Chapter 5 - THE DEBT HER FATHER LEFT
Gilbert reached ten.
Lorenzo motioned Evelyn behind the kitchen wall.
His guard pulled the dumbwaiter panel open.
Celeste disappeared into the narrow shaft with two men.
Another guard climbed after her.
Gilbert reached seven.
Lorenzo looked at Evelyn.
“When I open the door, stay behind me.”
“That is a terrible plan.”
“It’s the plan we have.”
Gilbert reached five.
Lorenzo unlocked the deadbolt.
Evelyn grabbed his arm.
“Wait.”
He looked at her.
She pointed toward the ceiling.
The apartment above hers belonged to a college student who traveled most weeks.
A heating pipe ran vertically beside the kitchen cabinet.
Evelyn had complained about it leaking for months.
Tonight, she finally appreciated terrible maintenance.
She twisted the valve.
Steam screamed from the pipe.
Within seconds, the kitchen filled with a thick white cloud.
Lorenzo stared at her.
“You planned that?”
“No.”
She grabbed a cast-iron pan.
“But I’m improvising.”
Gilbert reached one.
Lorenzo opened the door.
The hallway erupted.
Steam rolled outward.
Gilbert shouted.
Lorenzo fired once into the ceiling.
Everyone outside ducked instinctively.
Evelyn rushed low.
She saw Mrs. Kowalski kneeling beside the wall.
A masked man held her shoulder.
Evelyn swung the pan.
It struck his wrist.
He yelled and released the woman.
Lorenzo slammed another attacker into the doorframe.
“Move!”
Evelyn grabbed Mrs. Kowalski.
“Basement stairs.”
The old woman stared at the armed men.
“Evelyn, what did you do?”
“Bad career choice.”
Lorenzo almost smiled.
Then Gilbert appeared through the steam.
His gun aimed directly at Evelyn.
“Enough.”
Everything stopped.
Lorenzo turned.
Gilbert’s weapon shifted toward him.
“You too.”
Lorenzo lowered his pistol slightly.
Gilbert moved closer.
His face looked older than it had an hour earlier.
Tired.
Almost defeated.
Evelyn stared at him.
“You threatened my neighbor.”
“I needed you to open the door.”
“You put a tracker on me.”
“That wasn’t me.”
“Marissa?”
Gilbert’s eyes flickered.
Evelyn saw it.
Lorenzo did too.
Gilbert sighed.
“Marissa is dead.”
Evelyn’s stomach dropped.
“What?”
“Since before dinner.”
The hallway seemed to tilt.
“That’s impossible.”
“You saw someone dressed like her.”
Evelyn remembered the hostess stand.
Dark hair.
Gold pin.
But she had only seen the woman from behind.
Gilbert continued.
“This is bigger than Celeste.”
Lorenzo’s voice was cold.
“Then start talking.”
Gilbert laughed bitterly.
“You still think you’re the target.”
“I was shot at in four locations.”
“You’re one target.”
Gilbert looked at Evelyn.
“She’s the other.”
Silence.
Evelyn almost laughed.
“That makes no sense.”
Gilbert’s eyes remained fixed on her.
“Your father’s name wasn’t Thomas Carter.”
Evelyn stopped breathing.
Lorenzo looked at her.
Gilbert continued.
“That was the name he used after 1999.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“You’re lying.”
“His real name was Thomas Caruso.”
The name meant nothing to her.
Then Lorenzo’s expression changed.
That scared her.
Evelyn looked at him.
“You know it.”
Lorenzo did not answer.
Gilbert smiled without humor.
“Of course he does.”
“Tell me.”
Lorenzo’s jaw tightened.
Gilbert answered instead.
“Thomas Caruso kept books for the Moretti family.”
Evelyn stared at him.
“No.”
“For eleven years.”
“No.”
“He didn’t gamble away your childhood.”
Gilbert’s voice softened.
“He was laundering money through casinos.”
Evelyn felt the floor disappear beneath her.
Every memory of her father rearranged itself.
Late nights.
Stacks of chips.
Arguments behind closed doors.
Strangers coming to the apartment.
Burned papers in the kitchen sink.
Her mother crying when she thought Evelyn was asleep.
“You’re lying.”
Gilbert lowered the gun slightly.
“Your father found something.”
“What?”
“A ledger.”
Lorenzo finally spoke.
“What ledger?”
Gilbert looked at him.
“The one your father killed people trying to recover.”
Lorenzo’s face turned to stone.
Evelyn looked between them.
“My father disappeared.”
Gilbert nodded.
“Because he stole evidence that could destroy half the political families in Illinois.”
A car engine roared outside.
Gilbert glanced toward the stairwell.
His fear returned.
“We have seconds.”
Lorenzo raised his weapon again.
“Who are you working for?”
Gilbert looked at him.
“Nobody anymore.”
A red laser dot appeared on Gilbert’s chest.
Evelyn saw it first.
“Down!”
She lunged.
The window at the end of the hall shattered.
Gilbert jerked backward.
His weapon fell.
Lorenzo fired toward the opposite rooftop.
Another shot struck the wall.
Evelyn crawled toward Gilbert.
Blood spread across his shirt.
He grabbed her sleeve.
“Listen.”
“Save your strength.”
“Your father left you something.”
Evelyn stared down at him.
“What?”
“Not in the apartment.”
He coughed.
“Your mother.”
“My mother is dead.”
Gilbert’s grip tightened.
“No.”
His eyes locked on hers.
“She left you a key.”
Evelyn’s heart slammed.
“I don’t have a key.”
“Yes, you do.”
His fingers trembled.
“She wore it.”
Evelyn thought of the only thing she had kept from her mother.
A thin silver necklace.
The pendant had always looked like a decorative antique.
It was in the little wooden box beside her bed.
Gilbert whispered.
“Union Station.”
Another shot hit the hallway.
Lorenzo grabbed Evelyn.
“We go now.”
Gilbert clutched her sleeve one last time.
“Locker three-one-seven.”
Then his hand fell.
Evelyn stared at him.
Lorenzo pulled her away.
“Evelyn.”
She looked at Gilbert’s body.
A man she had hated thirty seconds ago.
A man who had just blown apart everything she thought she knew about her family.
Lorenzo dragged her toward the stairwell.
Mrs. Kowalski was already gone.
The others had escaped below.
They raced down the stairs.
Evelyn’s mind repeated one number.
By the time they reached the basement, only one thought remained.
May you like
Her father had not simply disappeared.
Someone had spent twenty years making sure Evelyn never learned why.
