Chapter 4 - The Ledger Under the Floor

Sadi did not go home.

She did something worse.

She called her mother.

Maria Moreno answered on the fourth ring with the sleepy irritation of a woman who believed phone calls before sunrise were either emergencies or scams.

“Sadi?”

“I need to ask you something about Dad.”

A long silence followed.

Maria’s voice changed. “What happened?”

“Nothing happened to me.”

“That was not my question.”

Sadi closed the door of a small sitting room off the Falcone study.

“Did Dad ever work for a man named Salvatore Falcone?”

Maria did not answer.

Sadi closed her eyes.

“Mom.”

“Where are you?”

“That is not an answer either.”

“Come home.”

“I can’t.”

“Then tell me where you are.”

Sadi looked through the glass doors toward the study. Gabriel was speaking quietly with Dr. Vale. Enzo stood near the window, watching everyone.

“I’m at the Falcone estate.”

Maria inhaled sharply.

“Get out.”

“I need to know why Dad worked for them.”

“Get out of that house, Sadi.”

“Someone tried to kill Gabriel Falcone tonight.”

“I don’t care.”

“They killed the shooter. They threatened Lucia. They know who I am. And they left me a photograph of Dad at Gianna Falcone House.”

Maria stopped speaking.

Sadi waited.

Finally, her mother whispered, “They found the picture.”

Sadi’s skin prickled.

“You knew about it?”

“I knew there were pictures.”

“What did Dad hide?”

“Sadi, please.”

“What did he hide?”

Maria began to cry, quietly enough that Sadi almost did not hear it.

“He said if anyone ever came asking about the old house, I was supposed to take you and leave the city.”

“Why?”

“Because the men who smiled at our dinner table were not the men they pretended to be.”

Sadi sank into a chair.

“Did Gabriel’s father come to our house?”

“Once.”

“Victor?”

“Many times.”

That answer hit harder.

“What did Dad do for them?”

“He checked books. He traced money. He could look at a wall of numbers and tell you which one was lying.”

“And he found something.”

“Yes.”

“What?”

“I never knew. He refused to tell me.”

Sadi clenched her jaw.

“Mom, think. Did he leave anything? Papers? A key?”

Maria was quiet again.

“There was a toolbox.”

“His red one?”

“Yes.”

“You gave it away after he died.”

“No.”

Sadi sat up.

“What?”

“I told you I gave it away.”

“Where is it?”

“In the storage locker under my name.”

Sadi stood.

“I’m coming.”

“No.”

“Mom.”

“You are not bringing those people here.”

“I’m already in this, whether we like it or not.”

Maria’s voice became hard.

“Then come alone.”

An hour later, Sadi rode in the back seat of a plain gray sedan with Enzo three cars behind her despite Maria’s demand.

Gabriel had argued about going.

Dr. Vale had threatened to sedate him.

For once, Gabriel lost.

Sadi met her mother inside a twenty-four-hour storage facility near the river.

Maria Moreno was sixty-two, small, silver-haired, and furious.

She hugged Sadi first.

Then she slapped her shoulder.

“Do not ever call me from a mobster’s house at five in the morning again.”

“I’ll put it on my calendar.”

Maria stared at the gray sedan outside.

“You came alone?”

“Yes.”

“You always were a terrible liar.”

Sadi sighed. “They’re outside.”

“Of course they are.”

The locker was narrow and packed with old furniture, boxes of tax records, winter clothes, and the remains of a life Maria had never fully thrown away.

Rafael’s red toolbox sat behind a folded card table.

Sadi knelt and opened it.

Wrenches.

Screwdrivers.

Electrical tape.

A rusted measuring tape.

Nothing that explained murder.

Maria touched the lid.

“He used to say the best hiding places were the ones people were too bored to search.”

Sadi removed the top tray.

The bottom looked ordinary.

Then she noticed four screws that did not match.

She borrowed a screwdriver from the tray and removed them.

A false metal panel lifted free.

Underneath lay a black notebook wrapped in plastic.

Maria covered her mouth.

Sadi stared at it.

“Did you know?”

“No.”

Inside the notebook were columns of dates, account numbers, initials, property codes, and handwritten arrows linking businesses Sadi had never heard of.

Near the center, three letters appeared repeatedly.

G.F.H.

Maria whispered, “Oh, Rafael.”

Sadi turned page after page.

One entry had been circled in red.

G.F.H. transfer: 2.4M.

Authorized V.F.

Received I.F.

Counter-sign E.R.

Sadi’s stomach tightened.

Victor Falcone.

Isabella Falcone.

Enzo Rinaldi.

All three names were in the ledger.

A car door closed outside.

Maria looked up.

“That better be your bodyguard.”

Sadi moved toward the locker entrance.

It was not Enzo.

A man in a maintenance uniform stood thirty feet away.

He held a clipboard.

He looked ordinary.

Too ordinary.

Sadi saw his right hand move toward his jacket.

“Mom, down.”

She pulled Maria behind a stack of boxes as a metallic object struck the locker frame.

Not a gunshot.

A dart.

It buried itself in cardboard.

Sadi stared at the tiny clear chamber attached to it.

Blue stripe.

The same blue stripe.

The man ran.

Sadi started after him, but Enzo appeared from the corridor and tackled the stranger into a row of plastic carts.

Two Falcone guards arrived seconds later.

The man fought with desperate efficiency.

Enzo hit him once in the ribs, twisted his arm behind his back, and forced him face-down.

“Who sent you?” Enzo demanded.

The man laughed against the concrete.

“You’re all already dead.”

Sadi picked up the dart with a plastic bag from the toolbox.

“Same equipment,” she said.

Enzo looked at it.

Then at the ledger in her hand.

His face changed.

“What is that?”

“My father’s notebook.”

Enzo stood slowly.

Sadi opened it to the circled entry.

His initials were there.

E.R.

She looked into his eyes.

“You want to explain this?”

Enzo did not deny it.

“I signed those transfers.”

Maria stepped forward. “Then you killed my husband.”

“No.”

“You expect us to believe that?” Sadi asked.

“I signed because Salvatore ordered me to.”

“Why?”

“I thought the money was paying for the rehabilitation program.”

“And it wasn’t?”

Enzo’s jaw tightened.

“I learned later that part of it disappeared.”

“Into whose account?”

“I never found out.”

The captured attacker started laughing again.

Sadi turned.

“What is funny?”

He looked at her with blood on his teeth.

“Your father found out.”

Everyone froze.

Sadi stepped closer.

“You knew my father?”

“No.”

“Then how do you know what he found?”

The man smiled.

“Because the same person who buried him hired me.”

Enzo grabbed him by the collar.

“Name.”

The attacker only laughed harder.

Then his face went slack.

Sadi saw his jaw move once.

“Stop him!”

Enzo forced his mouth open, but it was too late.

The man collapsed.

Maria turned away.

Sadi stood frozen.

Enzo checked for a pulse, then looked up.

“Nothing.”

Sadi stared at the dead man.

Another witness erased.

Another answer buried.

Her phone rang.

Gabriel.

She answered.

“You found something,” he said immediately.

“How do you know?”

“Because three men just tried to enter my estate using credentials issued eleven years ago.”

Sadi looked at the ledger.

“Then somebody knows we opened the toolbox.”

“What did you find?”

“A ledger. Victor, Isabella, and Enzo are all in it.”

Gabriel was quiet.

Then he asked, “Is Enzo with you?”

“Yes.”

“Put him on speaker.”

Sadi did.

Gabriel’s voice became colder.

“Enzo, come back to the house.”

Enzo looked at Sadi.

“Am I under accusation?”

“You are under instruction.”

“And if I refuse?”

A pause.

“Then I will assume the ledger is telling me the truth.”

Enzo’s eyes hardened.

Sadi watched two men who had trusted each other for decades turn into strangers in less than ten seconds.

Then Maria touched Sadi’s arm.

“There’s another page.”

She pointed to the back cover.

A thin sheet had been glued beneath the leather lining.

Sadi peeled it loose.

There was only one handwritten sentence.

IF GABRIEL EVER ASKS, TELL HIM HIS MOTHER DID NOT DIE OF AN ANEURYSM.

Sadi stopped breathing.

On speaker, Gabriel said, “What is it?”

She looked at Enzo.

May you like

[COMPLETED] She waited ten years for her fiancé, but the night she marri...

[COMPLETED] Five Years After My Mafia Husband Chose Another Woman, He Me...

[COMPLETED] I CALLED MY HUSBAND 18 TIMES WHILE OUR SON WAS DYING. EIGHT...

Then at her mother.

“Gabriel,” she said slowly, “I think my father knew your family buried more than money.”