Chapter 2 - The Woman Who Remembered
The cleaner’s name was Rosa Alvarez.
She had worked in the tower before its lobby had marble floors and before the Ashbys began calling their properties an empire.
“Put it back,” she said.
Mia’s fingers tightened around the key.
“Why?”
“Because you’re standing beneath a camera.”
Rosa pointed toward the far corner.
The camera faced the corridor intersection. Mia could not tell whether the open panel was visible.
She put the key where she had found it and eased the wood into place.
Rosa rolled her cart beside Mia’s.
“Walk with me.”
They moved toward a supply room at an ordinary pace.
Inside, Rosa left the door open.
That small decision made Mia trust her more than any assurance would have.
“Did you know Gabriel?” Mia asked.
“For twenty-two years.”
“What is the archive?”
“An old records room. Not the one accounting uses now.”
“Why would his key be in a wall?”
Rosa took a folded cloth from her pocket and began wiping a shelf that did not need cleaning.
“Because he put it somewhere Victor wouldn’t think to look.”
Mia watched her.
“You saw him?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“The afternoon before he died.”
The room seemed to grow smaller.
For seven years, Gabriel’s death had existed in Mia’s life as an accusation. His name was something other people used before telling her what she owed.
Now Rosa was speaking about his last afternoon.
“He was frightened,” Rosa said. “Trying not to show it. He asked whether I still had keys to the original storage rooms.”
“Did you give them to him?”
“One.”
“What did he put inside?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you tell Luca?”
Rosa’s cloth stopped moving.
“I tried.”
Mia waited.
“Victor answered the call. The next morning, my husband’s work contract was canceled. Then a man followed my daughter home from school.”
The fluorescent light buzzed overhead.
“I had two children,” Rosa said quietly. “I chose them.”
Mia thought of Tobias behind a locked door.
“I understand.”
Rosa looked at her for the first time.
“You really do, don’t you?”
Mia nodded.
A cart rattled past outside.
Neither woman spoke until it was gone.
“The room is on the lower storage level,” Rosa said. “But don’t go alone. And don’t tell yourself finding something means you can handle what comes after.”
That evening, Mia called Hannah from the clinic while Tobias was having blood drawn.
She described the panel, the key, and Rosa’s account.
Hannah asked careful questions.
Had Mia removed anything?
No.
Had Rosa agreed to speak with counsel?
Not yet.
Could they arrange a private meeting somewhere safe?
Mia looked through the clinic window at her brother.
“I’ll ask.”
“Good. And Mia, don’t attempt to solve a homicide by yourself.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“You sound like somebody who has had to do everything alone for a very long time.”
Mia closed her eyes.
“That doesn’t mean you have to keep doing it,” Hannah said.
When Tobias returned, he noticed her expression.
“Bad news?”
“Possibly useful news.”
“That’s different.”
“It might be.”
He sat beside her.
For a moment, he looked fourteen instead of like an exhausted adult trapped in a teenager’s body.
“Did you eat?”
Mia almost smiled.
“Did you?”
“That wasn’t the question.”
She bought them sandwiches downstairs.
He ate half of his, then opened his book.
She watched him for a minute before saying, “Do you remember a man named Victor?”
The book lowered.
Mia immediately wished she had asked differently.
“You don’t have to answer.”
“I remember his watch.”
She stayed quiet.
“It clicked against the door when he locked it.”
Mia’s stomach turned.
Tobias looked at her.
“I thought you remembered that, too.”
“I do.”
“Then why did you never tell anybody?”
She searched for an answer that would not make him responsible.
“Because I was frightened. And because the people I thought could help were connected to the person hurting us.”
He considered that.
“Are they still?”
“Not all of them.”
He nodded once.
“Then tell those people.”
Later, outside the apartment, Luca was waiting.
He noticed the sandwich bag in her hand.
“How was the appointment?”
Mia stared at him.
“You don’t get to ask that like you’re simply concerned.”
His face closed.
“I am concerned.”
“Then you should have been concerned before you used it.”
He stepped aside.
As she passed, he said, “Victor told me you were distracted at work.”
Mia stopped.
Of course he had.
“What did he say?”
“That old habits were returning.”
She turned slowly.
“And did you ask him what that meant?”
Luca looked at her.
For the first time, she saw uncertainty beneath his anger.
“No,” he said.
May you like
Mia opened the apartment door.
“That,” she told him, “has always been your problem.”
