Chapter 2 - Someone Had Been Inside Her Apartment
"Tell me everything."
Luca sat across from Emily in the back of the sedan.
"I already did."
"No. You told me somebody followed you."
"That is everything."
Luca placed one of the photographs between them.
It showed Maya outside Truman College.
"This picture wasn't taken tonight."
Emily looked away.
Luca waited.
She hated that.
He didn't fill silence to make people comfortable.
Finally she said, "Three weeks ago, a man came into Carmine's."
"What man?"
"I don't know. Late forties. Expensive coat. Gray hair."
"What did he want?"
"He asked about my father."
Luca's expression sharpened.
"Your father?"
"He died eleven years ago."
"What was his name?"
"Thomas Parker."
For the first time since she'd met him, Luca Romano went completely still.
Emily noticed.
"You know that name."
Luca didn't answer immediately.
"Your father worked for the city?"
"He was an accountant."
"Where?"
"The Department of Transportation."
Luca looked out the window.
Emily leaned forward.
"You know something."
"I know the name."
"From where?"
"Not yet."
"That's not an answer."
"It's the only one I'm giving until I know more."
Emily folded her arms.
"Then stop asking me questions."
Daniel's voice came through Luca's phone.
"We're here."
The sedan stopped outside Emily's building.
Luca looked through the windshield.
The front entrance was partially open.
Emily immediately reached for the handle.
Luca caught her wrist.
"Don't."
"Maya is upstairs."
"Daniel."
Daniel and another man entered first.
Thirty seconds passed.
Then sixty.
Emily's pulse climbed.
"What's taking so long?"
Luca didn't answer.
She pulled away from him and opened the door.
He swore under his breath and followed.
They reached the fourth floor.
Apartment 4C was open.
Emily ran inside.
"Maya!"
The living room had been destroyed.
Cushions cut open.
Drawers emptied.
Books thrown across the floor.
"Maya!"
A door opened.
Emily spun.
Mrs. Kowalski stood in the hallway wearing a robe.
"Emily?"
"Where's Maya?"
"With me."
Emily nearly collapsed.
Maya appeared behind the older woman.
"Em?"
Emily wrapped both arms around her.
"What happened?"
Maya looked terrified.
"I heard somebody at the door. Mrs. Kowalski called me because she heard it too, so I went to her place."
"You didn't see anyone?"
"No."
Luca walked into the apartment.
Maya stared.
"Who is that?"
Emily glanced at him.
"Complicated."
Luca examined the room.
"They were searching."
"For what?" Emily asked.
He crouched near an overturned desk.
"Something small enough to carry."
"I don't have anything."
"You may not know you have it."
Emily laughed bitterly.
"I own three plates, an eight-year-old laptop, and a couch I found on Craigslist. Nobody is staging a burglary over my assets."
Luca looked at Maya.
"Did your father leave anything with you?"
Maya frowned.
"Dad?"
"Documents. Boxes. A key."
Emily shook her head.
"He died when Maya was eight."
Maya suddenly looked toward Emily.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Maya."
"It's probably nothing."
Emily knew that tone.
"What?"
Maya swallowed.
"When I moved my stuff last month, I found Dad's old watch."
"So?"
"There was something inside the box."
Luca stepped closer.
"What?"
"A key."
Nobody spoke.
Emily stared at her sister.
"What key?"
"I don't know. It had a number stamped on it."
Luca asked, "Where is it?"
Maya pointed toward the wrecked bedroom.
"In my backpack."
They found the backpack under the bed.
Untouched.
Maya opened a small interior pocket and removed a brass key.
Stamped across the surface:
317.
Luca stared at it.
Daniel cursed quietly.
Emily looked between them.
"What?"
Luca took out his phone.
"Call Marcus. Tell him Thomas Parker had a locker."
Daniel nodded.
Emily blocked Luca's path.
"No."
He stopped.
"You keep saying things like I'm not standing here."
"This isn't the place."
"It's my apartment."
"Which somebody just broke into."
"Exactly. So start talking."
Luca studied her.
"Your father wasn't just a city accountant."
Emily's face hardened.
"You didn't know him."
"No. But my father did."
"What does your family have to do with mine?"
Luca looked toward Maya, then back to Emily.
"Eleven years ago, millions of dollars disappeared from transportation contracts in Chicago. Several city officials were involved. So were private contractors."
"Your family?"
"No."
"Should I believe that?"
"You don't have to."
"Good."
"But my father was accused of being involved."
Emily stared at him.
Luca continued.
"He claimed someone was using Romano-owned companies to move money without his knowledge. Thomas Parker apparently found evidence supporting him."
Emily's throat tightened.
"My father died in a car accident."
Luca didn't answer.
That silence told her everything.
"No."
"Emily—"
"No."
"I'm not saying anything yet."
"You were about to."
Maya whispered, "Em."
Emily looked at her sister.
Maya was crying.
Emily forced herself to calm down.
Luca said, "Whatever is in locker 317, somebody thinks your father left it to you."
"And the man following me?"
"He was probably supposed to find the key."
"Probably?"
"We'll know soon."
Emily looked around her destroyed home.
"Where are we supposed to go?"
Luca answered immediately.
"My house."
Emily stared.
"No."
Maya said, "Emily."
"We are not going home with a mafia boss."
Daniel coughed into his hand.
Luca looked almost offended.
"I didn't introduce myself that way."
"You didn't need to."
Maya looked at the broken window, then at her sister.
"I vote mafia house."
Emily closed her eyes.
"Maya."
"It has guards, right?"
Luca said, "Several."
"Then definitely mafia house."
Luca looked at Emily.
"Your sister is practical."
"Don't encourage her."
Ten minutes later, they were downstairs.
As they approached Luca's sedan, Daniel's phone rang.
He answered.
His face changed.
"What?"
Luca stopped.
Daniel covered the phone.
"The man from Meridian."
"What about him?"
"He finally gave us the name of whoever hired him."
Emily waited.
Daniel looked directly at her.
"Victor Hale."
Emily's face went pale.
Luca noticed.
"You know him?"
She nodded slowly.
"He came into Carmine's three weeks ago."
The gray-haired man.
The one who had asked about her father.
Luca opened the car door.
"Now we know who's hunting you."
Emily didn't move.
"Who is Victor Hale?"
Luca met her eyes.
"The man who blamed my father for stealing twenty million dollars."
A beat passed.
May you like
"And the man who became very rich after your father died."
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