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“I owed a lot of money,” said Max. “To the wrong sort of people. Still do, as a matter of fact. So when Luca tracked me down, I was scared. He told me that if I didn’t do as he said, he’d alert my old lenders and I’d be a goner.”
“So you helped him frame your own son for a crime he didn’t commit?” I sneered.
“I did,” he said to me. “And for what it’s worth, I am very sorry about everything, Alex. But I’m not really interested in my own sins. They’re not worth talking about while yours can still be forgiven.”
“I haven’t done anything wrong,” I growled.
“There’s a child out there, that needs you,” said Max. “And you’re here, giving me the same old sob stories I’ve given other people a thousand times. Well, I’m not having it.”
I could have struck him, I was so angry. And my hand raised up, and for an awful moment, I thought this was how it all ended, with me being dragged into a prison cell and charged with assault while Lola was still out there, struggling to find her daughter.
“What do you suggest I do?” I said. “I can’t come up with the money he wants. And we’ve got ten, maybe twelve hours left. If we’re lucky.”
“Here’s what I think you ought to do,” said Max. “There was a warehouse in Red Hook where he took me. Luca had all of the papers and documents there for the forgeries—hard copy, of course. I bet that’s where he’ll be…”
Chapter 27
Lola
Iwasout-of-mymindscared now. And the worst part was that I was alone. I couldn’t have asked Zeke to come out here by himself. And plus, I had a feeling about the warehouse in Red Hook. Something about that place I knew well, the wide, open industrial spaces with strange, bleak views of dockyard and the city beyond. Somehow I knew that Macy would be here, at this one.
What I didn’t know was where exactly, or where Luca was keeping her. The address:110 Petersen Ave, was an enormous old factory that had been converted into a warehouse. I knew I’d gotten there when the cab passed by an old, red-brick wall, and I saw the place behind a set of gates, wrought-iron with1—1—0carved above them.
“Anywhere here’s fine,” I said, and got out. It was still drizzling a little, and even from here, I could hear the rain tapping on the roof of the warehouse. I went to the gate, and discovered it was unlocked. I was dressed in a hoodie and a baseball cap I’d borrowed from Sebastien, but even so, it didn’t look like there were any security cameras up around the gates. It wasn’t like I was going to walk in through the front entrance.
I saw my chance and took it when I ducked around a series of barrels and some old piles of refuse and sodden earth. Everything was humid and soaking; the sun had come out, and I could see the steam rising from the earth in the distance as I hurried towards the back of the warehouse.
There was a tower at one end of the building. I stepped forward. I could feel my heart kicking me in every limb of my body, feel my blood pumping, and my head racing. This was stupid. Surely I should call for help, surely someone, anyone, would be better to have by my side than doing this alone.
But I’d told Alex to leave. I could hardly remember why anymore. Fear had gripped my body, and I lacked the comforting presence he’d been at those times in the last few days when it had swelled and left me paralyzed with terror. But now I was exhausted, miserable and alone.
But I couldn’t turn back. Not until I found my daughter.
Not until I new she was safe.
Inside the tower, it was musty and damp, and water dripped from the tall places and plashed on the floor beside me as I climbed the metal staircase around the sides of the structure. It seemed to take forever, and more than once, I had to stop to catch my breath, which I was drawing in and out of my lungs in painful gasps. I tried to be quiet. What if Luca heard me and decided to act?
Eventually, I saw a doorway to my right, and entered through it. But I almost fainted when I looked down.
I was high-up now, on a gantry, some fifty or sixty feet above the ground. It ran around the whole length of the warehouse, and two platforms ran across its center, connecting the pair of them. I stepped gingerly back, trying not to look at the distance stretching down below me.
“Well, if it isn’t Lola. Lola Lowe. Or is it Lola Ryder?”
It was Luca. He stepped out from the shadows, calling to me. As he walked to the center of the furthest of the two walkways, I saw he was carrying Macy in a headlock.
“MACY!” I said.
She turned to look at me, and I saw, even from this distance, that her cheeks were red, that her black hair was messy and her clothes were torn. And there was a gag across her face of masking tape.
“Let her go, you bastard!” I said. “She’s done nothing.”
“I wish I could agree with you,” Luca said. “But actually, Macy’s really the fly in the whole ointment. I wondered about it for a while, but then I realized something. Getting married to Alex hasn’t made you the heir to his fortune. It’s also made little Macy here. Isn’t that right, sweetie Macy?”
Macy struggled, and I could feel my whole body tensing up. I wanted to run towards her.
And yet I remembered what Sara had told me about when Luca turned up.
He had a gun on him somewhere.
