Chapter 3 - THE MAP OF SHADOWS
By 2:00 A.M., the entire thirty-acre Moretti estate was placed on maximum tactical lockdown. Iron security gates closed, security searchlights swept the perimeter, and seventy armed enforcers lined the corridors.
Inside the high-security medical suite on the top floor, Clara was hooked up to IV saline drips and blood transfusions.
Murphy sat in a leather armchair beside her bed, holding a glass of scotch he hadn't touched. Little Lily was asleep on the adjacent sofa, wrapped in a fleece blanket, guarding her rabbit.
Clara’s eyelids fluttered open. She let out a sharp, ragged gasp, her hands instantly scrambling for her wrists as if feeling for chains.
"Lily! Lily!" Clara cried out, her voice cracked and frantic.
"She’s safe," Murphy’s low voice cut through her panic. "She’s right there on the couch, Clara. Nobody can touch her here."
Clara turned her head slowly, staring at Murphy with wide, terrified brown eyes. She tried to pull the blanket over her chest, trembling violently. "Don Moretti... please... don't hurt us... I didn't mean to trespass..."
"I am not going to hurt you," Murphy said calmly, setting his glass on the side table. "You are in my private quarters. But you are going to tell me your real name, and you are going to tell me who put those marks on your arms."
Tears streamed down Clara’s pale cheeks. "My name is Clara Sterling. My father was... was Thomas Sterling."
Murphy’s eyes narrowed slightly. Thomas Sterling had been the chief financial officer for the Moretti Syndicate until four years ago, when he mysteriously vanished along with forty million dollars in offshore assets.
"My father didn't steal that money, Don Murphy," Clara sobbed, her voice raw with grief. "He was framed. Four years ago, your underboss—Julian Vance—kidnapped my family. He kept me locked in an underground compound in Indiana for four years to force my father to sign over the bank access codes before he killed him."
Murphy felt a surge of lethal rage boil beneath his calm exterior. Julian Vance was his cousin and his second-in-command—the man who sat at his right hand during every board meeting.
"Three weeks ago, I managed to escape the compound with Lily," Clara continued, her chest heaving. "I knew the safest place to hide from Julian was inside your house, because Julian couldn't use his heavy weapons here without triggering your suspicion. I took a job as a linen maid under his nose."
"And tonight?" Murphy asked softly.
"Julian found out I was here yesterday," Clara whispered in horror. "He used the service tunnels to enter my room tonight. He offered me a choice: give him my father’s remaining ledger key... or watch him take Lily."
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Murphy stood up from his chair, his tall, imposing frame casting a long shadow across the room.
"Julian made his last mistake," Murphy said, his voice dropping into a deadly, absolute register.
