruno refused to step away.
“He comes,” I said.
Nobody argued.
As the stretcher passed Marco, Elena’s eyes moved beneath her lids.
Her fingers tightened.
Bruno growled again.
Marco backed away.
“Get him downstairs,” I told Tony.
“No one questions him without me.”
Marco laughed bitterly.
“You think I’m the traitor?”
“I know you are one.”
“The question is whether you were the first.”
His smile disappeared.
I rode in the armored ambulance with Elena, Lucia, Rosa, Tomas, and Bruno.
Tony remained behind with Marco.
Halfway to Astoria, Lucia examined the puncture behind Elena’s ear.
“There is something under the skin.”
“A tracker?”
“Maybe.”
She used a small instrument to remove it.
A black capsule rested inside her forceps.
It was not a tracking device.
It was a microSD card sealed in medical plastic.
Tomas stared.
“Elena put that there?”
“No,” Lucia said.
“The incision is too precise.”
“Someone hid it inside her.”
I looked at the unconscious child.
Harlan had not buried Elena alive only because she was a witness.
Someone had turned her into a courier.
My phone rang.
Tony’s name appeared.
I answered.
“Marco is gone.”
My voice became quiet.
“What happened?”
“The basement cameras went black.”
“One guard is dead.”
“The other says a woman opened the cell.”
“What woman?”
May you like
Tony hesitated.
“Your sister.”
