Chapter 5 - Box 2714

By six in the morning, the Moretti estate looked less like a mansion and more like a crime scene.

Every employee had been moved to the west guest wing. Phones were collected. Security badges were audited. Vehicles were searched. Victor personally reviewed eleven days of internal footage.

Nothing obvious appeared.

That worried Grace more than if they had found someone immediately.

At seven twenty, a black federal SUV arrived.

Special Agent Naomi Chen stepped out alone.

She was small, composed, and looked at Luca Moretti the way a surgeon looked at a complicated scan.

"You always call before breakfast when there's a dead crime boss involved?" she asked Victor.

"Only when he's no longer dead."

Naomi stopped.

"Start over."

They did.

Not everything. Not yet.

Grace showed her Samuel's letter. Luca played Matteo's tape. Victor produced photographs of the transmitter, the cut culvert, and the north-gate footage.

Naomi listened without interrupting.

When they finished, she looked at Grace.

"And you have the key?"

Grace touched the chain at her neck.

"Yes."

"Do not remove it until we're inside the bank."

Luca frowned.

"Why?"

"Because if someone is watching the estate, the safest assumption is they also know we're leaving."

Grace liked her immediately.

The drive to Albany took just under three hours with two federal vehicles joining them north of the city. Naomi had called in a sealed warrant request through a deputy director in Manhattan. Grace rode in the second SUV with Titan.

Luca rode beside her.

"You could have stayed home," Grace said.

"It's my family's mess too."

"That wasn't my point."

"I know."

She looked out the window.

For the first hour, neither spoke.

Finally Luca said, "You haven't asked why I kept Titan."

Grace looked at the dog.

"I assumed he blackmailed you with those eyes."

"Samuel brought him to us after the river."

"Why?"

"He believed Dario's men had seen the puppy at his workshop. He didn't want them using Titan to track him back to you."

Grace swallowed.

"So he didn't give Titan away."

"No. He protected you."

Twelve years of one small resentment dissolved without warning.

Grace had spent years remembering the empty crate and believing her father had lied casually.

He had lied.

But not casually.

"Did he ever visit him?"

"Twice. Secretly. The second time was the night before the fire."

Grace turned sharply.

"You saw him?"

"For ten minutes."

"And you never thought to mention that yesterday?"

"There were several competing disasters."

"I can multitask."

"I'm learning that."

Grace waited.

"What did he say?"

Luca looked toward the road.

"He asked me to promise that if he vanished, Titan would never be put down for being difficult."

Grace blinked.

"That's what he was worried about?"

"Among other things."

"What other things?"

"You."

She looked away.

At ten forty-three, they entered Hudson Federal Trust.

The branch manager had been waiting with bank counsel and two federal officers. Naomi insisted on photographing the key before Grace inserted it into the dual-lock mechanism.

The box was long, narrow, and heavier than Grace expected.

They carried it into a private inspection room.

"Cameras?" Naomi asked.

"None inside," the manager said. "By policy."

Naomi set her own evidence camera on the table.

"We're making an exception."

Grace lifted the lid.

Inside were four items.

A sealed envelope.

A microcassette.

A small black notebook.

And a silver flash drive wrapped in foil.

Luca stared.

"Matteo said paper and digital could be altered."

Naomi pulled on gloves.

"Which means these may be decoys or corroboration."

Grace opened the envelope first.

It was addressed to her.

Gracie,

If this box opened, then either I came back for you or I failed to.

I'm sorry it was the second.

Inside are copies of names Sofia remembered, plus recordings of three meetings with Dario. None of it is enough alone. Together, it proves the pattern.

But if Dario is alive, he will still be looking for Sofia.

Do not look for her by name.

Look for the dog that isn't ours.

Grace frowned.

"What does that mean?"

Luca leaned over the letter.

"No idea."

She kept reading.

If Luca is with you, tell him the river wasn't his fault.

If Matteo is alive, tell him fear made him careful and guilt made him cruel.

If neither is alive, trust the one person who was never supposed to matter.

E.R.

Grace froze.

"E.R."

Victor, connected by secure video from the estate, spoke through Naomi's phone.

"Elena Rossi."

Luca shook his head.

"Elena knew about Saint Orison, but she said she didn't know where Sofia was."

Grace looked at the phrase again.

Trust the one person who was never supposed to matter.

"Maybe she was telling the truth."

Naomi lifted the notebook.

"Let's see what Samuel left."

The first pages contained dates, truck numbers, initials, and cargo routes. Naomi photographed each one. Halfway through, Grace saw a name.

GERALD PIKE.

Beside it: $80,000 — car fire report, witness suppression.

Grace stopped breathing.

"He was paid to declare my father dead."

Naomi read the line.

"Looks that way."

"Can we arrest him?"

"We can investigate him. This book is evidence, not a verdict."

Grace hated the distinction but understood it.

The microcassette was next.

Naomi had brought a portable player.

Samuel's voice filled the room.

Grace's father.

Alive on tape.

Older than she remembered.

Tired.

"Dario, you're done."

Another voice laughed.

Dario.

"You always confuse evidence with power, mechanic."

"And you confuse fear with loyalty."

"Where is the girl?"

"Which one? You've hurt so many."

A slap sounded on the recording.

Grace flinched.

Samuel continued, breathing harder.

"You won't find Sofia."

"I will find your daughter."

Silence.

Then Samuel said, "You go near Grace and I give everything to the Bureau."

"You can't. Half your evidence implicates Moretti companies."

"Then Luca's family burns with you."

The recording ended.

Luca did not react outwardly.

Grace did.

"He was willing to destroy your family too."

"Good."

She looked at him.

"Good?"

"If my family was protecting traffickers, we deserved it."

No hesitation.

Grace believed him.

Naomi inserted the flash drive into an isolated forensic laptop.

Encrypted folders appeared.

One file opened without a password.

A photograph.

Grace leaned closer.

It showed a little girl sitting on the steps of a farmhouse with a golden-colored dog beside her.

On the back wall was a painted sign: ORISON KENNELS.

Grace stared.

"Look for the dog that isn't ours."

Luca pointed at the golden dog.

"Not a mastiff."

Naomi examined the metadata.

"Image created eleven years ago. Location stripped."

The branch manager knocked on the door.

Naomi covered the evidence.

"Yes?"

The manager entered, pale.

"Agent Chen, there's a problem."

"What kind?"

"Someone is asking for Ms. Walker at the front desk."

Grace went still.

"Who?"

"An older man. Says he's her father."

The room erupted into motion.

Naomi drew her weapon.

Luca stepped in front of Grace.

"Stay here."

"Absolutely not."

"Grace."

"If it's him—"

"If it's him, Naomi will confirm it. If it isn't, you're exactly who they came for."

She hated that he was right.

Naomi left with two agents.

Minutes felt like hours.

Titan paced near the door, whining.

Then he stopped.

His ears lifted.

The dog pulled toward the hallway so hard the leash slipped from Grace's hand.

"Titan!"

He bolted.

Grace ran after him.

Luca cursed and followed.

They reached the bank lobby.

Titan skidded across the marble floor.

An older man stood between two federal agents.

Gray hair.

Weathered face.

A pronounced limp on the right side.

A scar ran from his ear to his jaw.

Grace did not recognize him.

Then Titan reached the man.

The enormous mastiff rose onto his hind legs and pressed both paws against the stranger's chest.

The man laughed once through tears.

"Easy, boy. You got old."

Grace's body forgot how to move.

The man looked at her.

His eyes were the same.

Not similar.

The same.

Warm brown with a tiny green fleck near the left pupil.

Her father's eyes.

"Gracie."

The world broke open.

Grace crossed the lobby before anyone could stop her.

Samuel Walker caught her in both arms.

For twelve years she had imagined a thousand versions of seeing him again.

In none of them had she hit him first.

Her fist landed against his shoulder.

"You were alive!"

Samuel winced.

"I know."

She hit him again.

"You were alive!"

"I know."

Then she was crying too hard to hit him.

He held her.

"I'm sorry."

"Twelve years."

"I know."

"You let me bury you."

"I know."

She pulled back.

"Stop saying you know!"

Samuel's face collapsed.

"I don't know what else to say."

Naomi stepped closer.

"Mr. Walker, we need to move. Now."

Samuel looked at the evidence room.

"You opened the box?"

"Yes," Grace said.

Fear crossed his face.

"Then Dario knows."

Luca approached.

Samuel looked at him.

Twelve years passed silently between them.

"Luca."

"Samuel."

No hug.

No handshake.

Samuel only said, "Your father should have told you."

"So should you."

"Yes."

Naomi cut in.

"We can settle family betrayals somewhere with fewer windows."

Samuel nodded.

"She's right."

Grace gripped his sleeve.

"Where have you been?"

"Not here."

"That's not an answer."

"I know."

She glared.

He almost smiled.

"There she is."

Naomi's phone rang.

She answered.

Her face changed.

"What?"

Everyone looked at her.

She listened for ten seconds, then lowered the phone.

"That was Victor."

Luca stepped forward.

"What happened?"

"Elena Rossi is gone."

Samuel went white.

"No."

Grace looked at him.

"You know why?"

Samuel's voice dropped.

"Because Elena isn't just the person who knows where Sofia is."

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...

He looked toward the photograph of the little girl and the golden dog.

"Elena is Sofia's mother."