Chapter 2 - The Background CheckThe next morning, Maya knew something had changed.
People looked at her differently.
Not openly.
Roman DeLuca’s employees were too disciplined for that.
But the guard by the kitchen watched her for two seconds longer than usual.
Dante Russo was suddenly present when she signed into the staff entrance.
And Roman appeared in rooms where Roman normally had no reason to be.
At eight fifteen, Maya was polishing the library shelves when he walked in.
She nearly dropped a stack of books.
“Good morning.”
Roman stopped.
“Is it?”
She glanced outside.
“Cloudy. Freezing. Coffee machine broke. I’d say average.”
Roman looked at her left knee.
“How long have you worn the brace?”
Her hand stopped.
“Excuse me?”
“The brace.”
“A while.”
“What happened?”
Maya set the book down.
“Is this part of my employment review?”
“Answer me.”
The tone wasn’t loud.
That made it worse.
Maya looked directly at him.
“I injured it.”
“How?”
“Stairs.”
Roman watched her.
She knew immediately that he did not believe her.
Maya folded the dust cloth.
“With respect, Mr. DeLuca, if my knee affects my work, you can fire me. If it doesn’t, I’d rather not discuss it.”
Roman’s eyes hardened.
Then something unexpected happened.
He nodded.
“Fine.”
He walked away.
Maya released the breath she had been holding.
At noon, Elena refused lunch.
At one, she refused physical therapy.
At two, she threw a resistance band across the room.
Maya found her sitting beside the piano.
“Bad day?”
“Go away.”
Maya sat.
Elena glared.
“You do this every time.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Floor is comfortable.”
“It’s hardwood.”
“I’ve had worse apartments.”
Elena looked at her.
Then down at the brace.
“Was it your husband?”
Maya froze.
Elena immediately regretted asking.
“I’m sorry.”
Maya stared toward the window.
After a long time, she answered.
“Yes.”
One word.
Elena didn’t move.
Maya continued because silence had already opened the door.
“The stairs were real.”
She rubbed her knee.
“The falling part wasn’t.”
Elena’s face changed.
“He pushed you?”
Maya smiled without humor.
“He said I embarrassed him.”
“What did you do?”
“I corrected him in front of friends.”
“That’s all?”
“That was enough.”
Elena looked sick.
Maya continued quietly.
“I tore three ligaments. Cracked my kneecap. Doctor said I could probably dance again after surgery and rehabilitation.”
“But you didn’t.”
“My husband needed money.”
Elena understood.
“You paid his debts instead.”
Maya looked at her.
“At the time, I thought they were ours.”
Neither woman knew Roman stood outside again.
This time, he hadn’t intended to listen.
He had come to ask Elena whether she wanted to attend Sunday dinner downstairs.
Instead, he heard Maya say, “He apologized for pushing me before I even reached the hospital. He cried harder than I did.”
Elena whispered, “And you stayed.”
“For another year.”
“Why?”
Maya thought.
“Because leaving someone who hurts you is easy when people describe it afterward.”
She looked at Elena.
“When you’re inside it, everything is smaller. One apology. One good morning. One terrible night. One promise. One bill. One reason to stay until Friday.”
Her voice softened.
“And then suddenly it’s been years.”
Roman closed his eyes.
He had spent his life believing fear was simple.
Someone hurt you.
You hurt them worse.
Problem solved.
Maya made it sound like a prison with no visible bars.
Elena reached down and took Maya’s hand.
“What made you leave?”
Maya’s expression changed.
“He told me nobody else would ever want a woman who limped.”
Elena waited.
Maya smiled.
“So I decided I’d rather be unwanted alone.”
Elena laughed softly.
“That’s a terrible inspirational speech.”
“I know.”
“Needs work.”
“I’m available for weddings.”
Elena squeezed her fingers.
Roman walked away before they saw him.
That night, his investigators found Aaron Pike.
Not physically.
But financially.
A shell company had paid for a motel room in Gary, Indiana six weeks earlier.
Another card had purchased gasoline in Milwaukee.
Then a camera from a check-cashing shop produced a recent image.
Aaron had changed.
Longer hair.
Thinner face.
But Roman recognized him from the gas station footage.
Dante placed three images side by side.
The silver SUV.
Aaron.
And a surveillance still from the night of the accident.
The driver was too blurred to identify.
But the height matched.
The jacket matched.
Then Dante placed a police evidence photo down.
A fragment of glass found in Roman’s mother’s car.
Roman frowned.
“What am I looking at?”
“Passenger-side mirror glass.”
“Yes.”
“Vehicle model was narrowed to six possibilities. The Pike SUV was one.”
Roman leaned back.
“Not enough.”
“No.”
Roman stared at the evidence.
He didn’t want enough to suspect Aaron.
He wanted enough to know.
“Find the SUV.”
“It was supposedly scrapped.”
“Supposedly.”
Dante nodded.
Roman looked toward the closed office door.
“And determine exactly how Maya got hired here.”
Dante had already begun.
Two hours later, the answer made everything worse.
The domestic staffing agency had received Maya’s application normally.
But someone had moved her résumé to the top of the DeLuca candidate list.
Someone using administrator credentials.
Dante traced the login.
The credentials belonged to an employee who had been fired eight months earlier.
The access originated from a public library.
Roman stared at the report.
“So someone wanted her here.”
“Yes.”
“Was it Maya?”
“We don’t know.”
Roman’s face became unreadable.
The next morning, he found Maya in the kitchen.
She was making pancakes.
Not for herself.
Elena sat at the island wearing pajamas and complaining about blueberries.
Roman stopped in the doorway.
Three years ago, Elena had stopped coming downstairs for breakfast.
Now she was arguing about fruit.
Maya flipped a pancake.
“You’re eating them.”
“I hate blueberries.”
“You requested blueberries.”
“I changed my mind.”
“Your democracy has collapsed.”
Roman almost smiled.
Then Maya noticed him.
Everything tightened.
“Mr. DeLuca.”
Elena rolled her eyes.
“Stop doing that.”
Maya frowned.
“Doing what?”
“Acting like my brother is a firing squad.”
Roman pulled out a chair.
“He can be both,” he said.
Elena stared.
Maya blinked.
Roman sat.
“Make me one.”
“A pancake?”
“No, a mortgage.”
Maya stared.
Elena burst out laughing.
Roman looked at his sister.
For a second, his entire face softened.
Maya saw it.
The feared mafia boss disappeared.
There was only a brother who had missed that sound.
She turned toward the stove before he noticed her watching him.
Roman noticed anyway.
He also noticed Maya shift her weight when the pain in her knee increased.
“Sit down,” he said.
“I’m fine.”
“That wasn’t a question.”
Maya turned.
“With respect, ordering women to sit down usually produces the opposite effect.”
Elena covered her mouth.
Roman stared at Maya.
Then at his sister.
“Is she always like this?”
“Worse.”
Roman stood.
He took the spatula from Maya.
“What are you doing?”
“You’re sitting.”
“You know how to make pancakes?”
“No.”
“That seems important.”
Roman poured batter badly.
It formed something that looked like the state of Florida.
Elena laughed so hard she nearly spilled her coffee.
Maya sat slowly.
And for five strange minutes, the DeLuca kitchen felt almost normal.
Then Dante appeared in the doorway.
Roman saw his face.
The warmth disappeared immediately.
“Excuse me.”
He followed Dante into the hall.
“We found the SUV.”
Roman’s eyes changed.
“Where?”
“Scrapyard outside Joliet.”
“Three years later?”
“It was supposed to be crushed.”
“Supposed to.”
Dante handed him a photograph.
“The owner kept it hidden because somebody paid him twenty thousand dollars not to process the paperwork.”
Roman stared at the damaged silver SUV.
Its passenger mirror was missing.
“Run everything.”
“Already started.”
Dante hesitated.
“There’s something else inside the vehicle.”
Roman looked at him.
Dante showed him another photograph.
A cheap silver bracelet lay beneath the passenger seat.
Small engraving.
M.T.
Roman’s stomach dropped.
Maya Turner.
Roman slowly turned toward the kitchen.
Through the doorway, he could see Maya laughing with Elena.
And suddenly the question changed.
May you like
It was no longer whether Aaron Pike had been inside the SUV that destroyed Roman’s family.
It was whether Maya had been inside it too.
Related Stories
