Chapter 13 - The Truth About the Night Daniel Disappeared From San Luca

Cesare sat in his own drawing room under guard while Claire stood over him.

“Start at San Luca.”

He looked older than he had at the engagement dinner.

Not weaker.

Simply stripped of the performance that power had allowed him to maintain.

“Vieri kept Daniel alive because he wanted Viviana Moretti’s location. Serra found out six weeks later.”

“How?”

“Vieri asked for money.”

Alessandro’s voice was cold.

“He blackmailed you.”

“Yes.”

“For what?”

“Safe passage and new papers.”

“Did you pay?”

“Yes.”

Claire clenched her jaw.

“What did Serra do?”

Cesare looked at her.

“He went to San Luca before I could stop him.”

“Why would you stop him?”

“Because by then Daniel had become more useful alive.”

Claire almost laughed from disbelief.

“Useful.”

“He had evidence against Serra. I thought I could turn him into a witness and remove Gianni without exposing the entire route.”

“Again,” Claire said. “My husband was a person.”

Cesare looked away.

Alessandro leaned closer.

“What happened?”

“Serra shot Vieri.”

Paolo, standing near the door, went rigid.

“Vieri is dead?”

“Yes.”

“The gunshot Pietro heard.”

Cesare nodded.

“Serra then took Daniel.”

“Where?”

“I do not know.”

Claire grabbed Cesare’s jacket.

“Do not do this.”

Alessandro did not stop her.

Cesare met her eyes.

“I truly do not know. Serra called me the next morning and said Daniel would never testify. I assumed he was dead.”

“Assumed?”

“He sent me Daniel’s wedding ring.”

Claire released him as if burned.

The ring returned with the supposedly burned body.

The hospital administrator had mailed it to her in an envelope with Daniel’s wallet.

Serra had controlled the death story from the beginning.

“Where is the ring now?” Alessandro asked.

Claire answered.

“In a box at my old apartment storage unit.”

Paolo frowned.

“If Serra mailed it after San Luca, there will be records.”

“Fourteen months old,” Claire said.

“Still records.”

Don Ricci, bandaged now, lifted Daniel’s recorder.

“There may be something better.”

The device had captured part of the confrontation before Serra took Vivian.

Ricci rewound it.

Cesare’s voice emerged first.

Then Vivian’s.

Then, faintly, Serra speaking from the west hallway before entering.

“…same place as Bennett…”

Claire stopped breathing.

Ricci increased the volume.

Serra’s voice continued.

“…no one found him there, and no one will find her.”

Same place.

He was taking Vivian where he had taken Daniel.

Paolo opened an airfield map.

“The old Romano airfield has hangars, fuel storage, maintenance buildings, and an abandoned customs warehouse.”

Cesare shook his head.

“Too obvious. Serra knows we will follow.”

“What else is near it?”

“A quarry. Two farms. An old rail spur.”

Claire remembered Daniel’s final call file.

Serra had told him Matteo was a warning.

A repetition.

“How did Matteo die?” she asked suddenly.

Alessandro looked at her.

“Boat sabotage.”

“Where was the boat stored?”

Paolo understood.

“At a Moretti maintenance shed near the old rail spur.”

Cesare’s face changed.

Claire saw it.

“You know something.”

He closed his eyes.

“Serra kept private records there years ago.”

Alessandro was already moving.

The rail shed stood three kilometers from the airfield, hidden behind overgrown trees and a collapsed stone wall.

Police could have been called, but the local chain of command contained too many unknown loyalties. Caterina’s prosecutor contact was sending a trusted unit from Milan.

They could not wait.

Paolo’s team surrounded the property.

Claire stayed in the car until she heard a woman scream.

Vivian.

Then she ran.

The shed door was half open.

Inside, Serra stood beside an old workbench.

Vivian was tied to a chair but conscious.

Serra held a pistol.

Alessandro entered from the opposite side.

“Put it down.”

Serra smiled.

“You finally listened to your brother.”

“Too late for Matteo.”

“Much too late.”

Claire remained behind a metal support, heart pounding.

Serra looked older than he had at the villa but not afraid.

“Daniel thought evidence mattered,” he said. “Matteo thought blood mattered. Both misunderstood the same thing.”

Alessandro asked, “What?”

“Systems survive people.”

Vivian shouted, “You are not a system. You are a coward with files.”

Serra struck her.

Claire nearly moved.

Paolo’s hand caught her arm from behind.

Wait.

Alessandro kept Serra talking.

“Where is Daniel?”

Serra smiled at Claire’s hiding place.

He knew she was there.

“Ask his widow.”

Claire stepped out.

Paolo cursed under his breath.

Serra’s gaze settled on her.

“Mrs. Bennett.”

“Where is he?”

“Closer than you think.”

“Alive?”

The question hurt before he answered.

Serra tilted his head.

“When I left San Luca with Daniel Bennett, he was alive.”

Claire forced herself not to react.

“And after?”

“I offered him a choice. Give me Viviana and leave Europe with new papers, or keep playing hero.”

“What did he choose?”

“What do you think?”

Claire’s eyes burned.

“Then you killed him.”

Serra’s smile faded.

“No.”

Every person in the shed went still.

Claire heard only her own breathing.

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Serra continued.

“Daniel escaped.”