Chapter 5 - The False Enemy

Celeste did not deny it.

That frightened Elena more than Vittorio’s accusation.

Dante stood between his uncle and the doorway, his shoulders rigid.

“Leo goes upstairs,” he said.

This time the boy obeyed because Celeste’s face had scared him.

When they were alone, Dante looked at her.

“What did you do?”

Celeste rested both hands on the back of a chair.

“I helped Antonio copy Marco’s records.”

Vittorio laughed.

“Tell the whole story.”

“I am.”

“No. You’re choosing the part that makes you loyal.”

Dante’s voice hardened.

“Enough.”

Vittorio turned on him.

“You want truth? Your father learned someone was moving money through Harbor. He believed Marco. He asked Celeste to help copy the books because he no longer trusted his own office.”

Elena looked at Celeste.

“Why you?”

“Because I kept the house accounts. Because men ignored me.”

Vittorio sneered.

“And because she was sleeping with him.”

The room froze.

Dante’s face became unreadable.

Celeste lifted her chin.

“Yes.”

Elena saw pain ripple through Dante despite his stillness.

“How long?” he asked.

“Four years.”

“My mother knew?”

“No.”

“Did anyone?”

“Marco did.”

Vittorio smiled without humor.

“Marco knew everything.”

Elena stepped toward him.

“Then tell me why he died.”

Vittorio’s eyes narrowed.

“Because he was stupid enough to believe evidence could protect him.”

Dante grabbed the front of his uncle’s jacket.

Nico moved instantly.

“Dante.”

“Say it again.”

Vittorio did not flinch.

“You think I killed him?”

“I think you just admitted knowing he expected protection.”

“I knew after.”

“From whom?”

Vittorio looked toward Nico.

“Ask Ferraro.”

Dante released him slowly.

Nico’s expression remained controlled.

“My father and Detective Reese met Marco.”

“You told me Reese was your father’s partner,” Elena said.

“He was.”

“And your father?”

“Thomas Ferraro left the department after Reese died. Antonio hired him for security.”

Vittorio said, “Convenient career move.”

Nico ignored him.

Dante asked, “Why didn’t you tell me your father investigated Marco’s death?”

“Because he made me promise.”

“You work for me.”

“I worked for you because he made me promise.”

That landed heavily.

Dante stared.

Nico took a breath.

“My father believed Marco and Reese were killed by the same network of people. Not one man. A network.”

“What network?” Elena asked.

“Contractors, police, city inspectors, political fixers. Harbor money paid them.”

Vittorio folded his arms.

“And there it is. The heroic Ferraro story.”

Nico’s jaw tightened.

“My father spent ten years trying to identify whoever controlled the payments.”

“Did he?”

“He died before he could.”

Dante looked at him sharply.

“When?”

“Five years ago.”

“How?”

“Heart attack.”

Vittorio laughed.

Nico’s head snapped toward him.

“What is funny?”

“You people love accidents and natural causes.”

Elena watched Vittorio.

“Did you put the watch in your own car?”

“No.”

“Then who did?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why would someone frame you?”

“Because I am the obvious villain in every family story.”

Dante’s eyes narrowed.

“You cultivated that reputation.”

“Because fear is cheaper than bullets.”

“Spoken like a man who has used both.”

Vittorio did not deny it.

Elena walked to the evidence bag.

The watch looked exactly like the one in the hotel footage.

Too exactly.

“Where did you buy it?” she asked.

Vittorio frowned.

“What?”

“The watch Leo remembers. Where did you buy it?”

“Gift.”

“From whom?”

His eyes shifted.

“Sofia.”

Dante’s sister.

Elena looked at him.

“Where is she?”

Dante checked his phone.

“She was supposed to be in Milan.”

“Supposed to be?”

Nico was already calling.

No answer.

He called again.

Then he opened another screen.

“Her phone is in the city.”

Dante’s face changed.

“Where?”

Nico stared.

“Orsini territory.”

Vittorio swore.

Elena remembered the supplier connection Nico mentioned earlier.

“Felix Orsini.”

Dante reached for his coat.

Nico blocked him.

“No.”

“Move.”

“If Sofia is with Orsini, walking in angry is exactly what someone wants.”

“She is my sister.”

“And you are Leo’s father.”

Dante stopped.

Nico continued.

“Give me thirty minutes.”

Dante looked as though thirty minutes might kill him.

Elena said, “Call Orsini.”

Everyone turned.

“Not through your people. Directly.”

Dante’s eyes narrowed.

“You think he’ll answer?”

“If he has Sofia, he wants something. If he doesn’t, he’ll want to know why you think he does.”

Vittorio nodded reluctantly.

“She’s right.”

Before Dante called, Elena looked at the watch again.

Something else bothered her.

“The strap.”

Nico frowned.

“What about it?”

“The man at the bar folded a fifty beneath his glass with his right hand. I saw a pale mark beside the buckle. A scratch, maybe.”

Nico opened the evidence bag under the light.

“There is a scratch.”

Vittorio held out his wrist.

“Then compare it to photographs of me wearing the watch.”

Dante looked at him.

“You are volunteering evidence?”

“I am volunteering the possibility that someone wants you angry enough to stop thinking.”

Elena studied him.

“For a man accused of threatening my father, you suddenly sound reasonable.”

Vittorio’s expression hardened.

“Do not confuse guilt about one thing with guilt about everything.”

That sentence stayed with her.

It applied to him.

It might apply to Marco.

It might eventually apply to every person in the room.

Dante took out his phone.

“Then we start separating one thing from another.”

Dante called.

Felix Orsini answered on the fourth ring.

“Dante. I was wondering when you would stop sending boys to watch my doors.”

“Where is my sister?”

A pause.

Then a sigh.

“In my office.”

Dante’s knuckles whitened around the phone.

“Put her on.”

“She is angry.”

“Felix.”

“You Morettis always say names like threats.”

A woman’s voice came through.

“Dante?”

“Sofia.”

“I’m fine.”

“What are you doing there?”

“Trying to keep you from starting a war over evidence someone planted.”

Dante looked at the watch.

“What evidence?”

“The watch.”

Every person in the room went still.

“How do you know about the watch?”

Sofia was silent.

Dante’s voice dropped.

“Come home.”

“No.”

“Sofia.”

“I can’t.”

“Why?”

“Because if I do, someone will know Felix showed me the transfer records.”

Elena stepped closer.

“What transfer records?”

Sofia heard her.

“Who is that?”

“Elena Russo.”

Silence.

Then Sofia whispered, “Oh God.”

Elena’s stomach tightened.

“You knew my father?”

“I was fourteen.”

“What records?”

Sofia hesitated.

Felix’s voice came back.

“Come to my office. Four people only: Dante, Russo, Ferraro, and Vittorio if he can keep his hands visible.”

Vittorio muttered something obscene.

Dante said, “One hour.”

The Orsini office occupied the second floor above a closed restaurant. It was not a palace. It looked like an insurance agency after dark.

Felix Orsini was fifty, elegant, gray at the temples, with the tired expression of a man who had survived too many enemies to enjoy the victory.

Sofia stood by the window.

She crossed the room and hugged Dante.

He held her tightly for three seconds, then pulled back.

“What have you done?”

“Something you should have done years ago.”

“Which is?”

“Question the family story.”

Elena stepped forward.

Sofia looked at her with immediate sadness.

“You look like Marco.”

“People keep telling me things sixteen years late.”

“I deserve that.”

“Start now.”

Felix placed several photocopies on the desk.

“These came from an accountant who worked Harbor Renewal’s bankruptcy.”

Nico scanned them.

His face changed.

“These signatures are yours,” he said to Vittorio.

“Some.”

“And these?”

Vittorio leaned closer.

“No.”

“They look like yours.”

“They are not.”

Felix tapped a transfer.

“Two hundred thousand to a consulting company owned by Samuel Reese’s brother.”

Elena frowned.

“The detective?”

“His brother,” Nico said. “Paul Reese.”

“Why would Harbor pay him?”

Felix answered.

“Because Paul sold surveillance equipment to private clients. Hidden microphones. Cameras. Wiretaps.”

Dante looked at Vittorio.

“You were buying surveillance?”

Vittorio shook his head.

“I told you, those signatures are forged.”

Sofia said, “There’s more.”

She took out her phone and showed Dante a photo.

It was the watch.

“Three months ago I bought two identical watches from a private maker in Florence.”

Vittorio stared.

“You gave me one.”

“Yes.”

Dante’s face tightened.

“Who got the other?”

Sofia looked at Nico.

“Thomas Ferraro.”

Nico went white.

“My father?”

“I ordered it before he died. He admired Vittorio’s. When it arrived after the funeral, I gave it to you.”

Nico did not move.

Elena looked at his wrist.

He wore no watch.

“Where is it?” she asked.

Nico’s eyes hardened.

“In a drawer at my apartment.”

Dante said, “Check.”

Nico called one of his men.

Two minutes passed.

Then four.

At six minutes, the answer came.

The drawer was empty.

Vittorio laughed bitterly.

“You searched my car. Who searches the security chief?”

Dante looked at Nico.

Nico did not blink.

“You think I staged an attack on Leo?”

“I think I don’t know what to think.”

Elena watched his face.

Something was wrong.

Not guilt.

Recognition.

“Nico,” she said, “who knew about the watch?”

“My father. Sofia. Me.”

“Anyone else?”

He hesitated.

Felix noticed.

“There it is.”

Nico’s jaw tightened.

“My father’s attorney handled his estate.”

“Name?” Dante asked.

“Adrian Cole.”

Sofia swore softly.

Elena looked at her.

“You know him?”

“He represents half our legitimate companies.”

Dante’s phone vibrated.

He read the message.

His face became stone.

“What?” Elena asked.

He turned the screen around.

A photo showed Leo asleep in his bed.

Taken from inside the Moretti house.

Beneath it were six words.

STOP READING MARCO RUSSO’S LEDGER.

Elena’s blood went cold.

Dante was already calling Celeste.

No answer.

He called the guard outside Leo’s room.

No answer.

Nico drew his weapon.

Dante’s voice shook for the first time.

“We go now.”

And in that instant every accusation in the room became less important than one fact.

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Whoever had framed Vittorio and stolen Nico’s watch was not outside the Moretti family.

They were already inside the house.