Chapter 5 - What Happened After the Warehouse

Dominic did not answer.

Marco repeated the question.

“Where did you take my father?”

Dominic looked at Victor.

“You brought him here?”

Victor shook his head.

“No.”

Dominic looked at Father Ellis.

“You?”

The priest said:

“Anna chose to come.”

Dominic smiled without humor.

“Anna has always chosen badly.”

Marco moved one step forward.

“Do not speak to her like that.”

Dominic finally looked at him.

“You don’t know what she did.”

“I know she stayed away because someone threatened me.”

Dominic’s face remained blank.

Marco held up the photograph.

“Your handwriting?”

Dominic glanced at it.

“No.”

Anna said:

“But your words.”

Dominic looked at her.

She continued.

“Victor delivered the message. You dictated it.”

Marco turned to Victor.

Victor nodded slowly.

“Yes.”

Marco closed his eyes for one second.

When he opened them, he asked:

“Did my father survive the warehouse fire?”

Dominic said nothing.

“Did he?”

“Yes.”

“Did you take him from the clinic?”

“Yes.”

“Was he alive?”

“Yes.”

Marco’s breathing changed.

“Where did you take him?”

Dominic looked past him at the dark ballroom.

“To St. Matthew’s.”

Father Ellis lowered his head.

Marco noticed.

“The church?”

Father Ellis answered:

“The old rectory behind it.”

Marco looked from one man to the other.

“Why?”

Dominic spoke first.

“Because Luca refused to tell me where Anna was.”

Anna’s hands tightened.

“He had burns over half his body,” Dominic said. “He could barely stand. And he still refused.”

Marco’s voice dropped.

“What did you do to him?”

Dominic looked at Marco for a long moment.

Then he said:

“I asked him to choose.”

“Choose what?”

“The family business or his wife.”

“And?”

“He chose her.”

Anna looked away.

Marco swallowed.

“So you killed him.”

Dominic shook his head.

“No.”

Victor stared.

Anna turned back.

Father Ellis whispered:

“Dominic.”

Dominic ignored him.

“I left him alive.”

Marco frowned.

“What?”

“I left St. Matthew’s before dawn. He was alive.”

Anna looked at Father Ellis.

The priest’s face had changed.

Marco saw it.

“Father.”

Father Ellis gripped the edge of a chair.

“Tell him.”

Marco stepped closer.

“Tell me what?”

The old priest looked at Anna.

She nodded once.

Father Ellis began.

“Luca died at sunrise.”

Marco did not move.

“I was there.”

“How?”

“Anna called me from hiding. She had learned Victor rescued Luca from the warehouse. She begged me to find him.”

Victor added quietly:

“I told her where the clinic was.”

Father Ellis continued.

“When I reached the clinic, Luca was gone. I followed one of Dominic’s cars to St. Matthew’s.”

Marco stared at him.

“And my father?”

“He was in the old rectory.”

“Alive?”

“Yes.”

“Could he talk?”

“Yes.”

Marco’s eyes filled but no tears fell.

“What did he say?”

Father Ellis reached inside his coat.

He removed a key.

Old brass.

Small.

“He asked me to hide something.”

Dominic’s face changed.

“Ellis.”

The priest looked at him.

“You had twenty-four years.”

Dominic stepped forward.

Marco blocked him.

“What did my father hide?”

Father Ellis held up the key.

“A cassette tape.”

Dominic’s jaw tightened.

Anna whispered:

“Luca recorded everything after Dominic left.”

Marco looked at her.

“You heard it?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because Father Ellis believed anyone who possessed it would become a target.”

Marco looked at the priest.

“Where is it?”

“Under the altar at St. Matthew’s.”

Dominic laughed softly.

“After twenty-four years?”

Father Ellis nodded.

“In a sealed reliquary no one opens.”

Dominic’s eyes moved toward the hallway.

Marco saw it.

So did I.

Marco said:

“Grace.”

“Yes?”

“Take Father Ellis upstairs.”

Dominic looked at him.

“Marco—”

“Not another word.”

Marco’s guards closed around the doorway.

Then a security radio crackled.

One guard answered.

A voice said:

“We found Anton.”

Marco held out his hand for the radio.

“Where?”

“Garage.”

“Bring him here.”

A pause.

Then:

“He’s gone.”

Marco frowned.

“What do you mean gone?”

“He took a car.”

Father Ellis looked at the brass key in his hand.

Anna whispered:

“He’s going to the church.”

Dominic said nothing.

May you like

[COMPLETED] “GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY DRESS! YOU’RE NOTHING BUT AN OLD SEAM...

[COMPLETED] At the Mafia Boss's Engagement Party, I Served His Hungry So...

[COMPLETED] The Mafia Boss’s Fiancée Tried to Dismiss His Father’s Loyal...

Marco looked at him.

That silence answered everything.