Chapter 4 - The Ripple Effect
The next morning, the sun broke over Lake Michigan in cold, grey streaks.
Elena didn't sleep. She sat on the edge of her narrow bed in the studio apartment above the laundromat, staring at the small, encrypted burner phone Dante had left on her counter before he carried his dog out into the rain. The screen was black. She hadn't touched it, and she swore she never would.
Downstairs, the washing machines thrummed their steady, hypnotic vibration through the floorboards.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
The sound was light, polite, but firm.
Elena’s blood ran cold. She slipped off the bed, her bare feet hitting the cold linoleum. She walked to the small wooden door, her fingers brushing the handle of the heavy iron skillet she kept near the stove.
She pulled the door open an inch.
Standing in the dim hallway wasn't Dante Marchetti. It was a young woman with sharp, intelligent eyes, wearing a tailored charcoal trench coat and holding a cardboard tray carrying two steaming cups of coffee from the bakery down the street.
"Elena Vasquez?" the woman asked. Her voice was crisp, professional, yet carried a hint of exhaustion.
"You have the wrong apartment," Elena said flatly, starting to close the door.
The woman jammed the toe of her designer heel into the threshold. "My name is Detective Sarah Lin, Chicago PD, Major Crimes. And before you slam this door in my face and try to jump out the back window into the alley, let me save you some trouble: I'm not here to arrest you."
Elena froze, her hand gripping the edge of the door so hard her knuckles turned white. "I don't know what you're talking about."
May you like
"Dr. Vance’s old files surfaced three days ago," Sarah said quietly, holding up her badge just long enough for Elena to see the gold shield. "And last night, a hit squad belonging to the Outfit’s primary rival—the Rossi family—walked into Il Giardino, tried to assassinate Dante Marchetti, and shot his dog instead. Word on the street is that a nameless waitress put the dog back together with kitchen supplies and talked back to the most dangerous man in Illinois."
Sarah stepped closer, lowering her voice to a fierce whisper. "The Rossis know who saved that dog. And they know you're the ghost everyone’s been looking for. If you stay in this apartment another twenty-four hours, you won't live to see the sunset."
