Chapter 4 - The Second Target
I turned the phone toward Lorenzo.
His face went blank.
Vittorio noticed.
"What is it?"
Nobody answered.
Father Matteo moved toward me.
"Phone."
I stepped backward.
Emma clung to my coat.
Lorenzo looked at Vittorio.
"You ordered Daniel's death."
Vittorio sighed.
"We've established that."
"And mine."
That changed everything.
Vittorio's smile disappeared.
Lorenzo explained.
He had planned to meet Daniel that night.
At the last moment, another car collected him.
Daniel drove alone.
Whoever sabotaged the brakes expected both men to be inside.
"You were cleaning house," Lorenzo said.
Vittorio didn't deny it.
Marco moved somewhere in the darkness.
I couldn't see him.
Then the church bells rang.
Once.
Father Matteo looked upward.
That distraction lasted less than a second.
Enough.
Lorenzo lunged.
I pulled Emma down.
A gunshot exploded.
Then another.
Marco emerged behind Matteo and knocked the pistol away.
Vittorio ran.
Lorenzo followed.
I stayed with Emma.
Police sirens approached.
Real police?
I no longer knew who could be trusted.
Marco returned.
"Lorenzo!"
No answer.
He ran after them.
Minutes later Lorenzo came back alone.
Blood marked his sleeve.
"Are you hurt?"
"Not mine."
"Vittorio?"
"Gone."
Father Matteo had also escaped during the confusion.
But Daniel's box remained.
Vittorio had taken the ledger.
He had not taken the flash drive.
Back at the mansion, Lorenzo disconnected every computer from the network.
Marco brought an old laptop.
We inserted Daniel's drive.
Password protected.
I knew Daniel.
Or I thought I did.
I tried Emma's birthday.
Wrong.
Our anniversary.
Wrong.
My birthday.
Wrong.
Then Emma touched the keyboard.
"Yellow."
"What?"
"Daddy liked yellow."
The blanket.
I typed YELLOW.
Wrong.
Emma frowned.
"Daddy said sunshine."
SUNSHINE.
The drive opened.
Lorenzo looked at her.
Emma smiled weakly.
Inside were scanned documents.
Audio files.
Photographs.
Enough evidence to destroy Vittorio.
But there was something else.
A folder labeled S.
I opened it.
Photographs of me.
At the grocery store.
At work.
Holding Emma.
Taken after Daniel died.
Someone had been watching us.
For two years.
I felt sick.
"Why?"
Lorenzo examined the dates.
"They were protecting you."
"Who?"
"I don't know."
One photograph showed a man reflected in a window.
Marco enlarged it.
The face was blurred.
But the jacket had an emblem.
Boston Police Department.
Daniel had another ally.
Someone inside law enforcement.
The unknown messages continued.
TAKE THE DRIVE TO FEDERAL AGENT REBECCA HALE.
Lorenzo frowned.
"I know Hale."
"Trust her?"
"No."
"Daniel apparently did."
The drive contained proof.
Daniel had been communicating with Hale before his death.
We arranged a meeting.
Public place.
No weapons visible.
Hale arrived alone.
Forty-five.
Dark hair.
Tired eyes.
She looked at me for a long time.
"You look like Daniel described you."
"You knew him?"
"Yes."
Everyone knew my husband except me.
The thought hurt more every time.
Hale explained that Daniel had become a confidential source.
He was helping build a federal corruption case.
Vittorio discovered it.
But the conspiracy reached beyond Vittorio.
Police.
Judges.
Business owners.
And one person inside Lorenzo's organization.
"Who?" Lorenzo asked.
Hale looked directly at Marco.
My heart stopped.
Marco laughed.
"That's ridiculous."
Hale placed a photograph on the table.
Marco meeting Vittorio.
Lorenzo stared at his oldest lieutenant.
"Explain."
Marco didn't.
He drew a gun.
Everything happened instantly.
Lorenzo shoved me down.
Hale fired.
Marco escaped through the kitchen.
Again.
Another betrayal.
Another person Daniel had trusted incorrectly.
Or perhaps Daniel had known.
We searched the remaining files.
There it was.
M.C.
Marco Caruso.
Teresa's son.
He had been feeding information to Vittorio for years.
The burner planted in Teresa's locker hadn't been random.
Marco had sacrificed his own mother.
Lorenzo sat silently.
"How long has he worked for you?"
"Seventeen years."
The betrayal wounded him.
I understood that kind of wound now.
The person beside you could have an entire hidden life.
That night, Emma's fever finally fell.
She slept with Daniel's blanket wrapped around her.
I sat beside the bed.
Lorenzo appeared in the doorway.
He held Daniel's bracelet.
"I believe this belongs to her."
He placed it beside Emma.
"Thank you."
He started leaving.
"Lorenzo."
He stopped.
"Why didn't you tell me about Daniel?"
"I thought silence kept you safe."
"It didn't."
"I know."
"Secrets don't protect people."
His eyes lowered.
"No."
"They isolate them."
He nodded.
For the first time, Lorenzo Duca looked less like a feared criminal and more like a tired man carrying too many ghosts.
Then his phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
His expression hardened.
"What?"
He hung up.
"Vittorio has Marco."
"Good."
"No."
Lorenzo looked toward Emma.
"Marco told him something before they disappeared."
"What?"
"That Daniel made another copy."
"Where?"
Lorenzo stared at the yellow blanket.
"Not where."
My stomach dropped.
"Who."
Emma stirred.
Then someone downstairs screamed.
Lorenzo turned toward the hallway.
The lights went out.
May you like
A man's footsteps began climbing the stairs.
And Emma's bedroom door slowly opened.
