Chapter 5 - THE HOUSE OF ASHES
The woman in the photograph had Sofia Rossi's face.
She had the same dark eyes, the same narrow chin, and the same pale scar above her left eyebrow that appeared in every framed family portrait in the mansion.
The photograph was not old.
A newspaper on the table behind her displayed a headline from two days earlier.
She stood beside a blue bassinet with Lily in her arms.
My daughter was awake.
Her tiny face turned toward the camera as if she could see me through the paper.
"Where was this taken?" I asked.
Bianca pressed one hand against the bullet wound in her shoulder.
Blood soaked through her white robe.
"I don't know."
Lorenzo crouched beside her.
"You carried the photograph against your skin."
"Someone sent it to me."
"Who?"
"Sofia."
The curtains collapsed in a shower of sparks.
Fire crawled across the rug and climbed the carved bed frame.
Smoke rolled along the ceiling.
Leo began coughing beneath Lorenzo's coat.
I took him and covered his mouth loosely with a damp cloth from the washstand.
"We have to move," I said.
Lorenzo grabbed Bianca beneath her uninjured arm and pulled her upright.
She cried out, then nearly fainted.
"There is a safe room behind the wardrobe," she gasped.
"No," Lorenzo replied.
"You know the safe room better than anyone."
"Which means it is the first place your friends will search."
He dragged her toward the hall.
The east wing corridor had become a tunnel of smoke.
Sprinklers sprayed from the ceiling, but several heads had been cut or blocked.
Flames burned behind closed doors.
The fire alarm continued repeating its calm mechanical warning while the mansion died around us.
Lorenzo fired at a window at the end of the corridor.
The bulletproof pane starred but did not break.
"Service stairs," I said.
"The maids use them behind the blue tapestry."
We moved along the wall until I found the embroidered hunting scene.
I pulled it aside, revealing a narrow door.
The knob was hot.
Lorenzo wrapped his hand in his coat and forced it open.
Cool air rushed from the stairwell.
A body fell through the doorway.
It was one of the housekeepers.
Her gray uniform was streaked with soot, and blood covered the side of her face.
She was still breathing.
I recognized her as Ana, a quiet woman from Guatemala who had shown me where the staff kept pain relievers during my first week.
"Ana."
Her eyes opened briefly.
"They took everyone downstairs," she whispered.
"Who did?"
"Men with black rings."
Her gaze moved toward Bianca.
Fear widened her eyes.
"She opened the gate."
Bianca shook her head.
"She's confused."
Ana grabbed my sleeve with surprising strength.
"The widow opened the gate."
Then her hand went limp.
Lorenzo checked her pulse.
"Alive."
He lifted her over his free shoulder while still supporting Bianca.
The sight would have seemed impossible anywhere else.
The country's most feared crime boss carried an injured maid and the woman suspected of betraying him while I followed with his poisoned son.
We descended two flights.
The service stairwell ended near the kitchen.
Smoke poured through the lower doorway.
A burst of gunfire echoed from the main foyer.
Lorenzo stopped.
"Matteo should have reached the east gate by now."
He pressed two fingers to the small radio in his ear.
"Matteo."
Static answered.
Then Celeste's voice came through.
"The trade failed."
Lorenzo's eyes narrowed.
"Where is Matteo?"
"Bleeding."
"Where are you?"
"Leaving."
The connection ended.
Bianca laughed weakly.
"You trusted the wrong woman."
"You hired her," Lorenzo said.
"Mercer recommended her."
"You approved her."
"Because Sofia used her before Leo was born."
Lorenzo froze.
"Celeste treated Sofia?"
Bianca looked at him as though realizing she had said too much.
He shifted Ana's weight and seized Bianca by the throat with his free hand.
"What did Celeste treat?"
"Panic attacks."
"Sofia never had panic attacks."
"Not when you were watching."
The kitchen doors burst open.
Enzo Falcone appeared through the smoke with a rifle raised.
Two guards followed him.
Blood covered the left side of Enzo's tactical vest.
He saw Lorenzo and lowered the weapon.
"We have two minutes before the fire reaches the gas line."
Lorenzo looked at him with open suspicion.
"You told us the studio was empty."
"It was."
"You also said the feed came from inside the mansion."
"Because I traced it here."
Enzo's gaze moved toward Bianca.
"She used an internal transmitter."
"Sofia is alive," Lorenzo said.
For the first time since entering the kitchen, Enzo lost control of his expression.
It was only a flicker.
Shock.
Or guilt.
Lorenzo saw it too.
"You knew."
Enzo's jaw tightened.
"Not here."
"You knew my wife survived."
"We will all die if we have this conversation now."
A deep explosion shook the floor.
Cabinet doors flew open.
Glass shattered across the counters.
Enzo took Ana from Lorenzo and ordered one guard to carry her.
The other guard supported Bianca.
We ran through the pantry toward the loading entrance.
The steel exit door had been chained from the outside.
Enzo fired at the lock.
The chain held.
Lorenzo and Enzo hit the door together.
The frame bent.
A second impact tore it loose.
We spilled into the rear courtyard as flames erupted from the east wing windows.
The night sky turned orange.
Sirens sounded beyond the estate walls.
Too many sirens.
Police vehicles appeared before the fire trucks.
Black vans blocked the main drive.
Uniformed officers flooded through the gates with rifles drawn.
"Federal task force," Enzo said.
"They arrived fast."
"Because they were waiting," Lorenzo replied.
A man in a dark overcoat stepped from behind the police line.
Dr. Adrian Mercer looked untouched by the chaos.
His silver hair remained neatly combed.
His leather medical bag hung from one hand.
A television camera crew stood behind him.
"Mr. Rossi," Mercer called through a loudspeaker.
"Put down your weapons and release the child."
I stared at him.
"Release the child?"
Mercer raised a folder.
"We have evidence that Mara Bennett entered the nursery without authorization, administered an unknown substance to Leo Rossi, and attempted to remove him from the estate."
Police spotlights found me.
Leo shifted against my chest.
Mercer continued speaking for the cameras.
"The suspect recently suffered a traumatic pregnancy loss and may be experiencing a severe psychiatric crisis."
His tone was compassionate.
Every word was a knife.
He had turned my grief into a weapon and handed it to the police.
Lorenzo moved in front of me.
"She saved my son."
Mercer opened the folder.
"Preliminary testing found sedatives in milk collected from Ms. Bennett's room."
"I never stored milk in my room."
"A witness also heard her threatening the night nurse."
"The night nurse poisoned him."
"Celeste Ward is missing and presumed abducted."
The lie was perfect because Celeste had escaped.
Mercer knew exactly when to arrive.
He knew exactly what evidence would be found.
He had built the scene before I ever climbed the nursery stairs.
An officer stepped forward with a warrant.
"Mara Bennett, place the infant on the ground and raise your hands."
"No," Lorenzo said.
Dozens of rifles shifted toward him.
Leo began to cry.
The sound grew stronger than before.
He rooted against my chest, searching for food.
Mercer watched him with an expression that lasted less than a heartbeat.
Disappointment.
Leo was supposed to be too weak to cry.
I understood then that the doctor's real fear was not Lorenzo's gun.
It was a living baby who could prove his diagnosis had been a lie.
"Let an independent doctor examine him," I shouted.
Mercer lifted the loudspeaker again.
"Leo requires immediate treatment."
"I am the physician most familiar with his condition."
"That is exactly why you shouldn't touch him."
The officers advanced.
Lorenzo looked over his shoulder at me.
"Do you trust me?"
I almost laughed at the impossibility of the question.
Hours earlier, he had aimed a gun between my eyes.
Now he was the only person standing between my children and the people who had stolen them.
"With Leo," I said.
"Yes."
He took his son carefully.
The baby's hand closed around the edge of his shirt.
Lorenzo whispered something in Italian against his forehead.
Then he passed Leo to Enzo.
"Take him to Dr. Naomi Grant at Mercy Children's."
"No one else."
Mercer raised the loudspeaker.
"That child is in state protective custody."
Lorenzo smiled without warmth.
"Then the state can try to catch him."
Enzo turned and ran toward an armored vehicle parked near the servants' garage.
Police opened fire on the tires.
The vehicle accelerated through a stone garden wall and disappeared toward the north road.
Chaos erupted.
Officers rushed Lorenzo.
He placed his gun on the ground and raised his hands before they could shoot.
I did the same.
They forced us onto our knees.
Cold mud soaked through my uniform.
Mercer walked past the police line and stopped in front of me.
From a distance, he looked like a doctor checking on a frightened patient.
He crouched and spoke too quietly for the cameras to hear.
"Your daughter is alive because I allowed it."
I stared into his calm gray eyes.
"Where is she?"
"That depends on whether you continue making trouble."
"Bianca said Sofia has her."
Mercer's expression did not change.
"Bianca says many things when she is afraid."
He adjusted the torn collar of my uniform as though protecting my dignity.
His fingers pressed something into my pocket.
"Tell the police you acted alone."
"Tell them Lorenzo never knew you entered the nursery."
"Then perhaps Lily will live long enough to meet you."
He stood and walked away.
An officer pulled me to my feet and handcuffed my wrists.
As I was led toward a police van, I slipped my fingers into the pocket Mercer had touched.
I found a small glass vial.
A white label carried my name and medical record number.
Inside was a cloudy sample of breast milk.
A second label had been pasted beneath the first.
I peeled back one corner.
The original name underneath was SOFIA ROSSI.
May you like
On the reverse side, someone had written a message in red ink.
SHE FED LEO BEFORE YOU DID.
