Chapter 7 - The Father Who Spoke From the Grave
Ruby replayed the video.
Again.
And again.
Charles sat bound to the chair.
Lorenzo stood behind him.
Then a man entered outside the camera frame.
"You're late."
And the voice answered.
"Traffic."
Patrick.
Ruby knew that dry tone.
She had heard it thousands of times as a child.
No recording could imitate the tiny rasp he developed after throat surgery.
Her father was dead.
She had identified his body.
She had buried him.
But the voice belonged to him.
Dante took the phone.
"Could be synthetic."
Ruby shook her head.
"The video metadata?"
Marco examined it.
"Live transmission."
Ruby felt dizzy.
Dante looked at Elena, who was being treated by the estate physician.
"Patrick is alive?"
Elena seemed equally shaken.
"I don't know."
"You worked with him."
"Until three months before his death."
Dante leaned closer.
"What happened?"
"He disappeared from our communications."
"And then died."
"That's what I was told."
Ruby laughed bitterly.
"Apparently death means very little in this family."
No one disagreed.
The physician removed the bullet.
Elena had been lucky.
The shot passed through muscle.
Ruby sat beside her.
"Tell me what you meant about the marriage contract."
Elena looked at Dante.
He nodded.
No more secrets.
Elena said, "Patrick created a paper ledger years ago."
"We know."
"No. You know about the financial ledger."
Ruby frowned.
"There's another?"
"The names."
Dante's expression sharpened.
"What names?"
"Everyone who participated in Enzo's network. Politicians. Executives. Port managers. Judges."
"Where?"
"Patrick encoded it."
Ruby looked at the marriage contract on Dante's desk.
"Inside that?"
"The contract was printed on custom paper."
Marco picked up a sheet.
"Watermark?"
Elena nodded.
"Heat activated."
Ruby stared.
Dante moved toward the fireplace.
She grabbed his arm.
"Don't burn it."
His mouth twitched despite the moment.
"I wasn't planning to."
Marco retrieved a controlled heating plate.
They placed the first page over it.
Nothing.
Second page.
Nothing.
Third.
Faint marks appeared.
Numbers.
Dante leaned closer.
"Coordinates."
Marco entered them.
A location appeared.
Pier Nineteen.
Ruby exhaled.
"Of course."
Another line emerged.
Locker 317.
Elena looked relieved.
"That's it."
Dante glanced at the clock.
Ten forty-seven.
Lorenzo's exchange was scheduled at midnight.
Marco assembled a team.
Ruby stood.
Dante immediately said, "No."
She stared at him.
He sighed.
"That habit is going to be difficult to break."
"Start tonight."
He looked at her for a long moment.
"Stay beside me."
"I can agree to that."
It wasn't surrender.
It was partnership.
They left Elena under guard.
At eleven thirty, Ruby and Dante entered the abandoned freight tunnel beneath Pier Nineteen.
Water dripped from rusted beams.
Marco led two men ahead.
Ruby stayed beside Dante.
After ten minutes they reached an old storage area.
Locker 317 stood against the wall.
Ruby used the code revealed by heat on the contract.
October seventeenth.
The locker opened.
Inside was a steel case.
Dante checked for traps.
Clear.
Ruby opened it.
Documents.
Photographs.
A small hard drive.
And another recorder.
Ruby pressed play.
Patrick's voice.
"If Ruby is hearing this, then Lorenzo returned and I failed."
Her heart tightened.
"Sweetheart, what I'm about to tell you will hurt."
Dante stood beside her.
"I need you to know that my death may not be what it seems."
Ruby closed her eyes.
"If there was any way to disappear without making you believe I was gone, I would have taken it."
Ruby whispered, "Oh my God."
Dante reached for her hand.
This time she let him.
Patrick continued.
"The network found me. I had two choices. Let them use me to reach you, or die publicly and disappear privately."
Ruby began crying.
"So yes, Ruby. If this recording is playing, there is a chance I am alive."
She laughed and sobbed at once.
Dante squeezed her hand.
"But do not search for me."
Ruby shook her head.
"Too late, Dad."
"If Lorenzo has Charles, then he wants the list."
Dante looked through the papers.
Patrick continued.
"The list is not in this locker."
Marco muttered, "Of course."
"The locker contains proof that the list exists. The actual names are hidden somewhere only Ruby can access."
Ruby frowned.
"Where?"
Her father's recording crackled.
"Inside something she has worn every day since Catherine died."
Ruby froze.
Her necklace.
She touched the delicate silver chain around her throat.
A locket hung beneath her dress.
Catherine Gallagher had given it to her before dying five years earlier.
Ruby opened it.
Inside was a tiny photograph of Catherine and Patrick.
Dante examined the hinge.
"May I?"
Ruby nodded.
He used a small blade.
The backing lifted.
A microSD card fell into his palm.
Ruby stared.
"The ledger."
Marco inserted it into an isolated device.
Encrypted files appeared.
Hundreds.
Names.
Dates.
Transactions.
Then one folder.
MORETTI.
Dante clicked it.
The first document opened.
Ruby read.
VITTORIO MORETTI — INFORMANT.
She looked at Dante.
"Your father was helping mine."
Dante stared.
Another name.
ELENA VOSS — FEDERAL ASSET.
Then.
PATRICK GALLAGHER — PRIMARY SOURCE.
And finally—
DANTE MORETTI — UNAWARE PROTECTED SUBJECT.
Dante frowned.
"Protected from what?"
Ruby scrolled.
A redacted line appeared.
BIOLOGICAL PATERNITY SEALED.
Dante stared.
"My father."
A noise came from the tunnel.
Marco raised his weapon.
Footsteps.
Many.
They were surrounded.
Lorenzo's voice echoed through the darkness.
"Thank you for finding it."
Dante pushed Ruby behind him.
Men appeared at both ends of the tunnel.
Lorenzo walked between them.
And beside him—
Ruby stopped breathing.
Older.
Thinner.
Gray-haired.
But unmistakable.
Patrick Gallagher stepped into the light.
Ruby's knees nearly gave out.
"Dad?"
Patrick looked at her.
Tears filled his eyes.
"Hello, Ruby."
She took one step forward.
Dante caught her arm.
Patrick looked at him.
"Don't let her come closer."
Ruby stared at her father.
"Why?"
Patrick's eyes moved toward Lorenzo.
Then Ruby saw it.
A wire beneath Patrick's jacket.
Connected to explosives.
May you like
Patrick whispered:
"Because if you take one more step, Lorenzo will kill all of us."
