Chapter 3 - MY SISTER’S KEY
My sister Sofia was waiting at the clinic when we arrived.
She stood beneath the emergency lights wearing a cream coat.
Her dark hair was tied neatly behind her head.
No panic showed on her face.
Sofia had managed the legitimate side of our family for ten years.
Restaurants.
Construction.
Charities.
She hated the criminal business and reminded me of that at every family dinner.
She was also the only person besides me who possessed a master key to the funeral home’s secured basement.
I stepped from the ambulance.
“Where is Marco?”
She looked toward Elena’s stretcher.
“Is she alive?”
“Answer me.”
Sofia’s jaw tightened.
“I released him.”
Tomas moved toward her.
“You released the man who chased my daughter into traffic?”
Sofia looked at him.
“I believed he could lead us to Harlan.”
“You believed?”
I stepped between them.
“Without telling me?”
“You would have killed him before he spoke.”
“He had already spoken.”
“Not enough.”
Sofia reached inside her coat.
Every guard around us raised a weapon.
She stopped.
“It is a phone.”
She removed it slowly.
A map glowed on the screen.
A red dot moved east toward Nassau County.
“I put a tracker inside his shoe.”
I stared at her.
“You killed a guard?”
“No.”
“He was already dead when I reached the cell.”
“The second guard helped Marco.”
“Who?”
“Peter Lombardi.”
Peter had worked for my father.
He had held me as a baby.
Another trusted name joined the list of men I no longer understood.
Sofia looked toward the ambulance.
“Why was Elena alive?”
“We do not know yet.”
Lucia wheeled the child through the clinic doors.
Bruno walked beside the stretcher.
When he passed Sofia, he stopped.
His nose moved toward her coat.
Then he growled.
Sofia looked at me.
“Control your dog.”
Bruno had never growled at her before.
I stepped closer.
“What is in your pocket?”
“Nothing.”
Bruno’s growl deepened.
Sofia reached slowly into the coat and removed a silver charm.
A tiny horse.
Tomas made a choking sound.
“That belongs to Elena.”
Rosa pushed toward Sofia.
“My daughter wore that bracelet every day.”
Sofia looked at the charm as though seeing it for the first time.
“I found it in Marco’s cell.”
“Why did you put it in your pocket?”
“I was going to give it to you.”
Bruno barked once.
The sound echoed across the ambulance bay.
Sofia flinched.
I took the charm from her.
A dark substance marked the clasp.
Blood.
Fresh blood.
Not three days old.
“Where did you really find it?”
Sofia lowered her voice.
“On Peter Lombardi.”
“After you killed him?”
“I did not kill him.”
“Who did?”
“I don’t know.”
The clinic doors opened.
Lucia called my name.
We entered the trauma room.
Elena lay beneath warming blankets.
Her skin color had improved slightly.
The black memory card rested inside an evidence dish.
Lucia pointed toward a scan.
“She has a fracture near the back of her skull.”
“It is not consistent with being hit by a car.”
“What caused it?”
“A blunt object.”
“Probably before she entered the street.”
Tomas gripped the bed rail.
“Marco hit her.”
“Maybe.”
Lucia showed us another image.
“There are old fractures too.”
Rosa stared at her.
“Old?”
“A healed rib injury.”
“A wrist fracture from at least a year ago.”
Tomas looked confused.
“She never broke her wrist.”
Lucia’s expression became careful.
“Someone hurt her before this week.”
The room went silent.
Tomas looked at Rosa.
Rosa looked at the floor.
Then Elena’s eyes opened.
She saw Sofia near the door.
The monitor alarmed as her heart rate spiked.
“No,” Elena whispered.
“Not the aunt.”
Sofia went pale.
May you like
Elena tried to pull away from the bed.
“She took the other girls.”
