Chapter 4 - The Ledger Beneath the Floor
Vera could not understand what she was seeing.
Gabriel had known her father.
Gabriel had protected Dante for years.
Gabriel had been the one who opened the hidden book containing Daniel's photograph.
Now he stood beside Marcus.
Dante's expression revealed nothing.
"How long?" he asked.
Gabriel looked ashamed.
"Long enough."
Lucy whispered, "We trusted him."
Marcus laughed.
"Trust. That's what killed both your fathers."
Dante did not look away from Gabriel.
"Was everything a lie?"
Gabriel's mouth tightened.
"No."
"Useful answer."
"Dante—"
"Don't."
One word.
Quiet.
Final.
Marcus looked pleased.
"This is why Antonio never wanted you running things. Too emotional."
"My father never discussed succession with you."
"He discussed everything with me."
"Apparently not Daniel Dunn."
Marcus's smile disappeared.
Silas moved closer.
"Enough. We need the locket."
Vera touched her collar.
"You already know the numbers."
"We know the numbers exist."
"Then why need the locket?"
Silas smiled.
"Because Daniel never trusted one hiding place."
Vera remembered the compartment behind the photograph.
"What else is inside?"
"Give it to me."
"No."
Marcus sighed.
"We really are repeating history."
Dante stepped forward.
"You touch her, you don't leave this garage."
Marcus chuckled.
"With what army?"
Dante looked around.
No guards.
No security response.
Gabriel had disabled everything.
Marcus had at least six men nearby.
Dante was outnumbered.
Silas knew it.
"Give us the locket and the two women walk away."
Vera laughed softly.
Everyone looked at her.
She could hear her father's voice.
Stay calm when someone needs you frightened.
Fear makes people fast.
Calm makes them careless.
"You kept Lucy for twelve years," Vera said.
Silas's expression changed.
"I protected her."
"You lied to her."
"I saved her life."
"So she could become useful."
Lucy flinched.
Silas looked at her.
"Lucy, don't listen to your sister."
Vera squeezed Lucy's hand.
"You found a traumatized nine-year-old girl and built her whole life around a lie."
Silas's voice sharpened.
"I gave you everything."
Lucy finally answered.
"You gave me a cage and taught me to call it a home."
Silas stared.
That hurt him.
Good.
Vera saw it.
Dante saw something else.
While Silas and Lucy spoke, Gabriel moved one hand behind his back.
Two fingers.
Then three.
A signal.
Dante's eyes flickered.
Vera noticed.
Marcus didn't.
Gabriel had not betrayed them.
Or not completely.
Dante said, "Fine."
Marcus looked at him.
"Fine?"
"We give you the locket."
Vera turned sharply.
Dante met her eyes.
Trust me.
He didn't say it.
He didn't need to.
Vera removed the necklace.
She placed it in Dante's palm.
Dante walked toward Marcus.
Gabriel shifted.
Three.
Two.
One.
The garage lights went black.
Vera dropped instantly.
Lucy pulled her behind the SUV.
Shouts erupted.
An engine started.
A door slammed.
Emergency lights flashed on twenty seconds later.
Dante stood beside Gabriel.
Marcus and Silas were gone.
So were their men.
The locket remained in Dante's hand.
Vera stared.
"What just happened?"
Gabriel exhaled.
"I bought us eleven minutes."
Lucy looked furious.
"You could've told us."
"If I told you, Marcus would've read it on your faces."
"You enjoyed that too much," Dante said.
Gabriel almost smiled.
"Maybe a little."
Vera took back the locket.
"What now?"
"Now Marcus believes we're delayed," Dante said. "Which means we move."
They took a utility vehicle through a lower service exit.
Twenty-six minutes later they entered the parking structure beneath Bellweather Tower.
The modern building above contained seventy luxury apartments.
Below it remained pieces of an older world.
Dante opened a maintenance door.
Concrete steps descended.
Lucy led them.
"I came down once during a renovation inspection."
"How much remains?" Vera asked.
"Two corridors. Part of the old mechanical room. Maybe thirty feet of the original foundation."
They reached the bottom.
Vera stopped.
The smell hit her first.
Dust.
Old wood.
Damp concrete.
Memory.
She had been there before.
Not since childhood.
But she recognized the shape of the corridor.
"This was backstage."
Lucy stared.
"You're sure?"
Vera touched the wall.
"Yes."
They moved deeper.
Old bricks appeared behind modern concrete supports.
Then they found three shallow steps.
Vera's heart raced.
"The piano used to be there."
Nothing remained.
Only a concrete slab.
Lucy crouched.
"The vent."
A rectangular metal grille sat near the floor.
Rust covered the screws.
Dante knelt.
He removed a multitool.
Within minutes the vent came free.
Behind it was a narrow cavity.
Empty.
Vera's hope collapsed.
"No."
Lucy reached inside.
"Wait."
Her fingers brushed something.
She pulled out a small wooden block.
No ledger.
Just a block with a carved symbol.
A bird.
Vera stared.
"Dad made that."
"What is it?" Dante asked.
"A music box piece."
Lucy gasped.
"Our mother's music box."
Vera closed her eyes.
It had sat on the mantle.
A wooden box containing a tiny rotating bird.
Their mother wound it every Sunday.
Lucy whispered.
"It played when Dad practiced piano."
Where Lucy can always hear the music.
Not the theater.
The music box.
Vera felt sick.
"The ledger was never here."
Dante understood.
"The clue points to the music box."
"But it burned."
Lucy shook her head.
"No."
Everyone looked at her.
"Silas kept things from the house."
"What?"
"He told me they were recovered personal belongings. He gave me some when I turned eighteen."
"The music box?"
Lucy nodded slowly.
"It's in Marcus's house."
Silence.
Vera stared.
"You saw it?"
"In his study."
Dante cursed under his breath.
Marcus had possessed the hiding place for years without knowing what it contained.
Or perhaps Daniel had altered it.
Vera looked at the wooden bird.
A tiny metal pin protruded beneath it.
Not decorative.
A key.
"We need the box."
Lucy looked toward the stairs.
"We need to go back."
Dante shook his head.
"Marcus knows we're moving tonight."
"He doesn't know what we're looking for."
"Maybe."
Gabriel's phone vibrated.
He checked it.
His face hardened.
"Police are outside the tower."
Vera stared.
"Why?"
"Anonymous report of armed intruders."
Dante smiled without humor.
"Marcus."
Sirens grew louder above them.
Dante looked toward another corridor.
"There's another exit?"
Lucy shook her head.
"Not that I know of."
Gabriel studied the old plans.
"There may be a storm access tunnel."
"May?"
"It's been sealed since 1998."
Footsteps sounded at the top of the stairwell.
"Police!" someone shouted. "Stay where you are!"
Dante grabbed Vera's hand.
They ran.
At the end of the corridor, Gabriel found an old steel door.
Locked.
Dante kicked once.
Nothing.
Again.
The frame cracked.
The third strike opened it.
A narrow tunnel stretched ahead.
They entered.
Behind them, officers reached the basement.
Flashlights swept across the wall.
Dante pulled the door shut.
They moved quickly.
The tunnel ended beneath an alley three blocks away.
When they emerged, Vera laughed once from sheer disbelief.
Lucy looked at her.
"What?"
"We just escaped through a tunnel."
Dante brushed dust from his suit.
"Not my best morning."
For one second, they all almost felt human.
Then Gabriel's phone rang.
He answered.
His face changed.
"What?"
Dante asked.
Gabriel listened.
Then lowered the phone.
"Marcus's house is empty."
Lucy stared.
"The music box?"
"Gone."
Vera's heart dropped.
Dante asked, "Where did he go?"
Gabriel looked at the phone again.
"Private airport."
Silas and Marcus were leaving the country.
Dante turned toward the street.
"How long?"
"Less than an hour."
They rushed toward the waiting vehicle.
Then Lucy stopped.
"Vera."
Vera turned.
Lucy was staring at the wooden bird from the vent.
A tiny strip of paper had begun sliding from a seam in its base.
Vera pulled it free.
One sentence.
Daniel's handwriting.
NOT THE BOX. THE SONG.
Beneath it were six musical notes.
Lucy went pale.
"I know those notes."
"From Mom's music box?"
"No."
She looked at Vera.
"From the lullaby Dad used to play when he wanted us to remember the safe combination."
Dante stared.
"What safe?"
Vera's eyes widened.
There had been one safe Daniel never kept at home.
A deposit box.
At First Republic Trust.
Under her mother's maiden name.
And suddenly Vera knew exactly where the ledger had been waiting for twelve years.
She reached for her phone.
Before she could dial, an unknown number called.
Vera answered.
No one spoke for several seconds.
Then Marcus Moretti's voice came through.
"Don't bother going to the bank, Vera."
Her blood turned cold.
Marcus laughed softly.
"We already have your sister."
May you like
Vera turned.
Lucy was no longer standing behind her.
