Chapter 3 - The House on Meridian Street
By morning, Enzo had six men working on Daniel's drawing.
At 8:12, Luca entered the townhouse kitchen.
“We found the house.”
Mia stopped pouring coffee.
Enzo looked up.
“Where?”
“Meridian Street. East Boston. Hale owned it through a shell company until eighteen months ago.”
Mia went pale.
“That’s where Preston took Daniel sometimes.”
Enzo stood.
“You're sure?”
“I was never allowed inside.”
Luca placed photographs on the table.
One showed a narrow three-story house behind iron fencing.
Daniel entered wearing borrowed pajamas.
He saw the picture.
The mug slipped from Mia's hand.
Daniel made a sound.
Not a word.
But a sound.
Then he backed away.
Mia crouched.
“Danny. You're safe.”
He shook his head violently.
Enzo turned the photograph face down.
“No one shows him anything else.”
Luca nodded.
Mia looked up.
“You're going there.”
“Yes.”
“I'm coming.”
“No.”
“You need someone who knows Preston.”
“I need you alive.”
“You also need answers.”
Enzo stared at her.
Mia didn't blink.
Finally he said, “Stay beside me.”
The house looked abandoned.
It wasn't.
Enzo's people found a caretaker in the basement.
Within ten minutes, they also found a hidden room behind a false wall.
Mia stood at the doorway.
Rows of boxes lined the shelves.
Photographs.
Identification cards.
Old burner phones.
Enzo opened one box.
Women's names.
Dates.
Payments.
Mia whispered, “What was Preston doing?”
Enzo picked up a ledger.
“Selling information.”
“To who?”
“People who needed witnesses to disappear. Women hiding from husbands. Informants. Runaways. Anyone vulnerable enough that nobody powerful would ask questions.”
Mia covered her mouth.
Enzo turned another page.
Then stopped.
Rosa Marra.
A date.
A payment.
And beside it:
Transferred. Alive.
Enzo gripped the book so tightly his knuckles whitened.
Mia approached.
“Enzo.”
“Seven years.”
His voice was almost inaudible.
“She might have been alive.”
“She might still be.”
He looked at her.
The words seemed impossible.
Luca called from the hall.
“Boss.”
Enzo walked out.
A monitor had been discovered behind a cabinet.
Old security recordings.
One file was dated two years earlier.
Mia's face changed.
“No.”
Enzo looked at her.
“What?”
“That was the night Daniel stopped talking.”
They played it.
Preston entered the hallway with Detective Gavin Mercer.
Another man followed.
Mercer said, “The Marra problem isn't dead.”
Preston poured himself a drink.
“Enzo will never find her.”
“What if she talks?”
“She doesn't know where she is.”
“And the brother?”
Preston smiled.
“Let him spend the rest of his life chasing ghosts.”
Mia stared at the screen.
Then a small figure appeared at the top of the staircase.
Daniel.
Seven years old now.
Five then.
Watching.
On the recording, Preston noticed him.
“Well.”
Mia's present-day hand flew to her mouth.
Preston climbed the stairs.
Daniel backed away.
The video cut.
Mia turned.
“What happened next?”
Luca searched the files.
“Camera went offline.”
Enzo looked at Mia.
“What did Daniel tell you?”
“Nothing.”
“You never asked?”
“I asked every day for three months. He would shake until he couldn't breathe.”
Enzo nodded.
“Then you stopped.”
“Yes.”
“That was right.”
Mia stared at him.
“You're surprisingly good with children for someone everyone says has no heart.”
Something passed across his face.
“My sister wanted children.”
Mia said nothing.
Luca interrupted.
“There's more.”
Another file.
Recorded six months ago.
Preston sat with Mercer.
Mercer looked nervous.
“She remembers her name.”
Enzo stepped toward the screen.
Preston replied, “Then move her again.”
“Where?”
“Blackstone.”
Enzo turned to Luca.
“What is Blackstone?”
“We'll find out.”
Mia looked at the ledger.
“Maybe it isn't a place.”
Enzo looked at her.
“Why?”
“Preston never used real place names in messages.”
“What did he use?”
“Companies.”
Luca began typing.
Mia continued.
“Blackstone Medical. Blackstone Shipping. Blackstone Foundation.”
Luca looked up.
“There is a Blackstone Behavioral Center outside Worcester.”
Enzo's face hardened.
“Private psychiatric facility.”
Mia whispered, “A perfect place to keep someone nobody is supposed to believe.”
Enzo headed for the door.
Mia grabbed his arm.
“You can't walk into a hospital with ten armed men.”
Enzo looked down at her hand.
“You keep touching me when giving orders.”
“You keep needing them.”
For the first time in years, Luca saw his boss almost laugh.
Then Daniel appeared in the hallway.
He held another drawing.
A building.
Trees.
A black sign.
And beneath it, in shaky letters:
ROSA
Enzo stared at him.
“How do you know that name?”
Daniel's lips trembled.
Mia rushed forward.
“Danny, you don't have to—”
The boy looked directly at Enzo.
His mouth opened.
A whisper came out.
The first word Mia had heard from her son in nearly two years.
“Lady.”
Mia began crying before she could stop herself.
Daniel pointed toward the drawing.
“Lady... helped me.”
Enzo knelt.
“What lady?”
Daniel swallowed.
May you like
“The rose lady.”
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