Chapter 5 - The Ticket to a Ghost Town
“Don’t touch her!” I screamed, throwing my body over Lily.
Marco fired his weapon, but the man at my door had already ducked. In a flash of movement, another man dragged Marco out of the driver’s seat. The sounds of a brutal struggle echoed in the alley, followed by a heavy thud.
The man with the bracelet reached in and grabbed my hair, pulling me backward.
“Get off her, you stupid maid,” he growled.
He reached for Lily, but I kicked him as hard as I could in the chest. He grunted, stumbling back into the brick wall of the alley.
“Claire!” Lily shrieked, burying her face in my shoulder.
Suddenly, the roar of an engine deafened us.
Luca’s armored sedan smashed into the black vans blocking the alley, tearing the metal apart with a horrific screech. The impact threw the attackers off balance.
Luca stepped out of the driver's side. He wasn’t under arrest. He was a force of nature.
He had a gun in his hand, but he didn’t use it. He walked straight up to the man who had tried to grab Lily and struck him across the jaw with the heavy steel barrel. The man dropped instantly.
Luca dragged Marco into our SUV, jumped into the driver’s seat, and slammed the car into reverse.
We tore out of the alley, the tires smoking.
“Are you hurt?” Luca demanded, glancing at us in the rearview mirror. His face was covered in a terrifying, cold rage.
“No,” I breathed, shaking violently. “Luca... he had a bracelet.”
Luca’s eyes snapped to mine in the mirror. “What?”
“He had a silver bracelet with a blue stone. He told Lily her mother sent him.”
The SUV swerved slightly as Luca’s grip on the steering wheel tightened until his knuckles were white.
“Sarah’s medical ID bracelet,” he whispered. “It went missing the night she died.”
“Daddy,” Lily cried softly. “Why did he say Mommy sent him?”
Luca didn’t answer. He drove in silence for ten minutes, checking every mirror, taking winding side streets until he finally pulled into the underground parking garage of a deserted commercial building.
He parked in the darkest corner and turned the engine off.
He turned around in his seat to face us.
“Claire,” he said gently. “Give me the flip phone.”
I handed it to him.
“Lily told me someone has been calling her on it,” I said, my voice shaking. “Someone pretending to be Sarah.”
Luca’s face hardened. He opened the phone and went to the call history.
“There are no incoming calls listed,” he said.
“They used an app,” I realized. “The phone connects to the house Wi-Fi. Someone hacked the router to make VoIP calls that don't leave a cellular trace.”
Luca stared at the cracked screen. “Vanessa.”
“No,” I said, putting the pieces together. “Vanessa was terrified of Sarah’s memory. She wanted the phone thrown away. The person calling Lily... wanted Lily to stay attached to it.”
Luca frowned. “Then who?”
I reached into my apron pocket. During the struggle with the man at the car door, I had ripped something from his coat pocket when I kicked him.
I held it up in the dim light of the car.
It was a plane ticket.
But it wasn’t for a commercial flight. It was a private charter manifest.
Luca snatched it from my hand and turned on the overhead light.
Passenger: Lily Moretti.
Destination: St. Jude’s Medical Facility, Switzerland.
“They weren’t trying to kidnap her for ransom,” Luca whispered, horror bleeding into his voice. “They were taking her to a psychiatric facility.”
“Why?” I asked.
Luca looked at the back of the ticket. There was a signature authorizing the medical transport.
He showed it to me.
It wasn't Vanessa’s signature.
It read: Sarah Moretti.
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“Because,” Luca said, his voice completely hollow. “According to this... my wife is still alive.”
TITLE: The Rosary in the Snow
