Chapter 7 - The Ledger Beneath the Floor
Luca denied everything.
Matteo did not believe him.
Neither did Tessa.
They met in an old Moretti office protected by Frank’s men.
“My father died when I was fourteen,” Luca said.
“So did my sister,” Matteo replied. “Apparently we’ve both been misinformed.”
Luca stared at the table.
“My father worked for Salvatore.”
“We know.”
“No. You know the version Salvatore allowed people to know.”
Luca explained that Gabriel Vieri had managed international cargo routes.
Anna translated manifests for him.
Sofia discovered women being transported under false employment contracts.
When she confronted Gabriel, he threatened Anna.
Anna was pregnant.
“With me,” Tessa whispered.
Luca nodded.
“Gabriel was your father.”
Tessa felt nothing at first.
Then everything.
“My mother loved him?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did he love her?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is he alive?”
Luca hesitated.
“Yes.”
Matteo stood so quickly the chair struck the wall.
“You knew.”
“I found out six months ago.”
“And said nothing?”
“He threatened my family.”
“You don’t have a family.”
Luca looked at him.
“I have a daughter.”
Silence.
Matteo had known Luca for twenty years.
He had not known that.
“She lives in Rome with her mother. Gabriel sent me photographs of her walking to school.”
Tessa’s anger shifted.
Fear was another kind of prison.
“Where’s the ledger?” she asked.
Luca looked at her pendant.
“Anna hid the key with you.”
Tessa touched it.
“AMB.”
“Not initials.”
Luca took the pendant and rotated the back.
“A.M.B. means ‘under my library’ in the code Anna and Sofia used.”
Tessa remembered her mother’s apartment.
The bookcase.
The floor beneath it.
They returned under armed guard.
The apartment remained destroyed.
Tessa moved the bookcase.
One floorboard was newer than the others.
Matteo pried it loose.
Underneath lay a metal box.
Inside was the ledger.
Names.
Dates.
Payments.
Shipments.
Judges.
Detectives.
Businessmen.
At the center of hundreds of entries appeared the same initials.
G.V.
Gabriel Vieri.
But the final page contained something else.
A recent entry.
Bellaforte Restaurant.
Tessa frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Matteo read the date.
Tomorrow.
Beside it was a payment amount.
Five million dollars.
Recipient:
M. MORETTI.
Tessa looked at him.
“You?”
“No.”
“It says Moretti.”
“So does half my family.”
Then Matteo noticed a second notation.
TRANSFER OF CONTROL UPON DEATH OF M.M.
His face hardened.
“Someone is paying five million dollars tomorrow.”
“For what?”
“My death.”
Tessa’s phone buzzed.
An unknown number had sent a photograph.
It showed Jenna leaving work.
A man stood behind her.
Silver-haired.
Older.
Scar along his chin.
Salvatore.
May you like
The message underneath contained only four words.
BRING THE LEDGER ALONE.
