Chapter 8 - The Exchange
Clara answered before Dante could speak.
"No."
He looked at her.
"You don't even know what I was going to say."
"You were going to say I am not being exchanged."
"Correct."
"Then we're wasting time."
Dante stared at her.
"You think I'm handing you to people who took my daughter?"
"No."
Clara folded her arms.
"I think they expect you to refuse."
Dante's expression shifted.
Elias looked up from the laptop.
"She's right."
Dante turned.
"Explain."
"They didn't give a location."
Elias replayed the call metadata.
"They didn't give a deadline."
Clara nodded.
"They wanted us talking about me."
Dante looked toward the cassette tape.
"While they move Sophia again."
"Or while they move something else."
Shaw went pale.
"The files."
Everyone looked at her.
"What files?"
Shaw pointed toward the empty safe.
"Sophia's sessions weren't just therapy tapes."
She swallowed.
"Elena started using the sessions to document things Sophia saw."
Dante stared at her.
"You helped her investigate Julian through a four-year-old?"
"No."
Shaw's voice sharpened.
"I helped Elena document her daughter's spontaneous statements because she was terrified someone would say she had coached Sophia later."
Clara understood immediately.
"She was building a clean record."
Shaw nodded.
"Date stamped."
"Independent."
"Yes."
Dante looked at the safe again.
"And Vincent knew."
Shaw's silence was answer enough.
Dante's phone rang.
This time it was Tomas.
"Sir, someone just accessed the underground archive at the chapel."
Dante swore.
"Our team?"
"No."
"How?"
"Second entrance."
Clara looked at Dante.
The hidden passage behind the file room.
Tomas continued.
"Camera caught one vehicle leaving the cemetery road."
"Plate?"
"Covered."
"Color?"
"Dark blue."
Blue again.
Dante ordered the chapel team to secure everything remaining.
Elias tapped rapidly at the keyboard.
"I may have the car from Sophia's video."
Traffic cameras showed a dark blue Lincoln Town Car crossing the Queensboro Bridge eight minutes earlier.
The rear window had a distinctive crack near the corner.
Sophia's call had shown the same mark.
"Where is it going?"
"East."
Dante stood.
"Follow it."
Elias shook his head.
"It disappeared under the Roosevelt Island tram camera gap."
"Find it."
"I'm trying."
Clara looked at Dr. Shaw.
"You said there were twelve sessions."
"Yes."
"Did Sophia ever talk about a car?"
Shaw frowned.
"I don't remember."
"Think."
Dante glanced at Clara.
She heard his earlier command echoed in her own voice.
Shaw paced once across the blue room.
Then she stopped.
"A garage."
"What about it?"
"Session nine."
Shaw pressed both hands to her temples.
"Sophia said shiny ring uncle took something from Mommy's desk and put it in a blue car."
Dante stared at her.
"What car?"
"She couldn't describe it."
"Did Elena own one?"
"No."
Clara looked at the blue Lincoln on the paused screen.
"Julian?"
Dante shook his head.
"Julian hates American sedans."
"Vincent?"
Dante's eyes narrowed.
"Vincent drove a blue Lincoln for years."
Elias pulled vehicle records.
"Registered to Rinaldi Legal Group until four years ago."
"What happened to it?"
"Sold at auction."
"To who?"
Elias stared at the screen.
"Anthony Mercer."
Clara felt a flash of anger so clean it almost steadied her.
Mercer had been connected to Vincent for years.
Not just tonight.
"Find his addresses."
Elias pulled three.
An apartment in Brooklyn.
A summer house in Montauk.
A storage garage in Long Island City.
Dante pointed at the garage.
"Closest to the bridge."
They left immediately.
Dr. Shaw stayed behind with two guards.
Clara climbed into the SUV.
Dante caught her door before she closed it.
"You're not coming."
Clara stared at him.
"They asked for me."
"Exactly."
"If Sophia sees me, she may stay calm."
"If they see you, they may kill you."
Clara held his gaze.
"They threatened me before they took her."
"That is not an argument for getting closer to them."
"No, but it means hiding me won't solve anything."
Dante looked away for a second.
The fear on his face was not for himself.
Clara softened her voice.
"I promised her I would come back."
Dante looked at her again.
"And I promised Elena I would protect her."
The words were barely audible.
Clara understood what he was really saying.
He had failed once.
He could not survive believing he had failed again.
"Then we bring Sophia home."
Dante released the door.
"You stay in the second car."
Clara nodded.
It was the closest thing to agreement they were going to get.
The Long Island City garage sat beneath an abandoned print warehouse.
Rust covered the rolling door.
Dante's team entered from two sides.
The blue Lincoln was inside.
Engine warm.
Rear door open.
No Sophia.
On the back seat lay a child's red mitten.
Not Sophia's.
Clara's stomach dropped.
"It's staged."
Dante looked toward the far wall.
A portable television had been placed on a folding chair.
The screen flickered on by itself.
Vincent Rinaldi appeared.
He was seated behind a desk somewhere else.
His tie was gone.
His sleeves were rolled up.
He looked almost relaxed.
"Dante."
Dante stepped toward the camera.
"Where is my daughter?"
Vincent smiled faintly.
"You always begin with the wrong question."
"Try me."
"You should be asking what Elena found."
Dante's eyes hardened.
"I am going to find you."
"Eventually."
Vincent leaned closer to the camera.
"But every minute you spend looking for Sophia is a minute I spend cleaning up the mess your wife left behind."
Clara moved beside Dante.
Vincent noticed her.
"There she is."
His smile changed.
"The waitress who taught a dead woman how to speak."
Clara's skin crawled.
"Sophia is alive."
"I wasn't talking about Sophia."
The room went silent.
Dante stared at him.
"What does that mean?"
Vincent ignored him.
He addressed Clara.
"You should ask why Elena's files were hidden in a chapel instead of given to the police."
Clara did not answer.
"You should ask why she trusted no one in Dante's organization."
Dante's face tightened.
Vincent continued.
"And you should ask why she recorded twelve therapy sessions instead of simply telling her husband his cousin was stealing documents."
Clara saw the trap.
"You want Dante doubting Elena."
Vincent smiled.
"No."
"I want Dante remembering her accurately."
The screen shifted.
A document appeared.
Elena's signature was at the bottom.
The heading read EMERGENCY PETITION FOR SOLE CUSTODY.
Dante stared at it.
Clara looked at him.
His face had gone blank.
Vincent spoke softly.
"Your wife was planning to take Sophia and leave you."
Dante did not move.
"That filing was prepared four days before Elena died."
The document disappeared.
Vincent returned to the screen.
"So before you make Julian the villain and Elena the saint, ask yourself one question."
He leaned closer.
"What was your wife running from?"
The television went black.
Dante stood motionless.
Then Clara heard a sound behind them.
A phone vibrating.
It came from inside the blue Lincoln's trunk.
A guard opened it.
There was no phone.
There was a small audio recorder taped beneath the lid.
Dante pressed play.
Sophia's voice whispered through the speaker.
"Clara."
Clara stepped closer.
"I'm here."
Of course Sophia could not hear her.
The recording continued.
"Daddy didn't hurt Mommy."
Dante closed his eyes.
May you like
Then Sophia said the words that changed everything again.
"Mommy was hiding from the other daddy."
