Chapter 18 - What the Driver Knew
The field office buzzed with quiet urgency for hours.
Sarah sat wrapped in a blanket.
Tommy asleep against her chest.
Lily curled beside her.
Refusing to let go even in sleep.
Coyle emerged from the interview room.
Relief and grim determination on her face.
She gestured for Marcus and me to follow.
"His name is Danny Ochoa. Low-level enforcer. Recruited four years ago through a cousin who worked logistics. He's talking. Terrified of what happens to a man in prison who kidnapped children for an organization that can no longer protect him."
"What did he give you?"
"Confirmation Elias isn't operating alone. And a name. Ochoa says the operation was authorized and funded by someone he only ever heard called 'the Chairwoman.' Never met her. Never saw her face. But he intercepted enough fragments to understand she sits above Elias. The same way Elias's men answer to him."
Marcus frowned. "A woman running what's left of Victor's operation."
"It might explain a gap in the original Moretti case files. Decisions made at a level of coordination too sophisticated for Victor's temperament. He was ruthless. Impulsive. Someone more patient appears to have been managing the Continuity's long-term survival. Likely long before Sarah ever infiltrated it."
"Anything else?" I asked.
Coyle hesitated.
"Ochoa claims the Chairwoman has a personal connection to Sarah. Not professional. Personal. He overheard Elias mention it once, dismissively. The phrase he remembers: 'The Chairwoman has been waiting longer than any of us for Sarah Vance to finally come home.'"
The room went quiet.
I thought of Sarah's mother.
Dead when Sarah was a teenager.
The relatives she rarely spoke of.
"Sarah's never mentioned any other family," I said. "Besides Victor."
"Then perhaps it's time we asked her directly."
We returned to the waiting area.
I watched Sarah's face as Coyle relayed everything.
For a long moment, she said nothing.
Tracing an absent circle on Tommy's back.
"There's only one person it could be," she finally said. "My mother had a sister. Older. Estranged before I was born. I only met her once, at a funeral I barely remember. My mother refused to speak her name after."
"Do you remember it?" Coyle asked gently.
Sarah closed her eyes.
May you like
"Katherine," she whispered. "My mother called her Aunt Katherine. If I'm right, we're no longer dealing with an inherited criminal organization." Her grip tightened around her son. "We're dealing with the woman who may have built the foundation of Victor's empire in the first place. She let her nephew wear the crown while she stayed in the shadows. Waiting. For me."
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