Chapter 4 - THE FILE IN HER SKIN
Sofia ran.
She shoved past the guard outside the trauma room and reached the stairwell before Bruno caught her.
He did not bite.
He struck her from behind and pinned her against the floor with one massive paw.
By the time I reached them, Sofia’s hand was inside her coat.
She held a small pistol.
“Drop it.”
Her face pressed against the concrete.
“Nico, call him off.”
I used the name she had called me since childhood.
“Sofia.”
“Drop the gun.”
She released it.
Bruno stepped back only after I ordered him.
Two guards restrained her.
She looked at me with fury.
“You are humiliating me because a drugged child said something confused.”
“Elena recognized you.”
“She has brain trauma.”
“She was buried alive.”
“She called you the aunt.”
Sofia laughed sharply.
“I am your sister.”
“That does not make me every child’s aunt.”
Tomas appeared at the stairwell door.
“Elena called you Aunt Sofia.”
Sofia’s expression changed.
He continued.
“You came to our restaurant two months ago.”
“You brought coloring books.”
“You asked Elena whether she wanted to help children who had no families.”
I looked at my sister.
She had told me the visits to La Estrella involved charity accounting.
“What children?”
Sofia stopped answering.
I ordered her confined in an examination room with two guards who had served outside the family.
No one with a Rossi name watched her.
The memory card from Elena’s neck required a password.
Tony arrived from the funeral home with a forensic technician.
He looked at Sofia through the observation window.
“You were right about Marco.”
“And wrong about her.”
“We do not know everything yet.”
“What more do you need?”
“I need the card open.”
The technician connected it to an isolated computer.
One encrypted folder appeared.
Its title was:
CARLO.
My cousin’s name.
Carlo had died four years earlier after someone sold his location to a rival crew.
Marco sat beside me at the funeral and promised we would avenge him.
Sofia arranged the cemetery.
Tony tried passwords.
Carlo’s birthday.
The date of his death.
My father’s name.
Nothing worked.
Tomas stood behind us.
“Elena used horse names for everything.”
He gave us the name of her favorite drawing.
Midnight Star.
The folder opened.
The first video showed the blue pickup truck behind a school.
Marco stood beside the driver.
Three teenage girls were locked inside the rear compartment.
Elena’s small voice whispered from behind a parked car.
“That’s Mr. Marco.”
The video shook.
A woman stepped into the frame.
Sofia.
She opened the passenger door and handed Marco a set of documents.
Then she looked directly toward Elena’s hiding place.
The recording ended.
Tomas covered his face.
“She saw her.”
The second file showed a warehouse near the waterfront.
Victor Harlan spoke with Sofia.
Between them sat Dr. Samuel Crane.
The audio was poor.
Tony increased it.
Harlan’s voice became clear.
“The girls move Friday.”
“The kid gets handled before then.”
Sofia answered.
“No bodies near the school.”
Marco said something from outside the camera.
Sofia looked toward him.
“Then make it an accident.”
The room became very still.
I watched my sister order the death of a seven-year-old child.
The third file had been recorded years earlier.
Carlo stood inside my old Queens restaurant.
He looked into a hidden camera.
“If Nico sees this, Sofia is working with Harlan.”
“She says the trafficking operation gives us leverage over judges and politicians.”
“I told her our family does not touch children.”
“She told me our rules were making us poor.”
A door opened behind Carlo.
Marco entered holding a gun.
The video cut to black.
Tony turned away.
I did not.
I watched the black screen as if staring long enough might bring my cousin back.
The final file contained a live location signal.
Not Marco’s.
A warehouse in Long Island City.
Beside it was a timer.
Three hours.
May you like
A message appeared beneath the countdown.
TWELVE CHILDREN REMAIN.
