Chapter 3 - The Man Behind the Barrier
The rehabilitation hospital’s residential wing occupied the top two floors of a private medical complex overlooking the Hudson.
Sophia slept in a secured suite while Clare monitored the strained ankle and neurological fatigue caused by the sudden effort.
Hannah refused the room offered to her.
“I’ll sleep in the chair.”
“You were in freezing water for twenty minutes and apparently never learned to accept help,” Clare said.
“That was nine months ago.”
“And your stubbornness appears chronic.”
Hannah eventually accepted the adjoining guest room only after Sophia made her promise not to disappear during the night.
Luca remained in the private consultation room with Marco.
At 2:18 a.m., the security team located Paul Rainer.
He had rented a storage unit in Queens under the name Michael Grant. Exterior footage showed him entering after leaving the hotel.
Police were notified through a prosecutor Luca trusted outside Vincent’s influence.
By the time officers reached the unit, Paul was gone.
But he had left something behind.
A damaged vehicle-control module.
It matched the model installed in Sophia’s SUV.
A technician found evidence that the brake-control system had been remotely disabled nine seconds before the crash.
The module also contained a partial device signature identifying the source of the command.
The signal came from a car following Sophia’s vehicle.
A black sedan registered to Moretti Protective Services.
Vincent’s company.
At three in the morning, Hannah entered the consultation room carrying two cups of coffee.
She placed one in front of Clare and ignored Luca.
“You should rest,” he said.
“So should you.”
“I’m not the one who walked into a river.”
“Nine months ago.”
“You keep saying that as though hypothermia has an expiration date.”
“It generally does.”
Clare hid a smile behind her coffee.
Luca looked toward the glass wall separating them from Sophia’s room.
“Why were you working at the gala?”
“I needed the money.”
“You’re a nurse.”
“I was a nurse.”
“What happened?”
Hannah’s mouth tightened.
“Saint Matthew’s terminated me after the accident.”
“Why?”
“They said I accessed a patient’s restricted medical records.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
Luca understood before she continued.
“Vincent.”
“I couldn’t prove it. The hospital claimed my login was used to open Sophia’s file. My license was suspended pending review. The investigation was eventually dropped, but the center where I worked had already replaced me.”
“So you took banquet shifts.”
“I took whatever paid rent.”
Luca looked at her hands.
They were not the hands of a woman accustomed to carrying silver trays. A pale scar crossed one knuckle where the glass from Sophia’s SUV had cut her.
“My family destroyed your career after you saved my daughter.”
“Your uncle did.”
“Under my name.”
Hannah did not soften the truth for him.
“Yes.”
Marco entered before Luca could respond.
“We have movement at Vincent’s residence.”
A screen on the wall showed security footage from the gated Moretti property in Westchester.
Vincent left through a rear service road carrying a leather case. Another man drove.
Luca recognized the driver as Detective Thomas Keane.
The retired investigator had never moved overseas.
He had been living under Vincent’s protection less than forty miles from Manhattan.
Marco enlarged another image.
“Federal agents are preparing to intercept them.”
“Federal?” Hannah asked.
Luca nodded.
“The district attorney referred the evidence. We’re not using anyone connected to the original investigation.”
Hannah studied him.
“Good.”
It was the first approval she had given him.
The phone on the table rang.
Sophia’s room.
Clare answered.
A nurse’s frightened voice came through the speaker.
“We have a security breach on the pediatric floor.”
Everyone stood.
Luca reached Sophia’s suite first.
The bed was empty.
The wheelchair remained beside it.
On the floor lay one of Sophia’s pink slippers.
The balcony door stood open.
Rain moved through the gap.
Hannah pushed past Luca and ran toward it.
“Sophia!”
The balcony was deserted.
It connected to a narrow maintenance walkway leading around the building.
A small trail of water marked the tiles.
Then Hannah heard singing.
The moon song.
Soft.
Unsteady.
Coming from the neighboring therapy room.
They found Sophia sitting beneath a table with her knees drawn against her chest.
A male orderly lay unconscious near the door.
Hannah dropped beside her.
“Sophia.”
The child threw herself forward.
“He said Daddy sent him.”
Luca crouched.
“Who?”
“The man in green.”
“He tried to take you?”
Sophia nodded.
“He said you wanted me downstairs. But he didn’t know the word.”
“What word?”
“The safe word you taught me.”
After the bridge accident, Luca had created an emergency phrase known only to Sophia and three trusted people.
If anyone claimed Luca had sent them, they had to say it.
The orderly had not known it.
Sophia bit his hand and crawled through the connecting therapy door while he tried to catch her. A physical therapist entering the hall struck him with a fire extinguisher.
Marco turned the unconscious man over.
Paul Rainer.
He was alive.
When Paul regained consciousness, federal agents were waiting.
At first, he refused to speak.
Then Hannah entered the interview room.
Paul looked at her and began crying.
“I tried to warn you at the hotel.”
“You put the photograph in my bag?”
He nodded.
“Why did you follow Sophia’s car?”
“Vincent told me he wanted to frighten Luca. He said the vehicle would lose power and stop near the bridge.”
“But it didn’t stop.”
“No. Keane changed the program.”
“Why fake your death?” Luca asked.
Paul’s eyes moved toward him.
“Because I saw Vincent’s sedan behind the SUV. After the crash, Keane told me I would be charged with killing the child unless I disappeared.”
“You let them bury an empty coffin.”
“I was afraid.”
“So was my daughter.”
Paul lowered his head.
“I know.”
“What did you want with her tonight?”
“I wasn’t taking her.”
“You entered her floor under a false identity.”
“To warn her. Vincent knows she remembers more than anyone realizes.”
Luca looked toward the observation glass.
Sophia sat outside with Hannah and Clare.
“What does she remember?”
Paul swallowed.
“Who was driving the black sedan.”
“Vincent?”
Paul shook his head.
“No.”
May you like
He looked directly at Luca.
“Your brother.”
