Chapter 5 - The Man Above Salvatore
The second man was Commissioner Arthur Vance.
Head of the city’s organized crime task force.
Decorated.
Publicly incorruptible.
He had spent fifteen years appearing on television promising to destroy families like mine.
He had also been the officer who personally informed me that the Bellandis were responsible for my father’s death.
Salvatore rested both hands on the railing.
“Surprised?”
I looked at Vance.
“Not enough.”
Vance smiled.
“That’s why I always liked you.”
“You’re the man on Liam’s recording.”
His smile disappeared.
Maeve pulled Elena behind her.
“Dante,” she said, “don’t let them split us.”
Salvatore laughed.
“She’s still giving orders.”
I wanted to shoot him from where I stood.
But six laser dots appeared across Maeve and Elena.
Snipers.
Hidden in the upper level.
Salvatore saw me notice.
“Now we can talk.”
I lowered my gun slightly.
“Talk.”
“You have something I want.”
“The recording?”
“Among other things.”
“I don’t have it.”
“Maeve does.”
I looked at her.
She said nothing.
Vance leaned on the railing.
“Mrs. O’Shea has been remarkably stubborn.”
Elena shouted, “Leave my mommy alone!”
Vance looked down.
“Children should be asleep.”
I memorized that sentence.
If he survived tonight, I would remind him of it.
Salvatore continued.
“Antonio never understood scale. He thought like a neighborhood king. Arthur thought like a city.”
Vance smiled.
“Governments change. Criminal families change. Systems remain.”
There it was.
Not ideology.
Control.
Salvatore had sold information.
Vance had selected targets.
Families destroyed each other while Vance consolidated power inside the police.
Politicians indebted.
Judges compromised.
Investigations redirected.
My father found out.
Liam recorded a meeting.
The bombing followed.
“Why kill Antonio?” I asked.
“We didn’t intend to,” Vance said.
Salvatore looked annoyed.
“Liam changed cars.”
“So my father died because your people couldn’t identify the driver?”
“War is untidy.”
I raised my weapon.
Five laser dots moved onto Elena.
I lowered it again.
Maeve whispered, “Dante.”
“I see them.”
Samuel Pike spoke.
“There’s another way.”
Salvatore looked down.
“Still pretending you matter, Samuel?”
Pike sat straighter despite blood on his shirt.
“I kept the estate copy.”
Salvatore froze.
“What copy?”
Rose looked at him.
Samuel smiled.
“Antonio knew Rose’s letter might never reach Dante. So after I received it, I copied every document she included.”
Vance’s expression changed.
“Where?”
Pike smiled wider.
“You should have killed me eight years ago.”
Salvatore pulled a pistol.
I moved.
One shot.
Samuel jerked.
Maeve screamed.
Chaos.
Enzo fired at the upper railing.
Vittorio shoved Elena and Maeve behind a concrete pillar.
Marco killed the lights.
Gunfire tore through the terminal.
I climbed the side stairs in darkness.
A guard appeared.
Two shots.
He dropped.
Another.
Elbow.
Wall.
Gun away.
I kept moving.
At the upper walkway, Vance was gone.
Salvatore remained.
He fired.
The bullet grazed my shoulder.
I hit him hard enough to send him into the rail.
We stared at each other.
Family resemblance is ugly when you hate the person.
“You ruined my life,” I said.
“No. Antonio did that when he chose sentiment over blood.”
“He chose me.”
“He chose weakness.”
I punched him.
He fell.
His gun skidded.
I picked it up.
Salvatore laughed through blood.
“Go on.”
I aimed.
“Do it like your father couldn’t.”
That stopped me.
He wanted execution.
Maybe because dead men don’t testify.
I lowered the gun.
His smile faded.
“You’re going to live.”
“No.”
“You’re going to explain everything.”
His face finally showed fear.
Below, Elena screamed.
I turned.
Vance had Maeve.
Gun against her head.
He dragged her toward a service door.
I left Salvatore with Enzo and ran.
Outside, Vance shoved Maeve into an SUV.
I fired at the rear tire.
Missed.
The vehicle accelerated.
Then Bruno shot past me.
“Elena!” I yelled.
She was running after the dog.
“Bruno!”
The puppy had slipped free and chased the SUV.
Maeve saw him through the rear window.
Vance did too.
The SUV braked for one second.
That was enough.
Marco’s car slammed into its front quarter panel.
Metal exploded.
Vance climbed out firing.
I returned fire.
He disappeared behind stacked shipping containers.
Maeve crawled from the back seat.
Elena reached her.
Mother and daughter held each other again.
I wanted to stay.
Couldn’t.
Vance was moving toward the water.
Vittorio joined me.
“Left side.”
“You take right.”
We boxed him near the old ferry ramp.
He had one bullet left.
I knew because I counted.
He aimed at Vittorio.
Pulled trigger.
Click.
Vittorio tackled him.
We put him face-down in the rain.
Commissioner Arthur Vance.
Hero cop.
Criminal architect.
Finished.
Or nearly.
When we returned inside, Samuel Pike was still alive.
The bullet had passed through his shoulder.
Paramedics worked.
Salvatore sat zip-tied to a pillar.
He looked smaller.
Maeve approached him.
“You took eighteen years from me.”
Salvatore smiled.
“And you wasted them.”
She slapped him.
Once.
Clean.
No speech.
Then she turned away.
Rose and Maeve hugged.
Elena watched with confusion.
“How do you know Grandma Rose?”
Maeve froze.
I looked at her.
“Grandma?”
Elena blinked.
“Mommy calls her that sometimes.”
The room went silent again.
Rose stared at Maeve.
Maeve closed her eyes.
“I was going to tell you.”
“Tell me what?”
Rose began to cry.
Maeve turned toward me.
“Dante, Liam wasn’t my brother.”
I felt the next secret coming.
“He was?”
“My husband.”
Elena looked up.
“My daddy?”
Maeve nodded.
“You said Daddy died before I was born.”
“He did.”
That made the timeline impossible.
Elena was seven.
Liam died eight years ago.
Possible.
Barely.
Maeve continued.
“I was pregnant when Liam died.”
Elena hugged her.
“Why did you say he was your brother?”
“To everyone else, that was the cover Antonio created. Liam worked too closely with your family. Making us siblings kept people from asking questions.”
I looked at Rose.
“And ‘Grandma’?”
Maeve’s face trembled.
“Rose was Liam’s mother.”
I stared.
Then Rose looked at me.
“Liam was your half-brother.”
Everything stopped.
My father had not been Liam’s father.
Rose had had another child years before Antonio.
So Liam was my maternal half-brother.
Elena’s father.
Which meant Elena O’Shea—
The seven-year-old girl who had crossed the city to find me—
was my niece.
Elena looked between us.
“Does that mean Dante is family?”
Maeve nodded.
“Yes.”
Elena considered this very seriously.
Then she handed me Bruno.
“Then I don’t have to pay you anymore.”
For the first time that night, I laughed.
A real laugh.
Short.
Broken.
Unexpected.
“No,” I said. “You definitely don’t.”
She took Bruno back immediately.
“Good.”
Even Maeve smiled.
But Samuel called my name.
Weakly.
“Dante.”
I approached.
“What?”
“The copy.”
“Where?”
“My old office.”
“That building was demolished.”
“Not the office you knew.”
“Where?”
“Union Station.”
“Locker?”
He nodded.
“Two fourteen.”
“What’s inside?”
“Rose’s letter. Antonio’s accounts. Vance’s payments.”
“Enough to bury them?”
Samuel’s eyes moved toward Salvatore.
“Enough to bury half the city.”
Salvatore smiled.
That disturbed me.
“What?”
He shook his head.
“You still don’t understand.”
I walked toward him.
“Understand what?”
“Arthur and I were never the top.”
Vance, bleeding beside a pillar, laughed.
Maeve went pale.
I turned.
Vance stared at me.
“You think a police commissioner invented this?”
“Who did?”
Vance smiled through split lips.
“The person who signed your father’s death order.”
“Name.”
He looked at Rose.
Then Gabriel.
Then me.
“Ask the priest.”
Every eye turned toward Father Gabriel.
Gabriel’s face had gone gray.
“Gabriel.”
He said nothing.
“Who signed the order?”
His lips moved.
Before he could answer, his phone rang.
He looked at the screen.
And dropped it.
On the screen was a photograph taken seconds earlier.
Elena and Maeve standing together inside the terminal.
May you like
The caption contained four words:
WE CAN STILL REACH THEM.
