Chapter 5 - The Tape
The attack lasted less than a minute.
But it changed everything.
Officer Hayes returned fire only after the shooters aimed directly at us. Detective Chen called for backup. Matthew moved through the garage like he knew every dark corner, pulling me behind the old workbench while bullets tore through rotted wood.
Then the attackers fled.
They did not get the ledger.
But they had made their message clear.
They were watching.
We were taken to a secure police facility before sunrise. Detective Chen locked the ledger in evidence, but she allowed me to open my father’s envelope in a private interview room.
My hands trembled as I broke the seal.
Inside was one page.
The paper was yellowed. My father’s handwriting slanted sharply across it.
My little star,
If you are reading this, then I failed to come back for you. I am sorry. I need you to know that none of this was ever your fault. You were brave when no child should have needed to be brave.
My vision blurred.
I kept reading.
The ledger will tell you who took money. The tape will tell you who gave the orders. But the most important thing is not the evidence. It is you. Live. Trust carefully. Love when you can. And never let fear convince you that you are alone.
At the bottom, he had written:
Your mother is alive.
I stopped breathing.
Beneath those words was an address.
New Orleans.
A small apartment above a florist shop.
I looked up at Detective Chen.
“She’s alive.”
Chen looked at the letter, then away.
“We thought she was dead.”
“You thought?”
“Your father’s case was compromised,” she said quietly. “There were leaks. A lot of them. Your mother may have been moved without official records.”
Matthew stood near the door, his face unreadable.
“You knew,” I said.
He didn’t deny it.
“I knew she might be alive.”
“You knew?”
“I had people looking for her.”
“You found her and didn’t tell me?”
“I didn’t know if she was safe. I didn’t know who was watching.”
I stood so fast my chair crashed backward.
“You don’t get to decide what I can handle.”
Matthew’s jaw tightened.
“You’re right.”
The apology sounded unfamiliar coming from him.
But I was too angry to accept it.
“What’s on the tape?” I asked.
Detective Chen inserted the cassette into an old recorder.
The audio crackled.
Then my father’s voice filled the room.
Older than I remembered.
Tired.
But unmistakable.
“Recording date: October 14th,” he said. “This is Detective Samuel Voss. If this tape is recovered, it contains evidence that Victor Raines is operating with the protection of officers inside the Chicago Police Department, officials in the Cook County prosecutor’s office, and members of the City Development Board.”
Then another voice came through.
Smooth.
Cold.
Victor Raines.
“You think you’re a good man, Sammy? Good men don’t make their daughters disappear.”
My blood turned to ice.
My father’s voice tightened.
“Stay away from my family.”
Raines laughed.
“You don’t get to tell me what to do. You work for me now. You just don’t know it.”
The tape ended with a sound like a struggle.
Then silence.
No courtroom had heard that recording.
No jury had ever heard Victor Raines’s voice threatening my father.
Because the tape had been buried with the ledger.
Detective Chen’s phone rang.
She answered, listened, and her face changed.
“What?” Hayes asked.
She covered the receiver.
“Someone leaked our operation. The evidence vault was accessed remotely five minutes ago.”
Matthew went still.
“By whom?”
Chen listened again.
Then she said the name.
“Captain Richard Sloan.”
Officer Hayes’s face drained of color.
Sloan was his commanding officer.
The man who had checked in on the diner disturbance.
The man who had signed off on the original Voss case years ago.
The man who had always claimed Detective Samuel Voss died in an accident.
“He knows we have the ledger,” I said.
“No,” Chen replied. “He knows something worse.”
She looked directly at me.
“He knows your mother is alive.”
My phone rang.
New Orleans area code.
I stared at the screen.
Then answered.
For several seconds, there was only static.
Then a woman whispered my name.
“Lena?”
My knees weakened.
I pressed my hand to my mouth.
“Mom?”
Her breath caught.
“Oh, God. It’s you.”
I could barely speak.
“Where are you?”
“You can’t come here,” she said urgently. “They found me once before. I moved. I changed names. I—”
A loud crash sounded through the line.
Then my mother screamed.
The call went dead.
Matthew reached for his car keys.
Detective Chen grabbed his arm.
“You are not going anywhere.”
“I know people in New Orleans,” he said.
“So do I,” she snapped. “And your people are the reason this case is a nightmare.”
I stepped between them.
“Enough.”
Both of them looked at me.
“My mother needs help,” I said. “We go now.”
Hayes shook his head. “Lena, this could be a trap.”
“It probably is.”
“You can’t just walk into it.”
I looked at the letter in my hand.
My father’s final words.
Never let fear convince you that you are alone.
For eighteen years, fear had controlled every decision I made.
It had chosen my name.
My city.
My job.
My apartment with three deadbolts.
Not anymore.
“I’m not walking in alone,” I said.
Then I looked at Matthew.
“You want the ledger to bring down Raines?”
“Yes.”
“Then help me bring my mother home.”
Matthew nodded once.
“You have my word.”
I did not trust his word.
Not yet.
But before the sun rose over Chicago, we were on the road to New Orleans.
And somewhere ahead of us, the woman I thought I had lost forever was either waiting for me—
May you like
Or fighting to stay alive.
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