The Locked Room

009

​

​The name written on the paper was on top of the mahogany desk between us like a ticking bomb. A man everyone thought was dead, the syndicate's chief executioner was getting fifty thousand dollars every month from Don Vincenzo’s private accounts. It meant the past was not buried at all. The man who had helped kill our families was alive, breathing, and still taking money from the very man we wanted to destroy.

​"We need to find out where that money is going," I said, looking up at Dante. My hands were shaking a little bit, not because I was scared, but because I was so angry. "If this man is still alive, he knows why my parents had to die. He might even know how your father’s group works from the inside and why your mother was killed too."

​Dante stared at the paper for a long time. Then he folded it slowly and put it in his shirt pocket. He looked calm and ready for war, like a true mafia boss who had just found the missing piece of a deadly puzzle.

​"My father keeps his most important files locked in the basement archive because he believes it is safer here" Dante said. His voice was low and steady, carrying the weight of years of silent plotting. "Every big money transfer, every secret bank account, and every hidden file from the past twenty years is kept in files down there. If there is a paper trail linking this executioner to my father, it is behind that heavy door."

​"Then let's go down there," I said, taking a step toward him, ready to move immediately.

​Dante shook his head, and his dark eyes got hard. "No. That archive is too heavily guarded. It needs two things to open my thumbprint and my father's special code. Even with the keycard I gave you earlier, you cannot open it alone. And right now, my father's spies are watching my every move. If I go down there with you tonight, someone will notice."

​"Then keep them busy," I told him, looking right into his eyes, refusing to let his caution stop me. "You have a video meeting with the European bosses in twenty minutes. You sit at your desk, lock your doors, and act like a busy boss running his empire. Give me the keycard and the code, and I will go down there myself."

​Dante’s jaw tightened so hard a muscle twitched in his cheek. "That is crazy, Lyra. I told you the rules no stupid risks."

​"This isn't a stupid risk.  It's our only chance to get enough evidence now your father still thinks we are just ordinary bed mates," I shot back, refusing to give up. "You promised me we are partners. A real voice in our choices. Are you going to treat me like a partner, or are you going to lock me in a tower like your father did to your mother?"

​My words hit him hard. Dante looked like he wanted to yell, but then he let out a long breath. He reached into his jacket, pulled out a small silver token, and put it firmly in my hand, trusting me with his deepest secrets.

​"The file is on the third shelf behind the main computer in the sub-archive," Dante muttered, his voice rough and low as he held my shoulders. "Look for the file marked Legacy Operations. You have exactly fifteen minutes before my meeting ends and my guards check the hallways. If you aren't back in this office by then, I am coming down to drag you out myself."

​"Fifteen minutes is all I need," I whispered.

​I turned away from him, put the token in my pocket, and hurried out of the office.

​Walking down to the basement rooms felt different this time. The shadows looked darker, and the air felt heavier. My boots made no sound on the concrete as I walked toward the archive door, a heavy metal slab hidden behind a fake bookcase in the lowest part of the library.

​I slid Dante's master keycard into the slot, then pressed the silver token against the scanner.

​BEEP.

​The heavy lock clicked, and the metal door slowly swung open, showing a cold, quiet room full of computers and blinking blue lights.

​I stepped inside, pulling a small flashlight from my belt. The air smelled of old dust. I hurried past the machines until I reached the third shelf of the back cabinet marked Legacy Operations.

​My hands flew through the folders until I found what I was looking for: a thick, locked file with the executioner's code name “The Ghost.”

​I opened the file. Inside were secret bank records, account numbers, and pictures of secret meetings taken outside the city years ago. But near the back of the folder, a single paper made my blood run cold.

​It was a bank record from my father's company showing a huge transfer of money made just three days before their car went off the bridge. The money hadn't disappeared; it went straight into a secret account owned by the Valerius family.

​My parents hadn't just been murdered. They had been robbed of everything they built before their killers pushed them into the river.

​I took out my phone and started taking fast pictures of every single page in the file, knowing every second counted.

​Click. Click. Click.

​I was halfway through the last page when a loud sound echoed through the room.

​CLACK.

​The heavy metal door behind me slammed shut with a hard bang.

​I spun around, dropping to my knees as a loud alarm started screaming overhead, flashing bright red lights across the room.

​WEE-WOO! WEE-WOO!

​I ran to the door, hitting the metal panel and pressing the open button. Nothing happened. The screen flashed red words:

​LOCKDOWN ENGAGED. SYSTEM OVERRIDDEN REMOTELY.

​Someone outside had locked the archive from another computer. I didn't know it yet, but the mysterious person who had slid the warning envelope under our front door earlier that night had broken into the building's computer system. They were using our search for the truth as a trap to force us into the open. With every passing second, the heavy steel walls were sealing me inside a concrete tomb.