Chapter 3 - The Dead Man on the Phone
Dominic did not speak.
Some voices lived in memory longer than faces.
Carlo Moretti’s had always carried the same soft rasp, as though every sentence were a confidence shared before a betrayal.
“Seven years,” Carlo said. “And that is how you greet family?”
Dominic turned away from Lily.
“You’re dead.”
Carlo chuckled.
“So people tell me.”
“Where are you?”
“You know better than to ask questions when you have no leverage.”
Dominic’s eyes went toward Richard.
Richard looked sick.
Carlo continued.
“I hear you met Elena Carter.”
Dominic felt the room narrow.
“You know her?”
“Of course.”
Elena stood.
Dominic raised one hand, asking her to wait.
“What do you want?”
“I wanted what was mine.”
“You stole twenty-three million dollars.”
“I redirected family assets.”
“Through my company.”
“Our company.”
“No.”
Carlo laughed again.
“That has always been your weakness, Dominic. You believed changing the letterhead changed the blood.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“Leave Elena out of it.”
There was a pause.
Carlo’s voice became more interested.
“Already protective?”
“She’s an employee you framed.”
“Former employee.”
“Not anymore.”
Elena looked at him.
Dominic ignored the look.
Carlo sighed.
“That may complicate matters.”
“Good.”
“No. Not for me.”
A second phone vibrated.
Marco’s.
He checked it.
His face changed.
Dominic noticed.
“What?”
Marco showed him the screen.
Security alert.
PARKING LEVEL B3 — UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS.
Carlo said, “You should check your garage.”
Dominic ended the call.
“Lock down the floor.”
Marco was already moving.
Elena stepped forward.
“What’s happening?”
“Someone entered the building.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
Richard stood.
“Carlo has people everywhere.”
Dominic rounded on him.
“And you helped him.”
Richard flinched.
“I paid him.”
“That is helping him.”
“He threatened my family.”
Dominic stopped.
Richard’s voice cracked for the first time.
“Three years ago my son was studying in Boston. Carlo sent me photographs of him walking to class.”
Elena looked at Richard differently.
Not forgiving.
Understanding.
“A week later,” Richard continued, “he demanded access to payment channels.”
“And you gave it.”
“What would you have done?”
Dominic’s expression turned flat.
“Come to me.”
Richard laughed bitterly.
“You?”
“Yes.”
“The nephew of the man threatening me?”
Dominic stepped close.
“The man I buried.”
“You buried an empty coffin.”
Dominic did not answer.
Marco returned from the hallway.
“We’ve isolated the elevators.”
“B3?”
“Two cameras down.”
Dominic grabbed his jacket.
“You’re staying here,” he told Elena.
“No.”
He looked at her.
“Someone may be coming for the evidence.”
“Which is exactly why I’m not staying in a glass office.”
Dominic almost argued.
She was right.
He pointed at Marco.
“Safe room.”
Moretti Plaza had a reinforced emergency room behind Dominic’s private library.
Lily brightened slightly when the hidden door opened.
“Cool.”
Elena almost laughed despite herself.
Dominic placed the shoebox inside.
“Stay here.”
Lily grabbed his sleeve.
“Are bad people coming?”
Dominic looked at her.
He had lied to investors.
Prosecutors.
Politicians.
Enemies.
He found he could not lie convincingly to a seven-year-old.
“Maybe.”
“Are you scared?”
Elena closed her eyes.
Dominic almost smiled.
“A little.”
Lily nodded.
“Me too.”
He crouched.
“That’s allowed.”
She held out the stuffed rabbit.
“You can take Mr. Buttons.”
Dominic stared at it.
Elena covered her mouth.
He took the rabbit solemnly.
“I’ll bring him back.”
Lily nodded.
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
Dominic stood.
The safe-room door closed.
Marco looked at the stuffed rabbit.
“Not a word.”
“I wouldn’t dare.”
They headed for the service stairwell.
Richard followed.
Dominic stopped.
“You stay.”
Richard shook his head.
“If Carlo sent someone, I may recognize them.”
Dominic studied him.
Then nodded.
They descended.
B3 smelled of concrete, gasoline, and cold air.
Rows of black executive cars sat beneath fluorescent lights.
A security guard lay near the gate.
Alive.
Unconscious.
Marco checked him.
“Pulse.”
Dominic looked toward the far ramp.
A sedan idled.
Empty.
Driver door open.
Richard whispered, “That’s not ours.”
Dominic moved toward it.
Marco drew his weapon.
The trunk was open.
Inside sat a metal case.
Dominic did not touch it.
Marco inspected underneath.
“No wires.”
He opened it.
Documents.
Hundreds of photocopies.
Old Moretti ledgers.
Property deeds.
Bank records.
And photographs.
Dominic lifted one.
His father.
Another.
His mother.
Another.
Dominic himself at age fifteen.
Then Elena.
Leaving her apartment.
Shopping.
Picking Lily up from school.
Dominic’s eyes darkened.
Richard whispered, “He’s been watching her.”
A photograph near the bottom showed Lily sleeping beside an apartment window.
Elena could not have known it was taken.
Dominic’s hand tightened around the photo.
Marco said quietly, “That changes things.”
“It changes nothing.”
“It changes how fast we move.”
Dominic nodded.
A car door slammed behind them.
They turned.
Claire Donnelly stood twenty feet away.
Dominic’s former assistant looked nothing like the calm woman who ran his office.
Her hair was wet from snow.
Her coat was unbuttoned.
She held a gun.
Marco raised his.
“Drop it.”
Claire shook her head.
“Not yet.”
Dominic stared.
“You forged my signature.”
Claire’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
Richard swore.
“You sent the message.”
“Yes.”
“You intercepted Elena’s letters.”
“Yes.”
Elena had been right about all of it.
Dominic felt anger rise.
Cold anger.
“What did Carlo offer you?”
Claire laughed.
“Nothing.”
“Then why?”
“He has my sister.”
Dominic went still.
Claire’s hand shook.
“He took her six months ago. I’ve seen proof she’s alive twice.”
“You could have told me.”
“He said if I did, she died.”
“You destroyed Elena’s career.”
“I was trying to protect her.”
Richard stared at her.
“By firing her?”
Claire looked at him.
“She was three days away from being killed.”
Silence.
Claire lowered the gun slightly.
“Carlo ordered me to get Elena out of the building.”
Dominic glanced at the photographs.
“Then why frame her?”
“Because she wouldn’t leave otherwise.”
Elena was stubborn.
Dominic knew that much.
Claire continued.
“I made the charges serious enough that security would revoke her access immediately.”
“The fake bribe?”
“I planted it later.”
“Why?”
“To make Carlo believe she’d taken his money and stopped digging.”
Dominic’s anger wavered.
Claire had betrayed him.
But perhaps not for the reasons he believed.
“Why are you here now?”
Claire looked toward the ramp.
“Because Carlo knows Lily has the box.”
“How?”
“Someone in this building works directly for him.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Claire.”
“I swear.”
A gunshot cracked.
Claire jerked.
Marco fired toward the upper ramp.
Someone disappeared behind a pillar.
Claire collapsed.
Dominic caught her before she hit the ground.
Blood spread across her shoulder.
“Who shot you?”
Claire gasped.
“Not Carlo’s usual men.”
“Who?”
She grabbed Dominic’s lapel.
“The box.”
“What about it?”
“The letters aren’t the evidence.”
Dominic leaned closer.
“What is?”
Claire’s eyes struggled to focus.
“The shoebox itself.”
He stared at her.
“What?”
“The bottom.”
Footsteps echoed above them.
Marco shouted, “Move!”
Dominic lifted Claire.
Richard grabbed the metal case.
They rushed toward the service elevator.
The lights suddenly shut off.
Darkness swallowed the garage.
Then Dominic’s phone lit up.
A message appeared.
A photograph.
Elena and Lily inside the safe room.
Taken seconds earlier.
May you like
Below it were four words.
WE’RE ALREADY WITH THEM.
