Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN IN THE ALLEY
Luca stared at the photocopy. The gun in his right hand trembled slightly, but he didn’t lower it.
The name on the suspect line glared back at him in black and white.
Primary Suspect: Ruth Ellis. Status: Cleared due to lack of evidence.
“It’s a forgery,” Luca said. His voice was raw, but it was absolutely certain. “Marcus had this made to mess with my head.”
Outside the heavy oak door, Paulie laughed. It was a cruel, hollow sound.
“It’s real, Luca! Look at the precinct stamp at the top. You have cops on your payroll, don’t you? Call Captain Miller. Ask him to pull the 1997 cold case file. The old lady was the last person seen with your mother.”
Luca looked down at Ruth. The sedative was still fighting her adrenaline, leaving her groggy and terrified. She clutched her chest, staring at the paper in Luca’s hand.
“Mom,” Luca whispered, dropping to one knee beside the bed. “Look at me.”
Ruth’s lip quivered. “Luca… I didn’t… I never hurt her. I swear on my soul.”
“I know,” he said immediately. He didn’t hesitate. He didn’t doubt her for a single second. The absolute loyalty in his eyes made my own chest ache. “I know you didn’t. But I need to know why your name is on this report.”
Ruth closed her eyes. A tear slipped down her wrinkled cheek.
“Because I was in the alley,” she whispered.
Vanessa, huddled in the corner by the closet, let out a sharp gasp.
Ruth looked at Luca with desperate, sorrowful eyes. “I was the third passenger on that ticket. Elena and I… we worked together at the cafeteria. She was my only friend. She told me about Marcus Thorne. She told me he was trying to force her to hand over her grandfather’s shipyard deed to pay off a fake debt.”
Luca’s jaw tightened. “She never told me.”
“She was trying to protect you. She bought three tickets to Montreal. She told me to meet her in the alley behind the diner at 10 PM. She had the deed in her purse. We were going to run away together.”
Ruth choked on a sob, her hands gripping the quilt.
“When I got to the alley, Marcus was already there. He had two men with him. One of them… one of them hit her. They took her purse. They left her bleeding on the concrete. I hid behind a stack of crates. I was so scared, Luca. I was so, so scared.”
“And you didn't go to the police?” I asked softly.
Ruth looked at me, her eyes hollow with decades of guilt.
“I did. I went the next morning. I told the detective everything. But the detective just smiled at me. He told me Marcus Thorne was a very powerful man. He told me if I ever repeated that story, Marcus would find the little boy who was hiding behind the dumpster.”
Luca stopped breathing.
“He knew I was there,” Luca realized, his voice hollow.
“The detective told me you would end up in a river,” Ruth cried, burying her face in her hands. “So I kept my mouth shut. They cleared me as a suspect because they knew I was terrified. But I promised Elena I would protect you. I tracked you to the orphanage. I adopted you to give you a different last name, so Marcus would lose track of you. I gave up my life so you could have one!”
Luca dropped the police report. He leaned forward and wrapped his arms around Ruth, holding her as she sobbed into his shoulder.
“You didn’t give up your life,” Luca whispered fiercely into her hair. “You gave me mine.”
A violent crash echoed from the hallway. Someone had taken an axe to the heavy oak door. The wood splintered near the top hinge.
“Time’s up, Boss!” Paulie shouted. “I’m coming in!”
Luca stood up. The tender son vanished instantly. The Mafia boss returned, his eyes cold and lethal.
“Claire,” Luca barked. “Get her into the master bathroom. There’s a panic room behind the mirror. The passcode is 1-9-9-7.”
I nodded, helping Ruth to her feet. She was unsteady, but the sheer terror gave her strength.
“What about me?” Vanessa cried, crawling forward. “They’ll kill me for helping you!”
Luca looked at his fiancée with utter disgust. “You helped me because you’re a coward, Vanessa. But you’re going in the panic room, too. Move.”
I rushed Ruth and Vanessa into the massive marble bathroom. I found the control panel hidden beneath the medicine cabinet, punched in the code, and watched the heavy mirror slide away to reveal a steel-reinforced room.
I pushed them inside, but before I could step in myself, another deafening crash shook the bedroom.
The door splintered open.
Paulie stepped through the wreckage, holding a tactical shotgun. Behind him were three armed men I recognized from Luca’s own security detail. Traitors.
Luca didn’t wait for them to aim.
He fired three rounds from his handgun in rapid succession. The first two hit the men behind Paulie in the knees, dropping them instantly. The third shot grazed Paulie’s shoulder.
Paulie roared in pain and fired the shotgun blindly. Buckshot tore through the velvet bed frame, ripping the pillows to shreds.
I threw myself flat on the marble bathroom floor, covering my head.
“You’re a dead man, Luca!” Paulie yelled, ducking behind the overturned dresser. “Marcus has fifty men surrounding the perimeter! You can’t win this!”
“I don’t have to win,” Luca yelled back, reloading his weapon with practiced efficiency. “I just have to survive until the Feds get here.”
Silence fell over the room.
“What did you say?” Paulie demanded.
“You think I didn’t know you were dirty, Paulie? I called the FBI twenty minutes ago. I told them Marcus Thorne is in my house, armed, trying to silence a witness to a 1997 homicide. You hear those sirens?”
Faintly, in the distance, the wail of police sirens pierced the night air.
Paulie panicked. He looked at the window, then back at Luca.
“Screw this,” Paulie muttered. He turned and bolted for the hallway, abandoning his men.
Luca stepped out from cover, breathing heavily. The two wounded men were groaning on the floor.
I slowly pushed myself up from the bathroom tiles. “Is it true? Are the FBI coming?”
Luca turned to me, his face pale.
“No,” he said quietly. “I bought us five minutes. Grab the lunchbox. We’re leaving through the service tunnels.”
Before I could move, a thick puff of black smoke drifted under the shattered bedroom door.
The smoke alarm shrieked.
They weren’t trying to break in anymore.
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Paulie had set the mansion on fire.
TITLE: THE BURNING MANSION
