Chapter 5 - The Church Basement Hid the Evidence Everyone Had Been Killing For
The church had been abandoned for years.
Snow covered the steps.
Inside, the air smelled like dust and old stone.
Mia followed the photograph.
Behind the altar was a staircase.
The basement was dark.
Lorenzo carried a flashlight.
Victor stayed behind.
They reached a locked room.
The blue key opened it.
Inside were filing cabinets.
Hundreds.
Mia opened the first.
Medical records.
Second.
Bank transfers.
Third.
Patient names.
She stopped.
“These aren't just crime records.”
Lorenzo looked.
“They're patient records.”
“People were being used.”
“For what?”
“Testing.”
The realization made her sick.
The missing medication wasn't simply being stolen.
Patients were being manipulated.
Experimental drugs.
Unreported complications.
Deaths hidden through false diagnoses.
Lorenzo's expression turned murderous.
“Who did this?”
Mia pointed to the signature.
Elias Crane.
But there was another signature beside it.
Marco Moretti.
Lorenzo closed his eyes.
“My father.”
Mia touched his hand.
“He may have been forced.”
Lorenzo shook his head.
“He still signed.”
They found a hidden room behind the shelves.
Inside was a safe.
The combination was a date.
Mia's birthday.
The safe opened.
Inside was a hard drive.
And a photograph.
Marco Moretti with Elias Crane.
Behind them stood Gabriel Shaw.
And a fourth man.
Police Commissioner Howard Bell.
Mia stared.
“Everyone was involved.”
“Not everyone,” Lorenzo said.
“How can you tell?”
“Because my father is holding a gun.”
She looked closer.
Marco wasn't smiling.
Elias was.
Gabriel's face was unreadable.
Commissioner Bell looked terrified.
Then the basement door slammed.
Mia turned.
Men entered.
Lorenzo pushed her behind the safe.
Gunfire.
He returned fire.
Victor shouted from the stairs.
“More coming!”
Lorenzo grabbed Mia.
“Run.”
They fled through a hidden passage.
The tunnel emerged beside the river.
Snow blew into their faces.
A car waited.
They jumped inside.
Lorenzo checked the hard drive.
“Got it.”
Mia looked at him.
“You're bleeding.”
“It's nothing.”
“Show me.”
He reluctantly removed his coat.
A bullet had grazed his upper arm.
Mia cleaned it.
He watched her.
“You always do that.”
“Do what?”
“Take care of people who scare you.”
She smiled faintly.
“Occupational hazard.”
“No.”
“What?”
“You're not afraid of me anymore.”
Mia looked at him.
“I am.”
“Good.”
“Not in the way you think.”
He was quiet.
Then he said:
“I was afraid of you too.”
Mia frowned.
“Why?”
“Because you make me want things.”
“What things?”
“A normal life.”
Her heart pounded.
Before she could answer, the hard drive beeped.
Someone was remotely accessing it.
Mia looked at the screen.
One file opened automatically.
Her mother's voice filled the car.
“Mia, if you're hearing this, Lorenzo is with you.”
They both froze.
“I knew one day he would find you.”
Mia swallowed.
Her mother's voice continued.
“Trust him carefully.”
Lorenzo frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“She warned me about you?”
“Not exactly.”
The recording continued.
“Lorenzo is not responsible for what his father did.”
Mia looked at him.
“He is trying to undo it.”
The next line was quieter.
“And if he tells you he loves you, believe him.”
Mia stared at the screen.
The recording ended.
Neither spoke.
Then Lorenzo said:
“Your mother knew.”
“Knew what?”
“That I would fall in love with you.”
Mia looked at him.
“You don't know that.”
He held her gaze.
“I do.”
Silence.
The hard drive contained one final folder.
Inside was a list of names.
At the bottom:
Next transfer: Mercy Children’s Hospital.
Date: tomorrow.
Mia's face went pale.
“Children.”
Lorenzo looked at her.
“We stop it.”
“How?”
May you like
He smiled without warmth.
“By taking everything they built.”
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