Chapter 6 - THE BLOOD ON DANY’S BACKPACK
Tessa screamed her brother’s name.
Samuel caught her before she ran blindly down the stairs.
She fought him.
“Let me go!”
He shook his head and pointed toward the darkness.
Danger.
She knew.
She didn’t care.
Then a faint sound rose from below.
A metal tap.
Pause.
Two taps.
Dany had used that pattern as a child whenever he couldn’t hear Tessa calling him from another room.
“I’m here.”
Her knees nearly gave out.
“He’s alive.”
Samuel released her.
But he moved first.
Not because he wanted control.
Because he knew how to enter danger.
Carlisle turned on the basement lights.
Half of them flickered.
Dust coated old wine racks.
The air smelled like damp concrete.
They found Dany behind a locked storage cage.
He was sitting on the floor.
Alive.
Terrified.
The blood on his backpack wasn’t his.
Tessa dropped beside him.
“Dany!”
He threw his arms around her.
She held him so tightly he complained.
“I need ribs, Tess.”
She laughed and cried at the same time.
Then she pulled back.
“Whose blood?”
Dany pointed toward another aisle.
A man lay unconscious beside a filing cabinet.
Brett.
Tessa stared.
“What happened?”
Dany signed and spoke at the same time.
“Brett brought me here.”
“Why?”
“He thought I stole something.”
“The ledger?”
Dany nodded.
“I didn’t.”
Samuel stepped closer.
Dany recognized him.
His eyes widened.
“You’re Samuel.”
Tessa froze.
“How do you know?”
Dany looked embarrassed.
“I found the records.”
“What records?”
“At St. Matthew’s.”
He explained.
While volunteering, Dany met Margaret under the name Margaret Bell.
She communicated mostly through ASL because brain trauma affected her speech.
One day, she signed Samuel’s name.
Then Salvatore.
Then pointed toward an old newspaper.
Dany became curious.
He searched archived records.
Found a photograph of both brothers.
Realized Bellavita’s famous silent customer looked more like Samuel.
“So you came to the warehouse?”
“I followed Brett.”
Tessa stared.
“You followed a man into a mafia warehouse?”
Dany shrugged weakly.
“You do dumb things too.”
She couldn’t argue.
Samuel almost smiled.
Then Dany’s face turned serious.
“Brett has been working for Victor.”
“Why is Brett bleeding?”
“He tried to take the ledger from someone.”
“Who?”
Dany looked toward Samuel.
“Your mother.”
Silence.
Samuel’s expression changed.
“Margaret was here?”
Dany nodded.
“She escaped St. Matthew’s yesterday.”
Tessa stared.
“How?”
“With help.”
“From who?”
Dany pointed toward Brett.
“His mother.”
Tessa blinked.
“Brett’s mother?”
Dany nodded.
“She’s a nurse at St. Matthew’s.”
Everything twisted again.
Then Brett groaned.
Samuel’s security men, finally alerted, moved in.
One checked him.
Alive.
Then Dany reached inside his jacket.
He pulled out a folded sheet of paper.
Old.
Yellowed.
“Margaret gave me this.”
Samuel opened it.
A handwritten list of names.
The missing ledger page.
At the bottom was a signature.
Victor Marquetti.
And beneath it, one additional name.
May you like
Tessa recognized it.
Her own father.
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