Chapter 3 - The Envelope Elena Left Behind
The address led to an abandoned print shop in South Boston.
Dominic wanted Jenna nowhere near it.
Jenna agreed completely.
Then Leo refused to let her leave.
“I’m not bringing my son to an abandoned building,” Dominic said.
“I didn’t ask you to.”
Leo looked at Jenna.
“You’re leaving?”
“I have a job.”
“It’s midnight.”
“My boss currently hates me.”
Marlene, standing nearby, said, “I absolutely do not hate you.”
Jenna looked at her.
“You were crying.”
“I thought you had assaulted organized crime with pastry.”
“That’s fair.”
Leo laughed.
Dominic almost did.
Almost.
The warmth disappeared when his phone buzzed again.
A second message.
COME ALONE.
Dominic stared at it.
Jenna noticed his knuckles tighten.
“Obviously you’re not going alone.”
He looked at her.
“Obviously I am.”
“That seems like a terrible plan.”
“You cater weddings.”
“And corporate dinners.”
“This isn’t a corporate dinner.”
“Your negotiating style could use work.”
Leo covered a smile.
Dominic stared at Jenna for several seconds.
“You’re not afraid of me?”
“I dumped dessert on you.”
“That wasn’t an answer.”
Jenna thought about it.
“Yes.”
The directness surprised him.
“But I’m more afraid of people who hurt children because they think nobody will stop them.”
Dominic’s eyes shifted toward Leo.
That ended the argument.
Leo went home under heavy security with Dominic’s longtime housekeeper, Rosa.
Jenna planned to leave too.
Instead, twenty minutes later, she found herself sitting in the passenger seat of Dominic’s armored SUV.
She blamed exhaustion.
Possibly stupidity.
Mostly Leo’s face.
Dominic drove.
Two security vehicles followed several blocks behind despite the message demanding he come alone.
“Your people aren’t exactly subtle.”
“They aren’t meant to be.”
“Then why pretend you’re going alone?”
“I’m not.”
“So you ignored the instruction.”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
Dominic glanced at her.
“What?”
“I was expecting more criminal-mastermind nonsense.”
“What does that look like?”
“Walking dramatically into a dark warehouse with no backup.”
“Print shop.”
“What?”
“It’s a print shop.”
“That’s the part you corrected?”
He gave the faintest smile.
Jenna stared.
“So you do know how.”
“How what?”
“Smile.”
It vanished.
“Apparently not.”
They reached the building at 12:47 a.m.
The storefront had been closed for years.
Paper covered most of the windows.
One interior light glowed in back.
Dominic’s security chief, Marco, approached.
“No movement.”
“Entrances?”
“Front and alley.”
“Richard?”
“Nothing.”
Dominic looked at Jenna.
“You stay in the vehicle.”
“For once, I completely agree.”
He stepped out.
Thirty seconds passed.
Then Jenna saw something beneath the windshield wiper.
An envelope.
She froze.
It had not been there when they left the hotel.
Or maybe she hadn’t noticed.
She opened the passenger door.
“Dominic.”
He turned.
She held up the envelope.
Marco swore.
Dominic took it.
No name.
Inside was a photograph.
Elena Valenti.
Alive.
Smiling.
Standing beside Richard Whitmore.
The date printed on the bottom was two months before her death.
Dominic stared.
Jenna watched anger and grief collide in his face.
There was writing on the back.
HE KNOWS WHY SHE DIED.
Dominic folded the picture.
Then the print-shop door opened.
A man stumbled out.
Richard.
Blood ran from a cut above his eyebrow.
His hands were tied.
Marco raised a weapon.
Richard collapsed.
“Wait!”
Dominic approached him.
“Where’s the envelope?”
Richard laughed weakly.
“You still think this is about an envelope?”
Dominic grabbed his collar.
“What did Elena give you?”
“Evidence.”
“Of what?”
Richard stared at him.
“Of you.”
Dominic stopped.
Jenna’s stomach dropped.
Richard continued.
“She was afraid of what you were becoming.”
“That’s a lie.”
“She wanted out.”
“Lie.”
“She wanted Leo away from you.”
Dominic hit him.
Once.
Hard.
Jenna stepped forward.
“Dominic.”
He stopped.
Richard spat blood onto the pavement.
“There he is.”
“What?”
“The man she was afraid of.”
Dominic stepped back.
The words landed.
Richard smiled bitterly.
“You think I hated your son?”
“You humiliated him.”
“No. Those idiot kids did.”
“You encouraged them.”
“I wanted you angry.”
“Why?”
“So you’d make a mistake.”
Jenna stared at him.
“You used a child.”
Richard looked ashamed for half a second.
Then defensive again.
“I didn’t tell them to hurt him.”
“You watched.”
“Yes.”
“That makes you worse.”
Richard looked away.
Dominic crouched.
“Where is Elena’s evidence?”
Richard whispered, “Gone.”
“Where?”
“Ask Charles.”
Dominic went still.
Richard laughed again.
“Your old friend has been lying longer than I have.”
Jenna remembered Charles’s frightened face.
“What did Elena find?”
Richard looked at her.
“Financial records.”
Dominic frowned.
“Whose?”
“His.”
Richard nodded toward Dominic.
“She found accounts in her name.”
“I never used her name.”
“That’s what scared her.”
Dominic’s face changed.
“Who opened them?”
Richard smiled.
“Now you’re asking the right question.”
Marco said, “Police are six minutes out.”
Richard looked panicked.
“You called police?”
Dominic stood.
“For what happened to my son.”
Richard stared as though seeing him differently.
“She would’ve liked that.”
Dominic’s expression darkened.
“Don’t speak about her.”
Richard lowered his voice.
“Elena thought you could change.”
“You knew her for what? A few weeks?”
“Seven years.”
Silence.
Dominic stared.
“What?”
“She was my friend before she ever met you.”
“That’s impossible.”
“We worked together.”
“Where?”
“At Whitmore Holdings.”
Jenna looked between them.
“Elena worked for your family?”
Richard nodded.
“Compliance.”
Dominic seemed unable to speak.
Richard continued.
“She discovered money moving through shell companies. She thought it was your organization.”
“It wasn’t.”
“I know.”
“Then whose?”
Richard’s eyes shifted.
Before he could answer, glass shattered inside the building.
Marco turned.
A flash.
Then fire exploded through the back windows.
The print shop erupted.
Everyone dropped.
Heat rolled across the pavement.
Richard screamed.
“The records!”
Dominic pulled him away from the building.
Jenna stared at flames consuming the interior.
Someone had timed it.
Someone had expected them.
Firefighters arrived within minutes.
Police took Richard.
Dominic stood across the street watching another piece of his wife’s past burn.
Jenna remained beside him.
“You believe him?”
“I believe Elena worked for Whitmore.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
Dominic looked exhausted.
“No.”
“Which part?”
“The part where she feared me.”
Jenna didn’t answer.
“Say it.”
“I don’t know you.”
“You’ve spent five hours interfering with my life.”
“That doesn’t mean I know you.”
He looked at the fire.
“She never said she was afraid.”
“Maybe she wasn’t.”
“Maybe?”
Jenna sighed.
“You want certainty from someone who met you covered in pastry.”
He almost smiled again.
His phone rang.
Marco answered first.
Then handed it over.
Dominic listened.
His expression slowly changed.
“What hospital?”
Jenna’s heart dropped.
“Leo?”
Dominic was already moving.
They reached Massachusetts General forty minutes later.
Leo was physically safe.
The call concerned Rosa.
She had collapsed at Dominic’s home after receiving an anonymous package.
Doctors suspected a mild cardiac episode triggered by shock.
The package sat sealed in police custody.
Dominic demanded to see it.
Inside was an old digital recorder.
One label.
ELENA.
Dominic pressed play.
Static.
Then a woman’s voice.
Soft.
Shaking.
“If you’re hearing this, something has already gone wrong.”
Dominic stopped breathing.
Leo gripped Jenna’s hand.
Elena continued.
“Dominic, the person doing this is closer than you think.”
A pause.
“I found the accounts.”
Another pause.
“And they were never yours.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
Then Elena spoke one name.
Charles Whitmore.
Leo whispered, “Dad…”
But the recording continued.
“Charles wasn’t working alone.”
Dominic opened his eyes.
“Who?”
The recorder crackled.
Elena inhaled.
Then she said:
“The other person is someone inside your house.”
Dominic slowly turned toward Leo.
May you like
Someone inside his home had betrayed him.
And that person still had access to his son.
