Chapter 10 - THE MAN IN THE BLUE CAR
The next morning, nobody let me outside.
I hated everybody.
Mrs. Bell gave me pancakes.
I still hated everybody.
Then I saw the blue car.
It was parked across the street.
Not one of Vincent’s.
I pointed.
“That car was at school.”
Mom dropped her coffee.
Vincent turned.
“What?”
“The blue one.”
Marco ran outside.
The car started.
Vincent’s men followed.
Too late.
The blue sedan disappeared.
Vega arrived fifteen minutes later.
She looked angry before anyone spoke.
“You have a leak.”
Vincent frowned.
“In my house?”
“In somebody’s operation.”
She pointed toward the street.
“Sterling knew the preschool detail.”
Mom stared at her.
“He knows everything.”
“No.”
Vega shook her head.
“He knows things he shouldn’t.”
That was worse.
Eli checked Vincent’s security system.
Nothing.
Marco checked staff.
Nothing.
Vega checked police access logs.
Then she stopped.
One officer had accessed the case file four times without authorization.
Officer Brian Malloy.
He had been at the storage raid.
He had seen me.
Vega’s face hardened.
“I know him.”
“Friend?” Vincent asked.
“No.”
She grabbed her coat.
“Coward.”
They found Malloy in a tavern near Bridgeport.
He denied everything.
Then Vega showed him the access logs.
He changed.
Sterling had paid him.
Not much.
Five thousand dollars.
That number made Mom angrier than anything.
“My daughter’s life was worth five thousand dollars to you?”
Malloy looked down.
“He said he just wanted addresses.”
Vincent stepped forward.
Vega blocked him.
“Mine.”
Vincent stopped.
Malloy confessed.
Sterling had a second location.
An old catering warehouse.
Police moved fast.
This time, Sterling was there.
They surrounded the building.
Vega used a loudspeaker.
“David Sterling, come out with your hands visible.”
Nothing.
Then smoke appeared.
Mom whispered, “No.”
Flames rose through a back window.
Sterling was burning records again.
Officers rushed in.
Vincent stayed beside Mom.
For once, he followed instructions.
Then a gunshot came from inside.
Everyone ducked.
Another shot.
Vega disappeared through the door.
Mom grabbed my face.
“Don’t look.”
I looked anyway.
Two minutes later, officers dragged a man outside.
Not Sterling.
Ron’s younger brother.
Wounded.
Then another officer emerged.
“Building clear!”
Vega stormed out.
“Where is he?”
The wounded man laughed.
“You missed him.”
Vega crouched.
“Where?”
He coughed.
“Already gone.”
“How?”
The man smiled through blood.
“Truck.”
“What truck?”
He looked past her.
At Mom.
“Food delivery.”
Mom froze.
Sterling had used one of his restaurant trucks.
Then Vincent’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
Sterling’s voice.
“Tell Claire I still owe her a paycheck.”
Vincent’s face went cold.
Sterling continued.
“I’m going to hand-deliver it.”
The line died.
Mom looked at me.
Then at Vincent.
“He’s coming here.”
Vincent shook his head.
May you like
“No.”
A second later, the power went out.
