Chapter 5 - The Woman In The Cellar
The Bellmont Theater had been abandoned for eight years.
Its marquee had collapsed.
The windows were boarded.
The walls were blackened from the old fire.
At midnight, Sophie stood behind an overturned concrete barrier, listening to the rain strike the roof.
Enzo was beside her.
"You stay behind me."
"No."
"Sophie."
"I won't stand behind you while my mother is inside."
"I didn't ask you to stand behind me."
He looked at her.
"I asked you to stay alive."
She swallowed.
"That's harder."
His gaze softened for half a second.
Then it was gone.
Rocco approached.
"Three entrances."
"Guards?"
"At least twelve."
Enzo nodded.
"Then we use the basement."
They entered through a service tunnel.
The smell of damp concrete filled the air.
Sophie held a flashlight.
Her hand shook.
Enzo noticed.
"Scared?"
"Yes."
"Good."
"Good?"
"Fear keeps you alert."
"What keeps you calm?"
"You."
She looked at him.
He stared ahead.
"I said nothing."
"I heard you."
They reached the basement.
Voices echoed above.
A guard walked around the corner.
Enzo moved faster than Sophie could see.
One strike.
The guard collapsed.
Rocco caught him before he hit the ground.
They moved deeper.
At the end of the hall stood a steel door.
Behind it, someone was crying.
"Mom?"
Silence.
Then a weak voice.
"Sophia?"
Sophie rushed forward.
Enzo grabbed her.
"Wait."
He examined the door.
"No tripwire."
Rocco opened it.
Inside was Elena.
Thin.
Bruised.
But alive.
Sophie ran to her.
"Mom!"
Elena broke into tears.
"My baby."
They embraced.
Enzo stood in the doorway.
He looked away.
It was the most private moment Sophie had ever seen him allow another person to have.
Then Elena saw him.
Her face went pale.
"Lorenzo Valente."
Enzo stiffened.
"You know me."
"I knew your father."
Elena looked at Sophie.
"How did you end up with him?"
Sophie laughed through tears.
"It's complicated."
Elena's eyes moved between them.
"He shouldn't know about the ledger."
"He already does."
Her mother went silent.
"Then we're out of time."
"What happened to you?"
Elena took a breath.
"Your father discovered the conspiracy."
"I know."
"No. You don't know all of it."
She looked at Enzo.
"Your uncle started it."
Enzo's face hardened.
"Salvatore?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because he wanted control of the Valente family and your father's influence."
She continued.
"Vincent was working for him."
Sophie whispered, "The ledger."
"It isn't a ledger."
"What?"
"It's a list of names."
"Political names?"
"Judges. Police. CEOs. Men who built empires by making other people disappear."
Enzo's expression darkened.
"Where is it?"
Elena looked at Sophie.
"Your father never kept the list in one place."
Sophie remembered the piano.
"He split it."
"Yes."
"The music."
"Exactly."
The first half had been encoded in the composition.
The second half was somewhere else.
"The theater," Sophie said.
Elena nodded.
"Your father hid the first key there."
Suddenly, footsteps thundered above.
Rocco swore.
"We have company."
Enzo drew his weapon.
"How many?"
"Too many."
Elena looked at Sophie.
"There is a tunnel beneath the stage."
"Where does it go?"
"The old church."
Sophie stared.
"The church where Dad married you?"
"Yes."
"Mom, that church burned."
"Not completely."
Enzo looked at Rocco.
"Get them out."
"What about you?"
"I'm staying."
Sophie grabbed his arm.
"No."
He looked down at her hand.
"Go."
"I'm not leaving you."
His expression changed.
"Sophie."
She realized she was crying.
"You promised my mother."
"I didn't promise anything."
"You said you'd bring her home."
"And I will."
"Then you're coming too."
A shot exploded through the ceiling.
Dust rained down.
Enzo pulled Sophie behind him.
"Fine."
They ran.
The tunnel beneath the stage was narrow.
Elena moved slowly.
Rocco supported her.
Enzo stayed at the rear.
Gunshots followed them.
They reached the church through an underground passage.
The old chapel was dark.
Statues had been shattered.
The altar was gone.
Sophie remembered her parents standing there.
Her father smiling.
Her mother crying.
A wedding photograph had been taken beneath that very window.
Now the place looked like a grave.
Elena touched the wall.
"Your father hid something here."
Sophie searched.
Nothing.
Then she heard it.
A faint sound.
Three short knocks.
Two long.
Three short.
SOS.
She looked at the old piano in the corner.
It had survived the fire.
An antique upright.
She approached it.
Her mother stared.
"Your father restored that piano himself."
Sophie opened the lid.
The strings were covered in dust.
She touched the keys.
One key was slightly loose.
She pressed it.
Click.
A hidden panel opened beneath the keyboard.
Inside was a brass cylinder.
And a letter.
Sophie opened it.
My daughter,
If you are reading this, then the people who wanted me silent failed to kill the truth.
Do not trust the man who smiles when he lies.
Do not trust the man who promises safety.
Trust the man who stays when there is nothing to gain.
Sophie looked up.
Her eyes found Enzo.
He was standing near the broken window, bleeding from a cut above his eyebrow.
He looked at her.
Neither spoke.
Outside, sirens approached.
Not police.
Something worse.
Vincent's men had surrounded the church.
Enzo looked at the brass cylinder.
"We have to go."
Sophie closed the letter.
May you like
"What's inside?"
"Enough to start a war."
