Chapter 4 - The Night I Refused to Return
Finn pulled me behind the storage shelves.
Vale's footsteps scraped the concrete.
I held the recorder against my chest.
"I know you're in there," he called.
My knees wanted to fold.
Finn pointed toward a rear service door.
We slipped into the narrow passage.
The alarm sounded when Finn pushed the exit.
We ran through cold rain.
Behind us, Vale shouted my name.
Finn's truck coughed before starting.
Then the engine caught.
We drove without headlights for one block.
Only then did I breathe.
"We should call the police," Finn said.
"And tell them what?"
"That a man threatened you."
I looked at the letter.
"They'll ask why he wants it."
"Then tell them."
I wanted to believe it was simple.
I had seen too many men disappear.
But Finn wasn't wrong.
Silence had protected everyone except me.
We stopped outside a twenty-four-hour pharmacy.
I bought batteries with my last cash.
The recorder clicked to life.
Static hissed.
Then Dad's voice filled the truck.
I covered my mouth.
He sounded tired.
But alive.
"If you're hearing this, I failed."
Finn turned toward me.
I pressed play again.
Dad described false shipping manifests.
Payments routed through shell companies.
A warehouse fire that destroyed evidence.
Then he named the person responsible.
Arthur Vale.
Not Roman Costa.
My breath caught.
The recording continued.
"Roman's father tried to stop it."
A long silence followed.
"He died before he could."
I felt the ground shift beneath me.
For years, I had blamed Roman's family.
Now I didn't know what to believe.
My phone lit up.
A message from an unknown number.
RETURN TO THE ESTATE ALONE.
A second message arrived.
It contained a photograph.
Roman stood in his study.
A dark stain spread across his shirt.
May you like
And beneath the picture were four words.
HE KNOWS TOO MUCH.
