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Chapter 5: Sarah Webb
The hospital room was quiet except for the soft beep of monitors tracking a heart rate that should have been impossible. Sarah Chen stood beside Marcus Webb’s bed, studying the face of a man who had been left for dead in a room that couldn’t exist. His wife sat in the chair beside him, her hand gripping his, her eyes red from days of crying.
“Mrs. Webb,” Sarah said gently, “I know this is difficult, but I need to ask you some questions about your husband.”
Elena Webb looked up, and for a moment Sarah saw something flicker behind the grief—something sharp and calculating that was quickly masked. “I’ve already told the police everything I know, Detective. Marcus was taken from our home three weeks ago. I woke up and found his side of the bed empty. The security system wasn’t triggered. No signs of forced entry. It’s like he just vanished into thin air.”
“And the people your husband does business with—the criminal organizations—”
“My husband is a legitimate businessman,” Elena said, her voice hardening. “Whatever associations you think he has are speculation at best.”
Sarah bit back her frustration. Elena Webb had been born into the Marchetti family; she knew exactly what her husband’s business entailed. But pushing wouldn’t help. Not now.
“Mrs. Webb, I need to understand what happened to your husband. The only way I can do that is by finding out who would want to harm him.”
Elena was silent for a long moment. Then she stood, walking to the window, her back to the detective. “There are people who want Marcus dead. People from his past, from before we were married. I thought he’d left that life behind, but some debts don’t disappear. They just… wait.”
“What kind of debts?”
“The kind that involve money. And the kind that involve blood.” Elena turned to face her. “There’s a file in our home. A safe, behind the painting in our study. The combination is his birthday—November 15, 1975. Whatever you find in there, Detective, I didn’t know about it. I want you to understand that.”
Sarah wrote down the information, her mind already racing ahead. A file. Evidence. Something that might explain why Marcus Webb had been targeted.
“Why are you telling me this?”
Elena’s eyes met hers, and the sharpness was back, harder now. “Because my husband is lying in that bed, and whoever did this to him is still out there. And because I have resources you don’t, Detective. And I will use them to find the truth.”
It was a warning as much as an offer of help. Elena Webb might be a grieving wife, but she was also a Marchetti—trained from birth to protect her family at any cost.
Sarah left the hospital with more questions than answers. But she had a lead now, a place to start. The Webb home. The hidden safe. And whatever secrets Marcus Webb had been keeping.
She just hoped those secrets wouldn’t get her killed.