Chapter 7 - The Warehouse With No Windows
Dominic did not go to the warehouse alone.
He also did not tell Richard Hale that he wouldn't be coming.
For the next twelve hours, he let the man believe he was frightened enough to comply.
Michael coordinated with investigators. Daniel surrendered every access card, message, and financial record he possessed. Elena remained at the hospital under protection, while Antonio was moved to a monitored room where his medical team could observe him closely.
Emily refused to leave the hospital.
“You need sleep,” Dominic told her.
“So does your father.”
“His doctors are watching him.”
“And who was watching him for nineteen nights?”
The question stopped him.
Emily looked exhausted, but there was steel in her voice now.
“You keep saying you'll protect everyone. I believe you want to. But you can't make people safe by sending them away and deciding everything yourself.”
Dominic studied her.
“You're right.”
She blinked, apparently surprised.
“I'm not used to hearing that from you,” she admitted.
“Neither am I.”
He told her the investigators had recovered another message from Vanessa's tablet.
It had been sent two days before the medication incidents began.
If Antonio remembers what Thomas told him, everything falls apart.
A second message followed.
Then make sure he stays confused.
There was no direct reference to a drug, a dosage, or an instruction to harm anyone. The investigators would need to determine what the messages meant and whether they connected to the bottle.
But they gave Dominic a reason to fear that the medication discrepancy was not an isolated mistake.
At 7:30 p.m., Michael received confirmation that the storage facility associated with Vanessa's payments had been searched under a court-authorized warrant.
Inside, investigators found boxes of old financial documents, a computer, several burner phones, and a sealed envelope containing photographs of Elena.
The blue box was missing.
So was Vanessa.
Dominic read the report in silence.
“She knows we're closing in,” he said.
Michael nodded.
“Which means Hale's invitation may be a trap.”
“It's definitely a trap.”
“Then don't go.”
Dominic looked at the message on his phone.
Bring all three.
“He wants my mother, the ring, and the box. We don't have the box, but he thinks we do. That gives us an advantage.”
“It also gives him a reason to hurt someone.”
Dominic turned toward Emily.
She was standing in the doorway, listening.
“I'm not letting you use my ring as bait,” she said.
“I wasn't going to.”
“You were thinking about it.”
He didn't deny it.
Emily removed the ring and placed it on the table between them.
“My grandfather gave me this because he wanted me to be safe. If it can help prove what happened to him, I'll cooperate with the investigators. But I won't hand it to a man who threatens your father.”
Dominic looked at the ring.
Then at her.
“That's fair.”
At 8:42 p.m., he left for the warehouse with Michael and a team of investigators positioned outside the property. He wore a wire beneath his shirt, and every movement was being monitored.
The warehouse stood beside a disused railway spur. Its windows had been painted black years earlier, and the loading doors were chained shut.
A single side entrance stood open.
Dominic stepped inside.
Richard Hale waited beneath a hanging industrial lamp.
He was in his late sixties, silver-haired, and dressed in a dark suit that looked untouched by the dust around him.
Vanessa stood beside him.
Her eyes were red, but her posture remained rigid.
“You came,” Hale said.
“You threatened my father.”
“I gave you a choice.”
“You threatened a sick old man and called it a choice?”
Hale smiled.
“You sound like your mother.”
Dominic looked at Vanessa.
“Where is the blue box?”
“Safe,” she replied.
“Where?”
“You wouldn't understand.”
“Then explain it.”
Vanessa's composure cracked.
“I tried to protect you. Your father was losing his mind, your mother was running away, and Thomas was preparing to destroy the family. Someone had to make decisions.”
“You mean someone had to decide who deserved to suffer.”
Hale lifted a hand.
“Enough. The ring.”
Dominic placed a decoy ring on the table.
Hale glanced at it and immediately shook his head.
“That's not the one.”
Dominic's heart tightened.
“How do you know?”
“Because I've spent eighteen years looking for it.”
Vanessa turned toward Hale.
“You told me the engraving was enough.”
“It is.”
Hale picked up the decoy and examined it.
Then he looked directly at Dominic.
“Your father was supposed to give me the original after Thomas disappeared. Instead, he kept it hidden. Thomas gave the other one to Elena, and she gave it to Emily.”
Dominic went still.
Hale knew exactly where the ring had been.
Which meant someone had been watching Emily long before she entered the Romano mansion.
“Why does it matter?” Dominic asked.
“Because the ring is not the evidence. It's the key to finding it.”
Hale walked to a metal cabinet and opened it.
Inside were photographs, documents, and a small electronic device.
He placed the device on the table.
“Thomas was clever,” he said. “He encrypted the location of the ledger and split the access instructions between two pieces of jewelry. One ring identifies the account. The other contains the code.”
Dominic stared at him.
“You've been hunting a book for eighteen years?”
“I've been hunting the people who could use it to destroy me.”
“And Vanessa helped you.”
“She helped herself.”
Vanessa flinched.
Hale ignored her.
“Now, Dominic, tell me where your mother is.”
Dominic smiled without warmth.
“Somewhere you can't reach.”
Hale sighed.
“Then we'll have to use someone else.”
A door slammed behind Dominic.
Two men emerged from the darkness.
One held a phone.
On the screen was a live image of Emily sitting alone in the hospital corridor.
Hale's expression remained pleasant.
“Call your team. Tell them to stand down.”
Dominic's blood turned to ice.
May you like
Because Emily had not been alone when he left the hospital.
And if the image was live, someone inside the hospital had just helped Hale reach her.
