Chapter 4
Luis Lopez died in Warehouse Nine.
A falling storage frame.
That was what I had been told.
He had been alone.
No witnesses.
Now Maria stood in my kitchen looking at Grant like she had spent eight months waiting to be afraid of him openly.
“What did Luis know?”
Maria swallowed.
“He thought someone was giving your routes to Voss.”
“When?”
“Before he died.”
“Did he tell me?”
“He tried.”
Grant laughed.
“Did he?”
Maria looked down.
“No.”
“There you go.”
He smiled cruelly.
“Even her dead husband knew his place eventually.”
Maria’s hands curled.
I turned to Grant.
“You keep insulting dead men.”
“He was a driver.”
“He was mine.”
That stopped him.
Loyalty mattered in my world.
Grant knew it.
Maria continued.
“Luis came home two nights before he died.”
“What did he say?”
“That he saw Grant at the west loading yard with a Voss man.”
Grant rolled his eyes.
“People meet.”
“He said you handed him route times.”
Silence.
Vanessa stepped in.
“This is ridiculous.”
Maria turned.
“You came to my room the next morning.”
Vanessa’s face changed.
“What?”
“You told me Luis needed to stop asking questions.”
Vanessa smiled faintly.
“I gave advice.”
“You said Sophia could grow up without both parents.”
My jaw tightened.
Vanessa shrugged.
“Fear improves memory.”
Sophia pressed against Maria’s leg.
I looked at her.
“You threatened a mother with her child.”
Vanessa laughed.
“She was a maid sleeping in a Mafia house. She should’ve known better than to listen at doors.”
Maria whispered:
“I wasn’t listening.”
“Luis was.”
“Then why punish Sophia?”
Vanessa looked at the little girl.
“Because children repeat everything.”
There.
No remorse.
Only explanation.
Maria’s eyes filled.
“She started hiding Sophia’s meals after Sophia said Luis left something for me.”
My attention sharpened.
“What?”
Maria looked at me.
“A phone.”
Grant went completely still.
Not his own phone.
Luis’s.
Maria continued.
“He told Sophia where he hid it before he died.”
Vanessa’s face lost color.
I crouched beside Sophia.
“Do you remember?”
She nodded.
“Daddy said…”
Her voice trembled.
“…behind the bread.”
May you like
Everyone looked toward the pantry.
And Grant moved first.
