Chapter 9 - The Ring In The Radiator
The basement went dark with the sound of men shouting above us.
Someone grabbed my arm.
I almost screamed until Nico's voice reached my ear.
"It is me."
The emergency lights had failed completely.
Only the narrow beam from his phone illuminated the floor.
Marco's chains rattled against the wall.
"If Vittorio's men are here, the north stairwell is already covered."
Nico turned toward him.
"You know another way out?"
"I had four years to study every sound in this hole."
Marco pointed toward the old stone wall behind his cot.
"Drain tunnel."
Clara stared at him.
"That tunnel is sealed."
"It was sealed."
Marco smiled weakly.
"I get bored."
Gunfire cracked upstairs.
Dust drifted from the ceiling.
Nico ordered one guard to free Marco while the others covered the corridor.
The bolt cutter snapped through the final chain.
Marco tried to stand.
His legs folded beneath him.
Nico caught him.
For one second, the brothers simply stared at each other.
Four years of hatred stood between them.
Then Marco shoved him away.
"Do not mistake gravity for forgiveness."
Nico's face hardened.
"I was not planning to."
The drain entrance was behind a loose section of old shelving.
Marco had widened a maintenance gap one stolen spoonful of mortar at a time.
"You did this with a spoon?" I asked.
"Two spoons."
"Luxury prison."
"The second spoon was terrible."
Even Nico looked at him differently after that.
We crawled through wet stone while gunfire echoed behind us.
The tunnel was barely shoulder wide.
My bandages scraped against concrete.
Every movement burned.
Nico crawled ahead of me.
Clara followed behind.
Marco came last with a guard helping him.
"How far?" I whispered.
"About a hundred yards," Marco said.
"You are lying."
"Yes."
"How far?"
"Three hundred."
I wanted to hit him.
The tunnel opened beneath a collapsed greenhouse near the lake.
Cold rain struck my face as Nico pulled me out.
Two of his men were already waiting with a vehicle that had been staged beyond the property.
"How did they know?" I asked.
"Contingency," Nico said.
"You have contingencies for monastery drain tunnels?"
"I have contingencies for bad evenings."
"Your definition of a bad evening needs professional help."
Behind us, flames appeared through one wing of Saint Gabriel.
Marco stared at the burning building.
He looked neither relieved nor afraid.
He looked empty.
"Bianca was moved before we arrived," Nico said.
Marco nodded.
"Vittorio knew you were coming."
"How?"
"Same way he has known everything for years."
Marco looked toward Clara.
"He owns pieces of everyone."
Clara bristled.
"Not me."
"Then how did they find Saint Gabriel tonight?"
Her face changed.
She reached into her jacket.
Nico's guards moved instantly.
She held up both hands.
"My bracelet."
"What about it?" I asked.
"Bianca gave it to me when we were teenagers."
She unclasped the silver bracelet with the three stars.
"I never take it off."
Nico took it.
One of the tiny stars was thicker than the others.
He broke it with the heel of his hand.
A black speck fell into his palm.
Tracker.
Clara went white.
"No."
Marco laughed bitterly.
"Pieces of everyone."
Clara threw the bracelet into the lake.
"He has been tracking me for seven months."
"Maybe longer," Nico said.
"Then Lumina -"
She looked at me.
"He knew I would be there."
"And he knew Emma would be there," Marco added.
My stomach tightened.
"Because David gave you my schedule."
"Not only because of David."
Marco leaned back against the vehicle.
"If Bianca hid the ring in Emma's apartment, Vittorio would monitor Emma in case someone came to retrieve it."
"But why target Leo at the restaurant?"
Marco looked at Nico.
"Because one operation could solve three problems."
His voice was exhausted but clear.
"Kill Leo."
Nico's eyes turned black.
"Expose Clara."
Clara looked sick.
"And force Emma away from her apartment long enough to search it."
I remembered the drawers pulled open.
The mattress overturned.
The red dinosaur on my pillow.
"They searched the wrong places."
Marco nodded.
"Bianca knew they would."
I thought of my radiator.
The ancient iron monster that clanged through winter nights.
The one my landlord had refused to replace because it technically still worked.
A memory surfaced.
Three months earlier, I had come home to find the radiator cover slightly crooked.
I thought the building super had inspected it.
I had even complained because nobody left a note.
My breath caught.
"I know where the ring is."
Everyone looked at me.
"My radiator."
Nico frowned.
"What?"
"The cover was moved a few months ago."
"How do you know?"
"Because it never sat straight afterward."
Marco's expression sharpened.
"Would Bianca have known the apartment layout?"
Clara nodded slowly.
"She had photographs from David's old social media."
I closed my eyes.
David had posted everything when we were together.
Pictures of dinners.
Pictures of our tree at Christmas.
Pictures of me laughing beside the ugly radiator after it ruined a holiday photograph with a burst of steam.
Bianca could have known exactly where to hide something.
Nico looked at his driver.
"Chicago."
Marco grabbed his sleeve.
"That is where Vittorio expects you to go."
"Then he will expect correctly."
"You bring an army, he takes the ring before you reach the block."
Nico's jaw tightened.
"You have a better idea?"
Marco looked at me.
"Send the waitress."
Nico's expression became murderous.
"No."
"He watches your cars."
"No."
"He watches your men."
"No."
"He does not watch every woman in Chicago carrying groceries."
"He has photographs of her carrying groceries."
Marco paused.
"Fair."
I folded my arms.
"Thank you both for discussing me like a parcel."
Nico turned to me.
"You are not going near that apartment."
"Then who is?"
"Someone I trust."
Marco laughed.
Nobody else did.
Nico glared at him.
The painful truth remained.
His trusted list was shrinking by the hour.
"I go," I said.
"No."
"Disguised."
"No."
"With backup."
"No."
"You need a new word."
"No."
I stared at him.
"It's my apartment."
"It is a monitored target."
"And I know the radiator."
"I can explain a radiator to another human being."
"Not that radiator."
"It is made of iron, Emma, not mythology."
"You haven't heard it at three in the morning."
Marco actually laughed.
Nico looked around as if wondering how his life had become this.
We compromised because there was no good option.
I entered the block alone wearing Clara's coat, a knit cap, and glasses that belonged to one of the guards.
Nico's men watched from three unmarked vehicles.
Nico himself waited in a delivery van half a block away.
He hated every second.
I could hear it through the tiny earpiece.
"Front entrance clear."
"I see it."
"Third-floor landing has a blind corner."
"I live here."
"Humor me."
"You are not humorous."
"Emma."
"Moving."
My landlord had replaced the lock after the break-in.
The new key turned stiffly.
The apartment smelled like dust and overturned furniture.
Police tape had been removed, but nothing had been cleaned.
My couch cushions remained on the floor.
My clothing had been dumped from drawers.
The mattress leaned against the wall.
I stood in the doorway looking at the remains of the only life I owned.
"Emma?"
Nico's voice softened in my ear.
"I'm here."
"Do not stop."
"I know."
The radiator sat under the window.
Ugly.
Black.
Familiar.
I crouched beside it.
The metal cover was held by two screws.
One screw was newer than the other.
My hands began to shake.
"I found something."
"What?"
"Different screw."
I used a butter knife from the kitchen because apparently international crime conspiracies could still be defeated by cheap cutlery.
The cover came loose.
Dust coated the pipes.
At first I saw nothing.
Then my fingertips touched tape beneath the upper valve.
I pulled.
A tiny plastic packet came free.
Inside was a ring.
Gold band.
Blue sapphire.
Two tiny diamonds.
My grandmother's ring.
For one second, I was nineteen again, standing in her bedroom while she slid it onto my finger and told me never to let a man decide what something was worth just because he knew its price.
Then David's face replaced hers.
The empty jewelry box.
The apology.
The lie.
I closed my fist around the ring.
"I have it."
Silence.
Then Nico exhaled.
"Leave."
A knock sounded at the door.
I froze.
"Emma?"
"Someone's here."
"Window."
"Third floor."
"Fire escape."
I moved toward it.
The front door burst open.
Six police officers rushed inside.
"Hands where we can see them."
I stopped.
"Chicago Police."
"Do not move."
Nico's voice exploded in my earpiece.
"Emma, get down."
I raised my hands.
"I'm not armed."
A detective stepped through the officers.
I recognized him from local television.
Detective Aaron Pike.
He smiled when he saw me.
That smile made my skin crawl.
"Emma Hayes."
He held up a warrant.
"You are under arrest for conspiracy to commit murder, identity fraud, and the attempted killing of Leo Valenti."
My mouth fell open.
"What?"
An officer grabbed my wrist.
The ring disappeared from my palm into the detective's evidence bag.
"No."
I lunged instinctively.
The officer slammed me against the wall.
Pain ripped through my stitched back.
I screamed.
Nico's voice roared in my ear.
"Do not touch her."
Pike reached up and plucked the earpiece from my ear.
He examined it.
Then he smiled directly at the hidden microphone.
"Mr. Valenti."
His voice was almost cheerful.
"If you're listening, thank you for delivering the evidence."
May you like
He crushed the earpiece beneath his shoe.
