Chapter 6 - A Promise Made in the Dark|
The photograph was taken less than an hour earlier.
Rocco confirmed it by checking the timestamp against the van’s location records. Daniel was alive when the picture was taken, but no one knew where he had been taken afterward.
Nora sat in the facility’s small conference room with her hands clasped so tightly that her knuckles had turned white.
Vincent stayed across from her.
He wanted to tell her everything would be fine.
He had spent his life making promises that people accepted because they were afraid to question him.
This time, he refused to lie.
“We’re going to find him,” he said.
Nora stared at the photograph.
“You can’t promise that.”
“No. I can promise I won’t stop looking.”
She raised her eyes.
“Why are you doing this?”
“Because someone used my name to take your brother.”
“That doesn’t explain why you care.”
Vincent considered the question.
“Because you were the only person in my house who spoke to me like I was still alive. And because your brother deserves the same chance you’ve been fighting to give him.”
Nora looked away before he could see how deeply the words affected her.
Rocco returned with an update. The transport company was real, but the vehicle had been rented under a false identity. The documents used to authorize Daniel’s transfer had been generated from a computer inside the rehabilitation center.
Someone had access to the facility’s administrative system.
Someone had planned this carefully.
“Can the police trace the rental?” Vincent asked.
“They’re working on it. The vehicle was purchased through a shell company linked to Bellweather Consulting.”
Vincent recognized the name.
“Bellweather handled financial audits for our shipping division.”
Rocco nodded.
“And Marcus recommended them.”
Vincent’s expression darkened.
“How long have we been paying them?”
“Four years.”
“Get me every contract, every invoice, every transfer.”
Rocco hesitated.
“Boss, if we do that, we’ll expose some of the organization’s older financial arrangements.”
“Then we expose them.”
Rocco studied him.
“Even the ones that could hurt you?”
Vincent looked at the photograph of Daniel.
“Especially those.”
For years, Vincent had treated secrecy as a form of strength. Now he was beginning to understand that secrecy could also become a cage, particularly when other people held the keys.
The police arrived shortly afterward. A detective named Sarah Mitchell took statements from Nora, Vincent, and the facility director. She asked direct questions about Marcus, Bellweather Consulting, and the shooting outside the restaurant.
Vincent answered what he knew and admitted what he did not.
Detective Mitchell made no effort to hide her skepticism.
“You understand, Mr. Bellori, that your name appears in several investigations connected to organized crime.”
“I understand.”
“And you’re asking us to believe you’ll cooperate with an investigation that might implicate your own associates.”
“I’m asking you to find Daniel Bennett.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
“No,” Vincent said. “It isn’t.”
The detective held his gaze for a moment, then closed her notebook.
“We’ll follow the evidence.”
When she left, Nora stood by the window.
“I thought men like you could find anyone.”
“Men like me make people disappear,” Vincent replied. “Finding someone who doesn’t want to be found is different.”
“Then learn.”
He looked at her.
Nora seemed surprised by her own sharpness, but she did not take it back.
Vincent nodded.
“All right.”
That afternoon, he called every legitimate contact he had—former drivers, business managers, medical transport coordinators, and attorneys who could provide records without crossing legal lines. Rocco assembled a small team to check the known addresses connected to Bellweather Consulting.
Vincent also canceled a meeting with three captains who had been pressuring him to hand over operational authority.
Marcus’s allies were growing restless.
They wanted Vincent isolated.
Instead, he began showing up.
He joined calls from his office. He reviewed records with an accountant. He attended physical therapy despite the exhaustion and pain that followed. Each task was small, but each one reclaimed a part of his life that he had surrendered.
That evening, Nora found him attempting to transfer from his wheelchair to the therapy bench without assistance.
“Do you want help?” she asked.
“No.”
“Do you want me to stand here in case you fall?”
“No.”
“Excellent. I’ll stand here in case you fall.”
He glared at her.
She folded her arms.
“Daniel would tell you to stop being an idiot.”
“Daniel doesn’t know me.”
“He knows your type.”
Vincent completed the transfer with difficulty and lowered himself onto the bench.
For a moment, he sat breathing hard, furious at the weakness of his muscles and the tremor in his hands.
Nora didn’t praise him.
She simply handed him a towel.
“Again tomorrow,” she said.
He looked up.
“You’re certain?”
“No. But we can do it anyway.”
He thought of the word he had once hated.
Maybe.
Before bed, Rocco called with a lead. A camera near an abandoned warehouse had captured a van matching the vehicle used to transport Daniel. The van had entered the property but never appeared on the road leading out.
The warehouse belonged to a company that had once leased space to Bellweather Consulting.
Vincent ordered Rocco to share the information with Detective Mitchell and arrange a coordinated search.
Nora heard the word warehouse and went pale.
“What is it?” Vincent asked.
She opened her phone and showed him a message from an unknown number.
It had arrived three minutes earlier.
If Vincent comes looking, Daniel pays first.
Vincent read it.
Then he looked at Nora.
“I won’t let you go there alone.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
For once, they agreed without arguing.
But as they prepared to leave, a second message arrived.
This one contained a live photograph of Daniel tied to a chair inside a dark room.
His face was bruised.
May you like
His eyes were open.
And someone had placed a gun on the table beside him.
