Chapter 3 - The Missing Ledger
Emily’s blood ran ice-cold. "What about Samuel? Is he okay?"
"My guards managed to pull him into a backup generator bay before the oxygen pumps failed," Dante said, his coat already back on his shoulders as he pulled a sleek black smartphone from his pocket. "He's stable, but someone just proved how far they are willing to go to keep that building's history quiet."
"They tried to finish what the fire started," Emily realized, her knuckles turning white around her housing notebook. "The fire wasn't meant to clear the land. It was meant to kill Samuel!"
"And anyone else who stumbled across what he found," Dante added grimly. He gestured to Gabe. "Bring the car around to the rear basement loading dock. No sirens, no lights. If someone inside Metro General is feeding information to Vale, I want to arrive unannounced."
"I'm coming with you," Emily said, stepping up beside Bruno.
Dante paused, his dark eyes sweeping over her slender frame. "Miss Carter, this isn't a housing board dispute. The people behind this have no hesitation about killing a municipal inspector in a hospital room. Walking into that building with me puts a target on your back."
"I was already standing over the hole in that debris when Samuel told me it wasn't an accident," Emily countered fiercely. "I'm already on their list, Mr. Vitali. Besides, Samuel knows me. He won't talk to your armed guards—he's spent forty years terrified of men in expensive suits. But he'll talk to me."
Dante studied her face for three long seconds. The anger in his eyes softened slightly, replaced by a quiet respect. "You have an irritating amount of nerve, Emily."
"I work for Chicago Public Housing," she replied without a flinch. "Nerve is required."
Ten minutes later, a heavy armored SUV roared through the subterranean parking garage beneath Metro General Hospital. Rain had begun to fall over the city, slicking the asphalt and turning the soot on West Mercer Street into dark slush.
They bypassed the front lobby entirely, using a private service elevator accessed via Gabe’s security pass. The third-floor hallway was shrouded in dim emergency lighting, the red glow of battery-backed exit signs casting eerie shadows against the linoleum floor. Hospital staff moved frantically between rooms, trying to reset digital monitors disrupted by the power surge.
Two of Dante's plainclothes security guards stood outside Room 314, their hands tucked inside their jackets. They straightened immediately as Dante stepped off the elevator.
"Report," Dante commanded.
"Power was cut from the main breaker in the basement six minutes ago," the lead guard reported quietly. "A man dressed as an orderly forced his way into the room while the monitors went dark. He grabbed the leather satchel from Hayes's bedside table and took the service stairs."
"Did you catch a look at his face?"
"Disguised with a surgical mask and cap, boss. But he had a distinct tattoo on the back of his right hand—a winged dagger over an anvil."
Dante's jaw set into a rigid, dangerous line. "Iron Dagger. The enforcement arm for the Moretti family."
Emily looked at him, confused. "The Morettis? I thought Richard Vale owned the West Mercer building."
"Vale is a puppet," Dante explained, gesturing for Emily to follow him into the room. "He owes money to the Morettis. They use compromised developers to buy dilapidated properties, burn them down for insurance payouts, and then clean their drug money through bogus construction contracts."
Inside the room, Samuel Hayes sat propped up against two pillows, a fresh nasal cannula delivering oxygen. His face was pale, his thin frame trembling under a white hospital blanket. When the door opened, he flinched, pulling the sheet up to his chin.
"Samuel," Emily called out gently, stepping past Dante into the soft light of the bedside monitor. "It's Emily Carter. You're safe."
The old man’s eyes widened, recognizing her immediately. "Emily... the girl from the housing board..." He coughed, a wet, rattling sound. "They took it. The red ledger."
"We know," Emily said, taking his cold, frail hand in hers. "We're going to get it back. But I need you to tell me what was in that book, Samuel. Why was a seventy-one-year-old retired inspector crawling through a basement on a Tuesday morning?"
Samuel looked past Emily, his eyes landing on Dante Vitali standing near the door like a shadow. "Is that... Vitali?"
"Yes," Emily said. "He brought his dog. Bruno's outside in the hallway."
A faint, weak smile touched the old man's lips. "Good dog. Kept the beam off my legs... held the ceiling up until you came." Samuel shifted in his bed, leaning closer to Emily. "Three months ago, I was reviewing old city infrastructure blueprints for the West Side renewal project. I found a discrepancy in the gas main routing under West Mercer."
"What kind of discrepancy?" Dante asked, taking a step closer.
"The building wasn't connected to the municipal gas line," Samuel whispered. "It had been bypassed six years ago during a renovation. The gas feeding those stoves was coming from an illegal tap hooked directly into an abandoned commercial high-pressure main."
Emily gasped softly. "A high-pressure tap in a residential apartment building? That's a ticking bomb!"
"It wasn't an accident waiting to happen, Emily," Samuel said, his voice rising with weak indignation. "It was designed to be triggered. They built a bypass valve inside the foundation walls. When Vale wanted the building gone, all someone had to do was turn a handle in the basement, wait twenty minutes for the basement to fill with gas, and ignite a spark."
"And the ledger?" Dante pressed.
"I logged forty-two other properties in the city with the exact same illegal bypass installation," Samuel said, tears brimming in his tired eyes. "Forty-two apartment buildings, Emily. All owned by shell companies linked to Richard Vale and the Moretti syndicate. They aren't just burning one building. They're planning to incinerate whole blocks whenever they need cash."
The silence in the hospital room was absolute.
Emily turned to face Dante, her chest heaving with outrage. "Forty-two buildings. That's thousands of families."
Dante stood frozen, his eyes fixed on the rain-streaked window overlooking the city lights. The dark, cold calm had returned to his features, but Emily could sense the monstrous fury brewing beneath his polished surface.
"Gabe," Dante spoke softly into his earpiece.
May you like
"Yeah, boss?"
"Locate Julian Moretti," Dante commanded, his tone dropping into a deadly whisper that sent shivers down Emily's spine. "Tell him I want a meeting tonight at the docks. And tell him if he doesn't bring Samuel Hayes's ledger, I won't just destroy his business—I'll burn his world to the ground."
