Chapter 2 - TOBY
Three nights after the diner incident, Dominic sat inside a black Mercedes-Maybach across from Clara’s apartment building.
Nicholas Rossi occupied the front passenger seat.
Nicholas had worked beside Dominic for twelve years.
He knew which doctors Dominic trusted.
Which doors he used.
Which names could still make him go silent.
“She’s clean,” Nicholas said, turning with a tablet.
“Clara Sullivan. Thirty-two. Widowed. Two jobs. Lives in 4B with her seven-year-old son.”
Dominic opened the file.
“And?”
“The boy has a congenital heart condition.”
Dominic’s eyes lifted.
“He needs a valve replacement. County assistance covers most of it, but not the required deposit.”
“How much?”
Nicholas told him.
Dominic looked toward the apartment building.
“That’s all there is on her?”
“No university worth mentioning. No corporate employment. One semester of community college.”
“She calculated that cleaver throw.”
Nicholas shrugged.
“Desperate people surprise you.”
“Desperate people panic.”
Dominic closed the folder.
“Run her fingerprints through the old federal archive.”
Nicholas turned.
“That leaves a mark.”
“Make it a small one.”
Before Nicholas could answer, the apartment door opened.
Clara emerged in an oversized gray sweatshirt.
A small boy in a blue knit cap held her hand.
Toby.
He coughed halfway across the sidewalk.
Deep.
Painful.
Clara immediately crouched.
She cupped his face and spoke quietly until he nodded.
Then a police cruiser turned onto the block.
Without appearing to think, Clara shifted her body between Toby and the street.
Dominic noticed.
He knew that movement.
You did not learn it from cooking.
“Pull forward.”
The Maybach stopped beside them.
Clara pushed Toby behind her.
One hand disappeared into her sweatshirt pocket.
The rear window lowered.
“Take your hand out slowly,” Dominic said.
“Drive away.”
“Your son’s surgery is tomorrow morning.”
Clara’s face changed.
“Who told you about my son?”
“The hospital has the deposit.”
Silence.
“The surgical team is confirmed.”
“Why?”
“Because I want a conversation.”
Clara’s eyes hardened.
“And you thought buying my son’s surgery would make me listen?”
“No.”
Dominic unlocked the door.
“I thought removing the question of whether he survives the week might make it possible for you to hear me.”
Toby coughed again.
Clara stared at Dominic.
Then at the hospital paperwork he held out.
“If you’re lying—”
“I remember what happened to the diner window.”
She lifted Toby into the car.
Nicholas looked back.
“Boss, strangers in the car isn’t exactly protocol.”
Dominic’s eyes stayed on Clara.
“Neither is commenting after I’ve decided.”
Nicholas faced forward.
May you like
But Clara saw the flash of anger in the windshield reflection.
And filed it away.
