Chương 6 - The Road Sophia Took
The day Sophia Romano died had been recreated so many times that Vincent could describe the weather, the traffic lights, and the exact minute his wife called to tell him Lily had fallen asleep in the back seat. But he had never been able to make sense of the most important detail: the bomb had been planted on a car he normally used, and Sophia had borrowed it only because their family driver was collecting a repaired vehicle across town.
"She wasn't supposed to be there," Vincent told Ruby.
They were standing in the estate's security office, where a wall of monitors showed gardens, gates, garages, and hallways. Gabriel sat at a desk covered with printed call logs. Diana stood near the window with her arms folded tightly.
"You weren't supposed to be there either," Gabriel said. "The attackers expected you to leave for the waterfront meeting after lunch. Somebody told them you used the black car on Fridays."
"Every employee knows I used that car," Vincent said.
"Not every employee knew the meeting's time changed. And not everyone had access to the rear-garage cameras."
Gabriel played a sequence of blurred footage. A black car rolled through the garage at 12:42. Two minutes later, the recording jumped forward by eleven minutes. When it resumed, the vehicle sat in exactly the same place.
"The missing footage could be a technical failure," Gabriel admitted. "We assumed it was. But a separate audit now shows that somebody logged in remotely and changed the recording schedule that morning. The login used an administrator account that was supposedly disabled six months earlier."
Ruby watched Vincent's face harden. She'd seen that expression directed at business calls. Seeing it now, while they discussed his wife's last afternoon, frightened her.
"Who had the credentials?" he asked.
"You. Me. Our former transport supervisor, Nolan Vega. A few people in the old systems team."
"Find Nolan."
"Already trying. He left town three weeks after the bombing."
Diana turned abruptly from the window. "You never told me the cameras were altered."
"I didn't know until last night," Vincent replied.
"And you let me spend eight months believing Reyes was nothing but a suspect without telling me who else might have had access to the garage?"
"We didn't have proof," Gabriel said.
"We had a dead woman," Diana snapped.
Ruby watched the siblings exchange a look filled with arguments neither had the energy to revisit. She wanted to leave, but Vincent had asked her to stay for one reason: her safety might now depend on knowing whether the anonymous messages and the old attack were connected.
"Who is Reyes?" she asked.
"Salvatore Reyes," Vincent said. "He runs a criminal operation with financial interests along the waterfront. We fought over contracts and territory. The pressure escalated shortly before Sophia died. I've suspected him since the beginning."
"But suspicion isn't evidence," Ruby said.
"Exactly."
She looked again at the footage. "Could someone have told him what car you drove without knowing what he planned?"
Gabriel nodded reluctantly. "That's one of the possibilities."
Ruby thought of the anonymous messages. Whoever sent them seemed interested in frightening her, not necessarily killing her. She wondered whether a frightened person inside the household had been used the same way.
That afternoon, federal agent Naomi Price arrived at the estate with a second investigator and a court order authorizing a renewed examination of certain electronic records. She was composed, blunt, and completely unimpressed by the marble floors.
"We aren't here to fight your private war," she told Vincent. "If you have evidence, we'll examine it. If your own operation has obstructed this investigation, we'll examine that too."
He met her eyes. "Fine. I want the people responsible for Sophia's murder in court. I don't care how uncomfortable that makes me."
"You should care," Price replied. "You'll need to be honest about your own business."
Vincent glanced toward the hallway where Lily was laughing with Marta. "Then I'll start being honest."
Price interviewed Gabriel and Diana separately. Ruby provided the anonymous messages, her phone records, and the original image files. Price thanked her without treating her like a heroine or a fool.
"You did the right thing by bringing these forward," the agent said. "If anyone contacts you again, preserve the message and call us. Don't answer and don't investigate on your own."
Ruby promised she wouldn't. She had no desire to become a detective.
When Price asked whether Ruby wished to speak to a victim-support coordinator, she almost refused out of habit. She had survived unpaid bills and hospital waiting rooms alone; she was capable of surviving an unpleasant message. Then she remembered the look on Lily's face when a truck passed the garden. Refusing support simply because she was an adult suddenly seemed an absurd principle. She accepted the number.
That evening, Gabriel walked her through the new security arrangements without requiring her to memorize an intimidating list of passwords and secret procedures. Staff members could now report unfamiliar visitors directly, and nobody would be punished for sounding an alarm that proved unnecessary. Marta suggested changing the way deliveries were announced, since unexpected engine noise made Lily nervous. The idea cost almost nothing and solved a problem that expensive guards had overlooked for months.
Ruby wrote a note for Dr. Morris about the change. Lily deserved a house whose adults could learn, not merely a house whose adults could afford locks. She wanted to be the woman who remembered that Lily preferred the green cup on difficult mornings.
That evening, Dr. Morris visited to review Lily's progress. Vincent was still shaken by the investigation, and Ruby mentioned Lily's words on the night of their first meeting.
"No car. No big boom," she repeated.
Dr. Morris listened carefully. "Children this young can retain sensory impressions," she said. "But we have to be very cautious about interpreting or questioning her. Don't ask leading questions. Let her play and talk as she chooses."
Vincent rubbed his eyes. "So we don't ask what she saw?"
"We give her a stable, predictable environment. The adults investigate through adult evidence. Lily deserves to be a child, not our witness."
For the first time since Ruby met him, Vincent appeared relieved to have something important taken out of his hands.
Later, while Ruby sang Lily's bedtime song, the little girl made her wooden train circle a stack of blocks. It stopped beside a toy car. Lily carefully picked up the train, kissed its roof, and whispered, "All safe."
Ruby's throat tightened. She kissed the top of Lily's hair without interrupting her play.
May you like
Across the city, Agent Price's forensic technician recovered the deleted administrator-login details. The account had not been accessed from the Romano estate. It had been accessed from a warehouse office leased by a company connected to Salvatore Reyes.
And the last person known to have used that office was Nolan Vega.
