Chapter 9 - The Night Chicago BurnedFor three seconds, I couldn't move.
Then something inside me snapped into place.
“Lock down every road within five miles,” I ordered. “Get the license plate. Find every camera between here and the city. Theo, call every man you trust.”
He was already moving.
I seized my coat.
“Theo, if Maya and Ellie are in that van, nobody touches them until I arrive.”
“Understood.”
“And if Calvin has them?”
Theo met my eyes.
“Then we're bringing them home.”
The ride into Chicago felt endless.
My phone rang repeatedly. Security footage showed a black van leaving the bakery, turning onto Ashland Avenue, and disappearing into a network of streets where half the traffic cameras had been broken for months.
A witness remembered seeing the van near an old freight depot.
Another claimed it had headed toward the river.
The third report came from a woman who had heard a child crying inside a vehicle parked behind a warehouse.
Each lead ended in darkness.
At 11:42 p.m., my phone rang from an unregistered number.
Calvin's voice came through, smooth and familiar.
“You seem upset, Sebastian.”
“If you've touched that girl, I'll tear down everything you own.”
Calvin laughed softly.
“Your father made the same threat. Do you know what he learned?”
“Tell me.”
“That threats are cheap, and people are cheaper.”
I closed my eyes.
“Where are they?”
“Safe.”
“Prove it.”
A moment later, a video arrived.
Maya sat tied to a chair in a concrete room. Her lip was split, and one cheek was bruised. Beside her stood Ellie, unharmed but terrified, clutching a piece of red fabric.
“Maya!” I shouted at the screen.
She looked up.
“Sebastian, don't give him anything!”
One of Calvin's men grabbed her shoulder.
Calvin stepped into view.
“That's enough.”
The video ended.
My hands shook with rage.
“What do you want?” I asked.
“The ledger. The wooden key. And the original recording.”
“The recording is damaged.”
“Then repair it.”
“I'll need time.”
“You have until tomorrow night.”
“And if I refuse?”
Calvin's voice cooled.
“Then your little friend learns how quickly the world punishes innocence.”
The call ended.
I stood in the middle of the warehouse with the phone pressed against my ear.
Theo approached carefully.
“We found the van.”
“Where?”
“An abandoned meatpacking facility near the river. It was empty when we arrived.”
“Any blood?”
“No.”
“Bodies?”
“No.”
“Then keep looking.”
He hesitated.
“Boss, there's something else. The bakery wasn't burned by accident. The fire started in three separate locations. Whoever did it knew exactly how the building was laid out.”
“Calvin.”
“Probably. But the fire department found a second set of footprints leading into the basement. They belong to someone who arrived before the fire began.”
“Who?”
Theo handed me a photograph.
A man stood beside the rear entrance wearing a dark cap and work jacket.
I recognized him immediately.
Adrian Vale.
The photograph was dated three days earlier.
I stared at it.
Adrian had been dead in St. Agnes Church.
Unless the man in the photograph wasn't Adrian.
Or the man on the church floor had never been Adrian at all.
I called the hospital where the injured men from the church had been taken. Then I called the police officer who had supposedly identified the body.
The officer's phone was disconnected.
The hospital had no record of Adrian Vale.
Someone had staged his death.
And the last person who had seen him alive had been me.
Theo studied the images.
“If Adrian's alive, he may know where Calvin took them.”
“Or he may be the reason Calvin has them.”
I looked at the ledger in my hands.
My father had died trying to expose Calvin. My mother had died trying to protect the evidence. Clara had died trying to keep the secret away from her daughter.
And now Maya and Ellie had disappeared into the same machinery.
I put the ledger inside my coat.
“Find Adrian.”
“And then?”
I stared into the night.
“Then I'm going to ask him why he thought a little girl was worth betraying us for.”
My phone vibrated.
A text from an unknown number appeared.
Midnight tomorrow. The old freight station. Come alone. Bring the key.
A second message followed.
And Sebastian?
I opened it.
Don't bring a second wallet. You won't be leaving with anything.
I looked at Theo.
“Prepare the team.”
He nodded.
“Are we following the rules this time?”
“No.”
May you like
I slipped the phone into my pocket.
“We're changing them.”
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