Chapter 5 - THE HEAVY COAT AT THE EDGE OF THE PIER
The rain turned to sleet as we raced toward Lake Michigan.
Luca drove the SUV like a man possessed. His knuckles were white on the steering wheel.
His mother had been murdered.
For seventeen years, the Moretti family believed Elena died peacefully in her sleep. Now, the truth was bleeding out in the back of a luxury train car, and the man responsible had his sister, his nephew, and my mother.
“Which dock, Vanessa?” Luca demanded, glancing at the rearview mirror.
Vanessa sat in the backseat, clutching a blanket I had found on the train. She was shivering, stripped of all her usual arrogance.
“Pier 18,” Vanessa stammered. “He owns a private dredging barge. He uses it to... to make things disappear.”
I felt a cold spike of panic in my chest.
“He’s going to drop them in the lake,” I whispered.
Luca floored the accelerator. The engine roared.
“Not if I kill him first,” Luca said.
We tore through the chain-link gates of Pier 18.
The docks were pitch black, illuminated only by the sweeping beam of a distant lighthouse.
At the end of the long concrete pier sat a massive, rusted dredging barge. Its heavy crane loomed against the stormy sky.
Luca slammed the brakes.
We jumped out.
“Stay with her,” Luca ordered me, pointing at Vanessa.
“My mother is on that boat,” I fired back. “I’m not waiting in a car.”
I reached into the glove compartment and pulled out the heavy steel flashlight. It wasn’t a gun, but it was heavy enough to do damage.
Luca looked at me. He didn’t argue.
We sprinted down the concrete pier.
The wind howled off the lake, whipping freezing spray into our faces.
As we got closer, I saw something lying on the edge of the dock, inches from the dark water.
I ran to it.
It was a dark blue wool coat.
I recognized it instantly.
“Isabella’s coat,” Luca said, his voice tight.
I picked it up. It was soaking wet.
But it wasn’t empty.
Tucked deep inside the pocket was a small, heavy object.
I pulled it out.
It was the original piano ledger.
A small, black leather book, wrapped tightly in plastic to protect it from the rain.
Isabella must have dropped it before they forced her onto the barge. She left the evidence behind so Marcus couldn’t destroy it.
“She’s smart,” Luca murmured, taking the ledger. He tucked it into his jacket.
Suddenly, the massive diesel engine of the barge roared to life.
The boat began pulling away from the dock.
“No!” I screamed.
The gap between the pier and the barge widened. Three feet. Five feet.
Luca didn’t hesitate.
He backed up three steps, sprinted, and launched himself over the freezing water.
He crashed into the rusted metal railing of the barge, hauling himself over the side.
I stood on the edge of the pier. The gap was too wide for me now.
I was trapped on the dock.
I watched Luca disappear into the shadows of the barge deck.
A second later, gunfire erupted over the sound of the engine.
Flashes of light illuminated the rain.
I paced the edge of the concrete, completely helpless.
Then, I heard a sound behind me.
A soft, terrified whimper.
I spun around, aiming my heavy flashlight.
Tucked behind a stack of wooden shipping pallets, shivering in the cold rain, was a little boy.
He was wearing a bright yellow raincoat.
“Leo?” I whispered.
The five-year-old boy looked up at me. His face was pale and stained with tears.
“Emma?” he sniffled. He recognized me from the estate.
I ran to him, dropping to my knees and pulling him into a tight hug.
“I’ve got you, sweetheart. You’re safe,” I said, wrapping my own dry coat around him.
“The bad man put me here,” Leo cried into my shoulder. “He told Mommy he was going to send her to heaven, but he made me stay on the land.”
Marcus Bellini hadn’t taken the child on the boat. He didn’t want the boy dead. He just wanted the witnesses gone.
“Where is your grandma, Leo? Where is my mom?” I asked gently.
Leo pointed toward the barge, which was now fifty yards out in the dark water.
“The bad man took her on the big boat with Mommy.”
I stared out at the water.
The gunfire had stopped.
The barge was drifting silently.
Then, a massive explosion rocked the lake.
Flames shot into the sky from the deck of the barge, turning the black water brilliant orange.
“LUCA!” I screamed.
The boat was on fire.
And my mother, Isabella, and the man I was starting to care for were trapped on it.
I grabbed Leo’s hand.
“Come on,” I said, my voice shaking. “We have to find help.”
But as I turned around, a pair of headlights snapped on at the far end of the pier.
A black sedan blocked our only exit.
A man stepped out of the car.
He was holding a suppressed pistol.
It was Marcus Bellini.
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He hadn’t been on the boat.
TITLE: THE MONSTER WHO NEVER LEFT THE SHORE
