Chapter 4 - Locker Seventeen
Emma wanted to drive directly to her mother’s house.
Luca refused.
“She’s there.”
“I know.”
“They have her.”
“I know.”
“Then drive!”
Luca pulled the SUV to the curb.
Emma reached for the door.
He locked it.
She spun around.
“Unlock this car.”
“No.”
“Luca.”
“If you walk into that house, they get you too.”
“My mother—”
“Will die faster if you panic.”
Emma hit him.
The slap cracked through the vehicle.
Nobody moved.
Luca slowly turned his face back toward her.
Emma’s hand shook.
“I’m sorry.”
“No, you’re not.”
“You don’t understand.”
“Yes, I do.”
His voice was quiet.
“That’s why I’m not letting you go.”
Richard spoke from the back.
“They asked for the key.”
Emma looked down at the small piece of metal in her hand.
“Then we give it to them.”
Victoria shook her head.
“Without knowing what it opens?”
“My mother is worth more than whatever my father hid.”
Luca looked at her.
“That is exactly what David would say.”
“Then stop treating me like evidence.”
Silence.
Luca nodded once.
“We give them the key.”
Emma stared.
“But not the right one.”
Twenty minutes later, Victoria found a locksmith operating from a storefront in Pilsen.
He duplicated the key without asking why five frightened strangers were watching him.
They returned to Emma’s mother’s neighborhood separately.
Richard and Victoria remained two blocks away.
Trevor, who had said almost nothing for the last hour, finally spoke.
“I can call the police.”
Luca shook his head.
“Whoever is doing this has access to corporate security. Until we know how far that reaches, no calls.”
Trevor looked sick.
Emma realized he was no longer arrogant.
Just terrified.
Luca parked behind an alley.
He handed Emma the duplicate.
“If anything feels wrong—”
“Everything feels wrong.”
“More wrong.”
Despite herself, Emma almost smiled.
Almost.
She walked toward the house alone.
The porch light was on.
The front door stood open.
“Mom?”
No answer.
Emma entered.
The living room looked untouched.
A lamp glowed beside the sofa.
Her mother’s knitting sat folded in a basket.
Then Emma saw the overturned chair in the kitchen.
“Mom?”
A man stepped from the hallway.
Black jacket.
Gloves.
No mask.
Emma had never seen him before.
“Key.”
“Where is she?”
“Key first.”
“My mother first.”
He smiled.
“You’re negotiating?”
“Yes.”
“Badly.”
A second man entered holding Diane Reed by the arm.
Her mother’s face was streaked with tears.
“Emma.”
Emma fought the urge to run toward her.
“I have it.”
She held up the duplicate.
“Let her go.”
The first man walked closer.
“Put it on the table.”
Emma obeyed.
He examined it.
The number 17 was stamped clearly on the top.
He nodded.
The second man released Diane.
Emma rushed toward her.
Her mother grabbed her.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
The men backed toward the door.
Emma waited.
One reached for the key.
Then Luca stepped from the pantry.
“Don’t.”
The first man spun.
Luca struck him.
The second reached inside his jacket.
Diane screamed.
Emma pulled her mother down.
A gunshot exploded into the ceiling.
Glass shattered.
Luca drove his shoulder into the armed man.
They crashed through a chair.
Emma crawled toward the hallway.
The first attacker grabbed her ankle.
She kicked hard.
Trevor suddenly appeared in the doorway and smashed a decorative vase over the man’s head.
Everyone froze.
Trevor stared at the broken vase in his hand.
“I have always hated that thing.”
Even Diane looked confused.
Luca disarmed the second man.
Richard entered moments later.
Police arrived only after Luca used the attackers’ own phones to confirm they were working without official support.
Both men refused to speak.
But the key had worked.
Not physically.
Psychologically.
They believed locker seventeen existed.
Diane sat wrapped in a blanket while Emma knelt beside her.
“Mom.”
Her mother closed her eyes.
“You found Luca.”
“Yes.”
“I prayed you never would.”
Emma stared.
“You knew?”
Diane’s eyes filled.
“Your father told me.”
“Told you what?”
“Enough.”
“Apparently not enough.”
Diane looked toward Luca.
“You promised David.”
Luca’s face changed.
Emma stood.
“What promise?”
Neither answered.
Emma laughed bitterly.
“I am so tired of people deciding what I deserve to know.”
Diane reached for her hand.
“Your father made Luca promise that if something happened to him, you would never be involved.”
“Well, that worked.”
Diane flinched.
Emma immediately regretted it.
She sat again.
“Mom. Please.”
Diane took a trembling breath.
“The key is for a storage facility.”
Luca leaned forward.
“You know which one?”
“Yes.”
Everyone stared.
Diane continued.
“Your father rented a locker under my maiden name.”
Emma whispered, “Seventeen.”
Her mother nodded.
“It’s near the river freight district.”
Richard checked his watch.
“It’s after midnight.”
Diane went to a kitchen drawer.
She removed the original key.
Then she looked at Emma.
“I kept this for seven years because your father told me there might come a day when you needed the truth more than you needed protection.”
She placed it in Emma’s hand.
“I prayed that day would never come.”
The storage facility opened twenty-four hours.
Locker seventeen sat at the far end of a concrete corridor.
Emma inserted the key.
It turned.
Inside were three objects.
A battered laptop.
A leather notebook.
And an envelope bearing Emma’s name.
Her fingers shook as she opened it.
The first line was in her father’s handwriting.
Emma, if you are reading this, I failed to keep the worst parts of my life away from you.
She swallowed.
The next line:
Do not trust the official story of my death.
Luca stepped closer.
Emma continued reading.
I found the person controlling the Caldwell network.
I was wrong about him for years.
So was Luca.
If I disappear, remember this:
The enemy is not a stranger.
He is family.
Emma looked at Luca.
His face had gone pale.
“What does that mean?”
Before he could answer, the corridor lights went out.
A metallic slam echoed behind them.
The main fire door had closed.
Luca turned.
Then Emma smelled it.
Smoke.
Thin at first.
Then thicker.
May you like
Someone had set the storage facility on fire.
And they had locked the only visible exit.
