Chương 6 - The Evidence Vanessa Could Not Control

The second attempt to open Box 417 changed Luca’s strategy.

Until then, Vanessa had been the immediate problem: the person who hired Wallace, removed the authorization, took the key, and emptied the box.

Now there was proof that the information had traveled farther.

Someone else knew the bank, the box number, and enough about the old trust to attempt access.

Vittorio Bellini was the obvious answer.

Obvious was not the same as proven.

Hannah watched Luca force himself to respect the difference.

They moved from the library to the study, where Daniel returned with a legal pad full of times, names, and security notes.

“The bank won’t give us the second visitor’s identity without process,” he said. “The account is dormant and flagged now. Their compliance department froze further access.”

Anthony nodded. “Good.”

Luca did not look satisfied.

“Can they preserve camera footage?”

“They already did.”

“Transaction logs?”

“Yes.”

“Then we don’t touch the bank.”

Daniel looked at him.

“That’s unusually restrained.”

Luca’s expression was flat.

“My father spent eleven years dead because people solved problems in ways that left no records. I want records.”

Hannah had not expected that answer.

Neither, apparently, had Anthony.

Luca turned to him.

“You said the box contained three ledgers.”

“Yes.”

“Originals?”

“Copies your father made from Bellini-controlled companies and joint ventures.”

“Can the transactions be reconstructed?”

“Some.”

“From our records?”

“Possibly.”

Daniel said, “The legitimate companies still have accounting archives.”

Anthony shook his head. “Eleven years is a long time. Some entities closed.”

“Not all.”

Luca picked up the phone.

“Get Sofia Reyes here.”

Hannah looked at Daniel.

“Forensic accountant,” he explained. “She has the charming habit of making executives regret using spreadsheets.”

Hannah almost smiled.

Luca noticed.

“Your father needs his prescription,” he said.

The abrupt change startled her.

“What?”

“You told Mrs. Carter you were supposed to pick it up yesterday.”

Hannah felt exposed in a way she did not like.

“That isn’t relevant.”

“It is if you are staying here all day because of my family’s problem.”

“I can leave.”

“You can.”

He slid his phone across the desk.

“Call the pharmacy. Daniel will have someone drive you.”

Hannah pushed the phone back.

“I have my own phone.”

For one second Daniel looked deeply interested in the ceiling.

Luca stared at her.

Then, unexpectedly, he nodded.

“Fair.”

Hannah stepped into the hall to make the call.

Her father answered on the second ring.

“You working?” Frank asked.

“Sort of.”

“You sound tired.”

“So do you.”

“I’m seventy, Hannah. I have documentation.”

She smiled despite herself.

The pharmacy confirmed the prescription was ready. Hannah arranged delivery instead of accepting Luca’s car.

It cost twelve dollars more.

She paid it anyway.

Some boundaries were worth twelve dollars.

When she returned to the study, a woman in a navy suit was spreading old corporate records across the conference table.

Sofia Reyes was in her forties, brisk without being rude, and unimpressed by everyone.

“Mr. Moretti tells me we are looking for theft disguised across related entities,” she said to Anthony.

“Yes.”

“How much?”

“Roughly eighteen million over four years.”

Sofia did not blink.

“Roughly is what people say when they want accountants to suffer.”

Anthony almost smiled.

For the next two hours, the study became a working room rather than a place of intimidation.

Old ledgers came up from storage. Corporate archives were pulled electronically. Daniel arranged access to closed-company tax records through counsel. Sofia built timelines. Anthony supplied names he remembered. Luca corrected ownership details.

Hannah stayed because no one told her to leave.

At first she simply listened.

Then she noticed something.

Every transfer Anthony remembered had passed through vendors with ordinary names: Lakeshore Materials, Northfield Hauling, Metropolitan Site Services.

Names built to disappear into invoices.

One name sounded familiar.

“Metropolitan Site Services,” Hannah said.

Sofia looked up.

“Yes?”

“I’ve seen that.”

Luca turned toward her.

“Where?”

Hannah tried to remember.

Not a bank statement. Not a contract.

Then it came to her.

“The wedding deliveries.”

Daniel frowned.

“What?”

“Vanessa had a stack of vendor folders in the morning room for the wedding. Florists, rentals, catering.”

“That company was there?”

“I think so.”

Luca stood.

They went to the morning room.

The wedding-planning folders were still arranged inside a lacquered cabinet because no one had yet decided what to do with a wedding that no longer existed.

Hannah found the folder halfway down.

METROPOLITAN EVENT SERVICES.

Not Site Services.

She almost put it back. Then she remembered how wedding vendors had been routed through the estate: each contract came with proof of insurance, delivery schedules, tax forms, and a contact sheet because Mrs. Carter refused to let unknown crews wander through service corridors.

“Wait,” Hannah said.

She opened the folder again and spread the supporting pages across the table. Daniel immediately photographed the arrangement before anyone moved a document. Sofia asked counsel to preserve the originals as potential evidence rather than treating them as discarded wedding paperwork.

The decision seemed overly careful until Hannah saw the same industrial address repeated on three separate forms.

She felt foolish for a second.

Then Sofia took the folder.

“Same address.”

Anthony stepped closer.

The old company had supposedly closed nine years earlier.

The wedding vendor invoice listed a new company with a nearly identical name at the same industrial address.

Luca looked at Daniel.

“Who hired them?”

Daniel checked the contract.

“Vanessa.”

Sofia flipped through the pages.

“This alone proves nothing.”

Hannah nodded.

“But it gives us a current entity.”

“Yes.”

Sofia’s eyes sharpened.

“And current entities leave current records.”

That was the first real progress they had made without the contents of Box 417.

By evening, Sofia had traced Metropolitan Event Services through two holding companies to a Bellini family trust.

The company had received unusually large consulting payments from a construction supplier that also did business with Moretti Development.

The pattern was not identical to Anthony’s memory.

It was close enough to matter.

“The scheme didn’t stop eleven years ago,” Sofia said.

Luca leaned over the table.

“You’re certain?”

“I’m certain these transactions deserve subpoenas. I am not certain they are criminal until we see underlying contracts and services.”

Again, the distinction.

Evidence, not certainty disguised as anger.

Hannah began to understand why Sofia was still alive in Luca’s orbit.

Daniel entered holding Wallace’s phone in a clear evidence bag.

“His lawyer finally convinced him cooperation is better than being charged with assault and theft.”

Luca looked up.

“What did he give us?”

“A message thread with Vanessa.”

“Useful?”

“Somewhat. She tells him to find Anthony, retrieve the key, and keep the watch until she knows whether anyone saw him.”

Hannah’s wrist throbbed at the memory.

“Anything about Vittorio?” Anthony asked.

“One message.”

Daniel read from his notes rather than the phone.

“Vanessa tells Wallace, ‘Do not contact my father. If he learns DeLuca is alive before I have the records, everything changes.’”

Luca looked toward Anthony.

“That supports her claim that she was acting without him.”

“For a while,” Anthony said.

Sofia closed one ledger.

“But somebody else tried to access the bank box after she emptied it.”

Daniel nodded.

“And Vanessa’s phone records show three calls to Vittorio after leaving the estate last night.”

Hannah felt the pieces shift.

“She told him.”

“Maybe,” Luca said.

He refused to turn inference into fact.

Hannah respected him for it.

Then Daniel’s phone rang.

He answered and listened.

His expression changed.

“Understood. Don’t touch anything.”

He ended the call.

Luca straightened.

“What happened?”

“One of our records-storage facilities just reported a fire alarm.”

Anthony stood.

“Which facility?”

“South Pulaski.”

Sofia’s face changed.

“That’s where the closed-company boxes were sent.”

Daniel was already moving.

“The suppression system activated. Fire department is on the way.”

Luca’s voice hardened.

“People?”

“Night supervisor and one guard. Both evacuated.”

“Good.”

He did not ask about the documents first.

Hannah noticed that too.

Within thirty minutes, they were outside the storage building under rotating emergency lights.

The fire had been small.

A trash container beside the archive room had burned hot enough to smoke the corridor but not breach the fire-rated door.

The suppression system had done its job.

The records survived.

A fire investigator spoke with Daniel while Luca stood behind the police line.

Hannah stayed near the car.

She had no reason to be there except that going home while the mystery burned—literally—had felt impossible.

Sofia approached carrying a sealed plastic evidence pouch provided by the investigator.

Inside was a partially melted access badge.

“Found near the service door,” she said.

Daniel joined them.

“The badge belongs to a contractor.”

“Which contractor?” Luca asked.

Daniel looked at Hannah.

Then at the others.

“Metropolitan Event Services.”

The wedding vendor.

The same company linked to the old Bellini network.

Luca stared at the damaged badge.

For the first time that day, something close to certainty entered his face.

Not certainty about his father’s murder.

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Not yet.

But certainty that whoever had protected the old scheme eleven years ago was still protecting it now.