Chapter 5 - The Woman Who Was Supposed to Be Dead

Security cleared the garage.

Bomb squad arrived.

Victor’s car was sealed off.

The device underneath it was real.

Remote trigger.

Enough explosive to kill everyone near the driver’s side.

Matteo stared at the car.

“Richard?”

George shook his head.

“Maybe.”

Elena looked at her phone.

“Sofia knew.”

Daniel said:

“She knows how Richard operates.”

Matteo looked at Victor.

“So call her.”

Victor shook his head.

“She does not answer me.”

Elena stepped forward.

“Give me her number.”

“I don’t have it.”

“You met her.”

“She contacts me.”

Elena laughed bitterly.

“Of course.”

Matteo looked at Daniel.

“You?”

Daniel removed a prepaid phone.

“One number.”

He called.

No answer.

Again.

No answer.

Then a message appeared.

NOT SAFE TO SPEAK.

Matteo typed:

THIS IS MATTEO.

Three dots.

Then:

I KNOW.

Matteo:

WHERE ARE YOU?

SOFIA:

CLOSE.

He looked around.

Upper floors.

Hotel windows.

Service exits.

Then another message.

RICHARD IS NOT WORKING ALONE.

Matteo typed:

WHO?

No answer.

Elena typed over his shoulder:

THIS IS ELENA.

The reply came immediately.

I KNOW.

Elena’s hands shook.

WHY DID YOU LET ME THINK YOU WERE DEAD?

A long pause.

Then:

ASK VICTOR WHY HE CHOSE ONE DAUGHTER OVER THE OTHER.

Elena looked at her father.

Victor closed his eyes.

She whispered:

“What does that mean?”

Victor did not answer.

Matteo said:

“Tell her.”

Victor looked at Elena.

“When Richard discovered Sofia existed, he threatened to expose everything.”

“Everything?”

“Your mother did not know about her.”

Elena stared.

“So you hid Sofia.”

“Yes.”

“Where?”

“With relatives in Canada.”

“And told everyone she died?”

“No.”

Victor’s voice broke.

“Her mother did.”

Elena looked confused.

Victor continued:

“Sofia’s mother believed that if Sofia disappeared completely, Richard would stop using her against me.”

“Why was Richard using her?”

“Because I was laundering money for him.”

Matteo stared.

Victor nodded.

“There it is.”

Elena looked sick.

“You were part of it.”

“Yes.”

“For how long?”

“Twenty-nine years.”

Daniel looked at Victor with disgust.

Victor continued:

“I tried to leave twice.”

“And Sofia paid for it.”

“Yes.”

Elena stepped back.

Her father had not been trapped for one year.

Or five.

He had built his life inside the corruption.

The phone buzzed again.

SOFIA:

THE ORIGINAL LEDGERS ARE IN THE RINALDI HOUSE.

Matteo frowned.

“My house?”

Daniel stared.

“Lucia.”

Matteo typed:

WHERE?

SOFIA:

ASK HANNAH.

Everyone looked at me.

I almost laughed.

“Me?”

The next message arrived.

THE MAID KNOWS WHICH ROOM RICHARD NEVER LETS ANYONE CLEAN.

My stomach dropped.

There was one.

The old music room.

Locked.

Always locked.

Richard kept the key.

I said:

“The west music room.”

Matteo looked at me.

“Why did no one clean it?”

“Your uncle said the woodwork was fragile.”

George shook his head.

“That room used to be Lucia’s office.”

Daniel went pale.

Matteo looked toward the hotel exit.

“We go home.”

Victor said:

“Richard may already be there.”

“Then we go faster.”

We reached the estate thirty minutes later.

The west music room door was open.

Broken.

Someone had arrived first.

Inside, drawers were emptied.

Wall panels cut.

Old piano overturned.

Matteo stood in the center.

“Too late.”

I looked around.

Something felt wrong.

Not missing.

Moved.

The piano bench.

I had polished the outside of that room once during renovations years earlier.

The bench had always been beneath the north window.

Now it was near the fireplace.

I pointed.

“That moved.”

Matteo lifted the bench.

Nothing.

Then Daniel touched the floor.

One board was lighter.

He pulled it up.

A steel compartment.

Empty.

Except for one envelope.

Labeled:

FOR MATTEO.

His mother’s handwriting.

Matteo opened it.

Inside was a photograph.

Lucia standing beside a young woman.

Sofia.

Nineteen.

Alive.

On the back:

IF SOFIA COMES BACK, TRUST HER WITH THE BOOKS.

NOT WITH YOUR LIFE.

Elena read it twice.

“What does that mean?”

Daniel looked at Sofia’s face.

Then at Matteo.

“Lucia trusted her information.”

“But not her.”

“No.”

A noise came from upstairs.

Footsteps.

Matteo moved toward the hallway.

A woman appeared at the top of the stairs.

Dark hair.

Black coat.

Elena’s face.

Older around the eyes.

Harder.

Sofia Voss.

She held a leather ledger in one hand.

And a pistol in the other.

Elena whispered:

“Sofia.”

Sofia looked at her little sister.

For the first time, her expression cracked.

“You grew up.”

Elena started crying.

“You let me bury you.”

Sofia’s face hardened again.

“I was never the one you buried.”

Matteo stepped forward.

“Put the gun down.”

Sofia looked at him.

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because Richard is inside this house.”

Everyone went still.

Matteo looked around.

Sofia continued.

“And he is not here for the ledger.”

She looked at Daniel.

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“He is here to finish what he started twelve years ago.”

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