Chapter 10 - Rosa’s Story
Rosa Delgado agreed to speak only if Henry was present.
When she saw him, she cried.
“I’m sorry.”
Henry stood motionless.
“For what?”
“For letting them blame you.”
Rosa covered her face.
Henry’s anger came slowly.
“You knew?”
“I knew enough.”
“How much did Richard pay you?”
Victoria flinched at hearing her father’s name.
Rosa whispered, “Two hundred thousand.”
Henry laughed bitterly.
“That bought twenty years?”
“No.”
“What did?”
“My husband was undocumented then. Richard’s lawyer said immigration would receive his name.”
Silence.
Henry looked away.
Rosa continued.
“They had everybody by something.”
Agent Mills asked her to describe October 18, 2006.
Rosa had been a senior art handler.
At approximately 10:55 p.m., Nathan told her to bring a transport cradle to a side service room.
Inside she saw Richard Vale.
Nathan Cole.
Elias Mercer.
And The Blue Orchard.
“They were arguing.”
“About what?”
“Elias kept saying the Wexler documents were real.”
Victoria asked, “What documents?”
“Letters showing the painting had been improperly sold decades earlier.”
Richard insisted Vale Art Holdings possessed valid title.
Elias accused him of manufacturing provenance.
Then Elias said he had contacted Camille.
Victoria closed her eyes.
“What happened?”
“Richard grabbed the envelope from him.”
“The envelope behind the painting?”
“Maybe. I didn’t see clearly.”
“Nathan?”
“He locked the door.”
Henry’s jaw tightened.
Rosa continued.
“Elias tried to leave.”
Richard blocked him.
“They fought.”
“Who hit whom?”
“Elias shoved Richard.”
Victoria stopped breathing.
“Then?”
“Nathan grabbed Elias from behind.”
Henry whispered, “Nathan.”
Rosa nodded.
“Elias broke free. Nathan reached again.”
Her voice shook.
“He pushed him.”
“Intentionally?”
“I don’t know.”
“Hard?”
“Yes.”
Elias fell backward into a steel packing table.
The back of his head struck the corner.
Blood.
The frame of The Blue Orchard leaned against the same table.
Blood splashed across its lower section.
Henry closed his eyes.
The contaminated frame.
“Was Elias conscious?”
“Yes.”
Everyone looked at Rosa.
“He was alive.”
“What did Richard do?”
“Started calling someone.”
“Ambulance?”
Rosa shook her head.
Victoria felt sick.
“He called Graham?”
“No. Someone named Pike wasn’t there then.”
“Who?”
“Dr. Samuel Krieg.”
Victoria frowned.
A private physician used by the Vale family in the 2000s.
Krieg died in 2014.
Rosa continued.
“He came thirty minutes later.”
“What did he say?”
“That Elias needed a hospital.”
Victoria’s hands tightened.
“And my father?”
“He said no police.”
Henry’s face twisted.
Rosa began crying.
“Elias kept saying his head hurt.”
“What happened next?”
“They moved him.”
“Where?”
“A Vale warehouse in Brooklyn.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Nathan made me help transport the painting separately.”
Rosa drove The Blue Orchard to the warehouse.
She saw Elias there.
Sitting on a couch.
Bandage around his head.
Conscious.
“He looked at me.”
Henry whispered, “Did he say anything?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“He said, ‘Tell Henry I didn’t run.’”
Henry’s face collapsed.
For twenty years, he had waited.
Three words would have changed his life.
Rosa had carried them and never delivered them.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
Henry stood and left the room.
Victoria followed.
He turned on her.
“Don’t.”
“I’m not going to defend her.”
“No. You’re going to tell me fear makes people complicated.”
Victoria stopped.
Henry’s eyes filled.
“My wife died thinking maybe Elias really stole it.”
Victoria said nothing.
“My children grew up hearing their father was connected to a thief.”
His voice cracked.
“And Rosa had one sentence.”
Victoria looked at the floor.
“I’m sorry.”
Henry laughed bitterly.
“You say that a lot now.”
“I know.”
He walked away.
Inside the interview room, Rosa continued.
The following morning she returned to the warehouse.
Elias was gone.
Richard told her he had agreed to leave the country in exchange for money.
Nathan repeated the same story.
Rosa never believed it.
“Why?”
“His shoes were still there.”
Agent Mills frowned.
“What?”
“Elias’s shoes.”
“He left without them?”
“Yes.”
Rosa remembered something else.
A delivery truck arrived before dawn.
Owned by Vale Development.
Destination written on the dispatch board:
North Hollow Estate.
Victoria froze.
North Hollow was her family’s 300-acre property in upstate New York.
Her childhood summers.
Her mother’s rose gardens.
Her father’s private sculpture park.
Agent Mills asked, “What was transported?”
Rosa shook her head.
“I never saw.”
Victoria stared at the table.
Her family estate might contain the final answer.
Then Rosa said one more thing.
“Richard wasn’t the last person I saw with Elias.”
Victoria looked up.
“Who was?”
Rosa swallowed.
“Nathan.”
At 3:20 a.m., she saw Nathan drive away from the Brooklyn warehouse.
Elias was in the passenger seat.
May you like
Alive.
Nathan had been the last known person to leave with him.
