Chapter 6 - The Name Behind the Christmas Order
Matteo looked nothing like the controlled man from the ballroom.
His tuxedo was torn.
Blood covered one sleeve.
One eye was swollen.
Security had found him chained inside an old storage room beneath the chapel.
Roman stood across from him.
Claire remained upstairs with Enzo despite protesting.
This time Roman had won the argument.
Barely.
Matteo drank water.
Then said, “Sofia is playing you.”
Roman leaned against the stone wall.
“You expect credibility now?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“I expect you to want the truth.”
“You forged the note.”
“Yes.”
Roman had not expected the confession to come so easily.
Matteo continued.
“I arranged for Claire to go to the cellar.”
“You took her coat?”
“One of my men did.”
“You locked the door?”
“Yes.”
“You intended her to die?”
Matteo closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
Roman crossed the room in two steps.
He grabbed Matteo by the shirt.
The guards moved.
Roman waved them back.
“You nearly killed her.”
Matteo looked him in the eye.
“I know.”
“Why?”
“Because Sofia ordered me to.”
Roman’s grip tightened.
“You just confessed to murder because your sister-in-law asked nicely?”
“She had something on me.”
“What?”
Matteo laughed bitterly.
“Everything.”
Roman released him.
Matteo adjusted his torn collar.
“For fifteen years, Sofia controlled people through the original ledger. Judges. businessmen. cops. Me.”
“You helped build the operation.”
“Yes.”
“You helped her disappear.”
“Yes.”
“You knew she killed my father.”
Matteo looked away.
“Yes.”
“Then why claim she didn’t order it?”
“I said she didn’t order his murder.”
Roman stared.
Matteo continued.
“She killed Vittorio herself.”
Roman felt no surprise.
“Claire?”
“That was an order.”
“Why?”
“Eleanor.”
Roman’s jaw tightened.
“Sofia wanted the ledger.”
“She has wanted it since the night your father died.”
“And Claire?”
“Leverage.”
“Then why leave her to freeze?”
Matteo hesitated.
“That part was mine.”
Roman stared.
“I was supposed to kidnap her after she entered the cellar.”
“But?”
“She found the vial.”
Roman frowned.
“It was planted.”
“Yes.”
“By you.”
“Yes.”
“To make Damian look responsible.”
“Yes.”
Roman’s voice dropped.
“You’re pathetic.”
Matteo accepted the insult.
“I panicked. Claire escaped through the service hatch before my man got inside. By the time we found her trail, you were already searching.”
“So you left her.”
“I knew you’d find her.”
“In a blizzard?”
“I gambled.”
“With her life.”
Matteo looked ashamed.
Roman did not forgive him.
He simply needed answers.
“Why the fake recording?”
“Sofia.”
“She made it?”
“She had recordings of my voice and Bianca’s.”
“Why send it to me?”
“To isolate you. Make you distrust everyone.”
Roman thought of the night.
It had worked.
“Where is Eleanor?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where is Sofia?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where is the original ledger?”
Matteo looked at him.
“Eleanor buried it.”
“Where?”
Matteo smiled faintly.
“Vittorio’s grave.”
Roman froze.
Claire’s message.
Come to Vittorio’s grave.
Matteo continued.
“Your father gave Eleanor a safety-deposit box key the night before he died. She didn’t trust banks, so she moved the ledger.”
“How do you know?”
“I followed her.”
“And you let her live?”
“Sofia wanted her alive.”
“Because?”
“Only Eleanor knows the code.”
Roman straightened.
“Code to what?”
“The evidence vault.”
“What evidence vault?”
Matteo laughed once.
“You really don’t know.”
Roman’s patience snapped.
He grabbed Matteo again.
“Enough.”
“There’s a secure archive beneath North Harbor. Vittorio kept recordings, transactions, photographs. Everything.”
“Container 4417?”
“Entrance marker.”
Roman released him.
Matteo breathed hard.
“If Sofia gets the ledger and the code, she can destroy every record tying her to Vittorio’s murder.”
“And Claire?”
“Eleanor will trade anything for her daughter.”
Roman immediately understood.
The cemetery message was not Eleanor summoning Claire.
It was Sofia using Eleanor’s phone.
Roman ran upstairs.
Claire was gone.
Enzo stood beside an open side door.
His face was furious.
“She hit one of the guards with a lamp.”
Roman stared.
Enzo held up a note.
I’m sorry. If my mother is at the cemetery, I have to go.
Roman closed his eyes.
“She took a car?”
“No.”
“Then how?”
Bianca appeared from the hallway.
“She took mine.”
Roman turned.
“You gave her keys?”
“She said you approved it.”
Roman stared at her.
Bianca winced.
“Yes. I know how stupid that sounds now.”
Roman grabbed his coat.
“Move.”
St. Agnes Cemetery was twelve minutes away in good weather.
Roman made it in nine.
Snow had covered most of the road.
Bianca’s car stood near the gates.
Driver door open.
No Claire.
Roman followed footprints.
They led past stone angels and black iron fences.
Vittorio DeLuca’s mausoleum stood near the rear.
The door was open.
Roman entered.
Claire stood beside the marble crypt.
Her mother faced her.
Eleanor Bennett looked older than Roman remembered.
Gray streaks in dark hair.
Thin face.
Tired eyes.
She held a pistol.
Not pointed at Claire.
At Sofia.
Roman’s mother stood near the opposite wall.
Unarmed.
Smiling.
“You came,” Sofia said.
Roman entered with his gun raised.
“Step away from Claire.”
Sofia sighed.
“Everything is always about Claire now.”
Eleanor snapped, “Don’t speak to my daughter.”
Claire looked between them.
“Mom, tell me what’s happening.”
Eleanor’s eyes filled.
“I tried to keep you out of this.”
“You sent me into Roman’s house.”
“For documents. Not danger.”
“You lied to me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I was afraid if you knew the truth, you’d refuse.”
Claire stared at her mother.
“You were right.”
Roman almost smiled despite himself.
Sofia clapped softly.
“Touching.”
Eleanor aimed at her.
“Stop.”
Roman said, “Where’s the ledger?”
Eleanor looked at him.
“Why should I trust you?”
“You shouldn’t.”
Claire turned to him.
Roman continued.
“But Sofia tried to use your daughter. Matteo nearly killed her. I’m the only person in this room who has spent the last five hours trying to keep Claire alive.”
Eleanor lowered the gun slightly.
Sofia said, “He is also Vittorio’s son.”
Roman looked at her.
“And you’re his murderer.”
Sofia’s smile vanished.
Eleanor walked to Vittorio’s crypt.
She pressed a hidden latch beneath the marble edge.
A narrow panel opened.
Inside was a waterproof case.
She removed it.
“The original ledger.”
Roman stared.
Eleanor opened the case.
The book inside was thicker than the copy.
Red leather.
She turned to the final pages.
One name appeared beside the Bellacosta entry.
SOFIA DELUCA.
Roman felt nothing this time.
No shock.
Only confirmation.
Sofia laughed softly.
“You think ink proves anything?”
Eleanor reached deeper into the case.
“There’s more.”
A cassette.
Vittorio’s voice.
Sofia’s expression finally changed.
Eleanor held it up.
“He recorded you.”
Roman watched his mother.
“Is that why you killed him?”
Sofia’s eyes hardened.
“He was going to destroy everything.”
“You mean you.”
“Us.”
“There is no us.”
Sofia stared at her son.
Then at Claire.
Something cold entered her face.
“There could have been.”
Roman moved subtly closer to Claire.
Sofia noticed.
“I gave you an empire.”
“You gave me a grave.”
“You survived.”
“My father didn’t.”
Sofia smiled faintly.
“Neither will Eleanor if she leaves with that tape.”
Eleanor raised the gun.
Roman heard movement outside.
Boots in snow.
Many boots.
Enzo’s voice shouted from the entrance.
“Roman!”
Gunfire erupted outside.
The mausoleum windows shattered.
Roman pulled Claire down.
Eleanor fired toward the doorway.
Sofia disappeared behind the crypt.
Roman shouted, “Stay down!”
A bullet struck the stone above him.
Enzo and security returned fire.
Then silence.
Roman looked behind the crypt.
Sofia was gone.
A hidden passage stood open.
Eleanor stared.
“She knew.”
Roman grabbed a flashlight.
“Where does that go?”
“Old burial tunnel.”
“Exit?”
“South wall.”
Roman ran.
Claire followed.
“Stay with my mother!”
“No!”
He turned.
“Claire.”
“She tried to have me killed. I’m coming.”
Roman knew arguing would cost time.
They entered the tunnel.
At the far end, moonlight appeared.
Roman climbed out.
Footprints led toward the frozen lake behind the cemetery.
Sofia stood near a black SUV.
A man held the door open.
Gray coat.
Black signet ring.
Roman stopped.
Claire whispered, “Damian?”
Roman stared.
Damian Cole had supposedly been shot and taken to the secure clinic.
Yet there he stood beside Sofia.
Perfectly healthy.
Damian looked directly at Roman.
Then raised his gun.
But he did not aim at Roman.
He aimed at Claire.
Roman stepped in front of her.
Damian smiled.
And from behind Roman, Eleanor whispered:
“Roman, move.”
May you like
He turned.
Eleanor was pointing her pistol at him.
