Chapter 5 - The Mafia Boss Turned the Entire City Against the Stalker
Vincent Moretti disappeared that night.
At least, that was what the city believed.
The truth was much more frightening.
He began hunting.
Every corrupt officer was identified.
Every suspicious phone number was traced.
Every building connected to Gabriel was searched.
Every financial account was examined.
By sunrise, Vincent had found thirty-seven names linked to the conspiracy.
By noon, there were sixty-four.
But Gabriel remained invisible.
Then Vincent discovered something unexpected.
The gray sedan wasn't registered to Gabriel.
It belonged to my elementary school counselor.
The woman who had told me adults drove slowly in school zones.
Her name was Mrs. Hargrove.
She had lied.
She had been monitoring my schedule.
She knew exactly when I left school.
Exactly which route I walked.
Exactly when my mother worked.
Vincent confronted her.
She broke immediately.
She confessed that someone paid her to report my movements.
But she claimed she didn't know who.
Then she described the person who delivered the money.
A man wearing a black rose pin.
Gabriel.
Vincent realized the trap wasn't designed simply to frighten me.
The goal was to create evidence that I was unstable.
A frightened child.
A mother under stress.
A series of reports about imaginary danger.
Eventually, nobody would believe us.
Then they would take me.
Not by force.
By legal authority.
The police wouldn't need guns.
They would need paperwork.
Vincent decided to strike first.
He contacted journalists.
Not one.
Twenty.
He released evidence showing corruption inside the police department.
Then he released recordings of officers dismissing my reports.
The story exploded.
Within hours, the city was talking about the little girl who had been ignored.
My face was never shown.
My name was protected.
But the story couldn't be buried.
The mayor demanded an investigation.
The police chief suspended six officers.
Judges began denying emergency warrants.
Gabriel lost his greatest weapon.
Silence.
Meanwhile, Vincent took my mother and me to an old estate outside the city.
For the first time, I saw him without his armor.
He sat on the porch every night.
Sometimes he stared at the road.
One evening, I brought him the last cookie from dinner.
“You look sad.”
He smiled faintly.
“I'm thinking.”
“About Gabriel?”
“Yes.”
“Are you scared?”
Vincent looked at me.
“Sometimes.”
I was surprised.
“You're not supposed to be scared.”
“Everyone is scared.”
“Even mafia bosses?”
He laughed.
“Yes. Especially mafia bosses.”
I sat beside him.
“Why do people call you dangerous?”
“Because I made choices they don't forgive.”
“Are you bad?”
He took a long time to answer.
“I've done bad things.”
“Then why are you helping me?”
“Because you shouldn't have to pay for the sins of adults.”
That became the reason I trusted him completely.
Three days later, a message arrived.
A photograph of my father.
Alive.
Older.
Standing outside a train station.
My mother collapsed.
Vincent looked at the image.
“He wants us to find him.”
“No,” my mother said.
“Why?”
“Because Adrian never sends photographs.”
Vincent looked again.
There was a reflection in the station window.
Someone standing behind Adrian.
Gabriel.
The photograph had been staged.
Adrian was being held somewhere.
We traced the location.
An abandoned theater.
Vincent took twenty men.
He left me and my mother safely behind.
But things went wrong.
The theater was empty.
Only a projector was running.
On the screen was footage of me walking home when I was seven.
The first day the gray sedan appeared.
Then another recording.
My mother crying.
Then another.
Vincent watching me sleep.
Gabriel had surveillance on everyone.
Suddenly, the screen changed.
Gabriel appeared.
“You're looking for the ledger.”
Vincent said nothing.
Gabriel smiled.
“You already found it.”
Vincent's eyes narrowed.
“What?”
Gabriel's smile widened.
“The girl.”
The projector clicked off.
On the floor beside it was a blue rabbit.
Vincent picked it up.
He examined the stitching.
Then he understood.
The rabbit wasn't a container.
It was a key.
A hidden compartment opened in its left ear.
Inside was a tiny metal key.
Vincent stared.
A voice came from behind him.
“Now you know.”
Adrian stepped from the darkness.
Alive.
Older.
Exhausted.
May you like
But alive.
And behind him stood Gabriel.
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