Chapter 10 - Warehouse Nine
Dominic did not want to tell me about Warehouse Nine.
That was the first time I caught him clearly hiding something.
"What happened there?"
"Not here."
"You people need a new phrase."
We drove to an abandoned freight warehouse near the river.
The Moretti name had once been painted over the loading bays.
Inside, dust covered everything except one path leading to an office.
Dominic unlocked it.
"Eight years ago, after the Halcyon fire, my father ordered me to bring Thomas here."
"You said you never saw him again."
He looked at me.
"I lied."
My body went cold.
"Why?"
"Because I thought the truth would make you leave before you understood the rest."
"You don't get to make that choice for me."
"I know."
He opened a steel cabinet.
Inside were photographs of Dad's injuries.
Burns.
A broken rib.
A cut across his forehead.
"I found him three days after the fire," Dominic said. "He called me from a pay phone. I brought him here."
"The photograph."
"Was taken here. But the man next to him wasn't me."
"Who was it?"
Dominic opened another folder.
A photograph of two young men.
Dominic.
And someone almost identical.
"My cousin, Luca Moretti. We were mistaken for brothers constantly."
"Why was he with Dad?"
"Because Luca worked for Whitmore."
The false Dominic in Dad's photograph finally had a name.
Luca had disappeared the same week as the fire.
Officially, he moved to Europe.
Unofficially, Dominic believed Carlo had killed him.
"Why?"
"Because Luca knew the ledger existed."
I stared at the warehouse floor.
"What did you do here?"
Dominic's voice dropped.
"Thomas begged me to take him to the FBI."
"And?"
"I didn't."
That hit harder than if he had punched me.
"Why?"
"My father told me they would kill you and Linda before Thomas finished his first interview. I believed him."
"So you kept my father prisoner?"
"For one night."
I moved.
Not a full strike.
A shove.
Dominic took it.
"He trusted you."
"I know."
"He named you in the video."
"I know."
"And you betrayed him."
"Yes."
No excuse.
No spin.
Just yes.
That made my anger harder to hold because he was not fighting back.
Dominic walked to the far wall and removed a loose brick.
Behind it was a metal case.
"Thomas escaped before morning. He left this. I never opened it because the lock requires two keys."
He showed me one.
I pulled Dad's brass key from my pocket.
Number 17.
Together, they opened the case.
Inside was not the Black Ledger.
It was a list of twelve names.
All patients.
All diagnosed with kidney failure.
All connected to Halcyon.
Eleven were dead.
The twelfth was my mother.
Beside Linda Carter's name was one handwritten note.
His laugh was brief and surprised. Mine was too.
"Sounds healthy for you."
"Telling me what I don't get to control."
"What theme?"
Dominic nodded. "I'm beginning to notice Carter women have a theme."
I touched the old chair. "If he was alive after this, you don't get to make his choices about you either."
That was the first time I saw what Dad's disappearance had cost Dominic personally. Again, not innocence. Cost.
"No." Dominic rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Thomas asked whether I'd rather have him hate me alive or forgive me dead. I chose the first one. Then he escaped and I lost the right to know what answer he would have given."
I looked at him. "He wasn't wrong."
"Confusing control with protection."
"Which one?"
Dominic thought about it. "Furious. Mostly at me. He told me I'd inherited my father's worst habit."
I knew he meant Dad. "Was he afraid?"
"He sat there," Dominic said.
Before we opened the case, Dominic walked me through the old office. One corner still held a folding chair with a rusted leg.
LAST LIVING WITNESS.
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