When I arrived in Chicago, I sent all the information about Darius to Dante. *Investigate this guy urgently. His name is Darius. He’s Marcus’s best friend. I suspect he’s hiding him. Find out what he does, where he lives, where he moves.*
Dante, with his computer skills, didn’t take long to pull Darius’s history. Two days later, he summoned me to a coffee shop.
“Kesha, this Darius ain’t clean. He works as a manager at a mechanic shop in an industrial park in Gary, but the shop is a front for a loan-sharking business. No wonder he has so much money for parties.”
I nodded.
“I tracked the location of his cell. This is a little illegal. Don’t tell anyone. He has a very strange movement pattern. During the day, he’s at the shop. At night, he goes out partying. But around eleven at night, he always drives to an abandoned warehouse at the back of the industrial park. He stays there an hour and then goes home.”
“An abandoned warehouse.” My eyes lit up. “Do you think Marcus is there?”
“It’s very probable. The area is deserted. It’s perfect for hiding. Besides, I checked traffic cameras in the area and saw that Darius’s car usually carries bags of food and other supplies when he goes in that direction. It’s him. Marcus is in that warehouse.”
I squeezed my hands, feeling a mixture of nerves and excitement. The prey was within range. “Dante, can you do me one last favor? I want to go there. I want to catch him red-handed.”
“It’s very dangerous, Kesha. Those people are mob-connected. They’re dangerous. You’re a woman alone. If something happens to you… why don’t we call the police?”
I shook my head. “Not yet. We don’t have proof that Marcus is alive. If we call the police, they’ll only do an administrative check and he could escape. I need to record his voice, an image of him, something that proves it’s him and that he admits everything. Only then will we have irrefutable proof.”
Dante sighed. “All right, I’ll go with you. I have some gadgets that can help us, and I know some self-defense, but you have to promise me you’ll do exactly what I tell you. No recklessness.”
“I promise. Thanks, Dante.”
We started planning the night hunt. The best moment was the following night when, according to his routine, Darius would go to the warehouse to bring provisions. I went back home and looked at our wedding photo. Marcus’s smile seemed fake and disgusting to me. *You hide very well, Marcus. But you forgot one thing. No lie lasts a hundred years.*
Tomorrow night, I will take off your mask. I hugged Malik and kissed his forehead. “Relax, my love. Mama is about to get justice for you. We won’t have to keep paying for that traitor.” The final battle was about to begin, and I was ready.
The next afternoon, I left Malik at my mother’s house, telling her I had to work all night at the office. My mother, sad to see me work so much, told me not to worry about the boy. At 8:00 in the evening, Dante picked me up in an old car he had borrowed. We were dressed in dark clothes with caps and masks like amateur detectives.
“Take this.” Dante gave me a device that looked like a pen. “It’s a high-quality recorder. And this is a GPS tracker. Put it in your pocket in case something happens.”
The car left the city and headed south on the expressway. We entered the industrial park in Gary. At that hour it was deserted. We drove to an area of abandoned warehouses with weeds growing everywhere.
“We have to leave the car here and continue on foot,” said Dante. He turned off the engine and the lights. We got out in silence. The darkness was total, only broken by the sound of crickets and the wind. We walked, crouched, glued to a rusted fence toward a large warehouse standing in the middle of a vacant lot.
“According to the GPS, Darius is getting close. We have to hide,” whispered Dante.
