Chapter 3 - The Name Inside the Envelope
“Victor!”
Roderick reached the elevator too late.
The doors closed.
He hit the call button.
Nothing.
Security had been overridden.
Elena ran toward the stairs.
Roderick caught her.
“Stop.”
“My son is with him!”
“And running blindly after Victor is exactly what he expects.”
“Let go of me.”
“Elena.”
“Let go!”
Roderick released her.
She struck him across the face.
Every guard in the hallway froze.
Elena froze too.
Roderick slowly looked back at her.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“I’m not.”
He touched his cheek.
“You should be angry.”
Her eyes filled.
“I trusted you.”
The words hurt more than the slap.
Roderick had promised Leo he would not hurt Elena.
He had silently promised Elena something else.
That her son would be safe in his house.
He had failed within hours.
“I’ll bring him back.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Yes, I do.”
“How?”
“Because Victor made one mistake.”
Roderick held up the photograph.
“He gave us instructions.”
Elena stared.
“He wants the files. That means Leo is leverage.”
“You’re saying that like it should comfort me.”
“It shouldn’t. But it tells us Leo is more valuable alive.”
Roderick mobilized men Victor had never supervised.
Old contacts.
People outside the Sabatini structure.
Within thirty minutes, traffic cameras found Victor’s vehicle heading toward the industrial district.
Then it disappeared.
Elena paced.
Roderick studied Samuel’s files.
Why would Victor take Leo himself?
If he had truly betrayed Samuel twenty-two years ago, why expose himself now?
Fear.
Something in those boxes frightened him more than Roderick did.
Roderick searched every envelope.
One remained sealed.
It had no date.
Only his name.
RODERICK.
He opened it.
Inside was a letter written in Samuel’s handwriting.
Roderick recognized it from birthday cards he had received as a teenager.
If you are reading this, I probably failed.
Roderick stopped.
Elena moved beside him.
He continued.
Samuel described the leak.
The Morelli meetings.
The money.
Then one sentence changed everything.
Victor is not the man giving them information.
Roderick looked at Elena.
She read it again.
Victor is not the man giving them information.
“Then why the account?” she whispered.
Roderick kept reading.
Victor had discovered the traitor too.
Samuel had asked him to accept money through the shell company to make the real traitor believe Victor could be bought.
The $50,000 had been bait.
Victor had been helping Samuel.
Elena sank into a chair.
“We were wrong.”
“Maybe.”
“Then why take Leo?”
Roderick turned the page.
The final paragraph was unfinished.
If anything happens to me, Victor knows the second name. Trust him unless—
The sentence ended.
No second name.
No explanation.
Roderick immediately called Victor again.
This time someone answered.
No voice.
Only breathing.
“Victor.”
Silence.
“I found Samuel’s letter.”
The breathing changed.
“Where’s Leo?”
A child whimpered faintly.
Elena grabbed the phone.
“Leo?”
“Mama?”
She covered her mouth.
“Baby, I’m here.”
“I want to go home.”
“I know.”
Then Victor’s voice came.
“Roderick.”
“Tell me where you are.”
“I can’t.”
“Samuel said to trust you.”
A long silence.
“Samuel was wrong.”
The call ended.
Roderick stared at the phone.
Elena shook her head.
“No. Something’s wrong.”
“What?”
“He didn’t sound like a man in control.”
Roderick replayed the conversation mentally.
She was right.
Victor had sounded afraid.
Not of Roderick.
Of someone near him.
They traced the call.
An abandoned hotel near the river.
Roderick and Elena arrived with six men.
“You stay in the car,” he told her.
“No.”
“Elena.”
“My son is inside.”
“And I cannot protect both of you.”
“You’re not leaving me behind.”
He looked at her.
There was no point arguing.
They entered through the kitchen.
No guards.
No gunfire.
Too easy.
On the third floor, they heard Leo crying.
Elena ran.
Roderick followed.
Room 312.
He kicked open the door.
Leo sat on the floor.
Alone.
Elena rushed to him.
“Baby.”
Leo wrapped himself around her.
Roderick searched the room.
“Where’s Victor?”
Leo pointed toward another door.
“The old man went there.”
Roderick opened it.
Victor lay against the wall.
Blood covered his shirt.
Still alive.
Barely.
Roderick knelt.
“Who did this?”
Victor opened his eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
“Who?”
“I took the boy because they were already coming for him.”
“Who was?”
Victor coughed.
“I thought I could move him before they knew.”
“Who, Victor?”
Victor reached inside his jacket.
He removed an envelope.
Roderick took it.
“Samuel gave me this.”
“When?”
“The night he died.”
“Why didn’t you give it to me?”
“Because your father made me swear.”
Roderick went still.
“My father knew?”
Victor nodded weakly.
“Everything.”
Elena looked over.
Roderick opened the envelope.
Inside was a photograph.
Three men stood outside a restaurant.
Samuel.
Victor.
And a third man.
Roderick knew him.
Of course he did.
He had known him his entire life.
Dominic Sabatini.
His father’s younger brother.
His uncle.
His godfather.
The man who had helped raise him after his mother died.
Roderick turned the photograph over.
Samuel had written one sentence.
DOMINIC KNOWS I FOUND HIM.
Roderick looked up.
Victor whispered, “There’s more.”
“What?”
“Your father didn’t die from the poison.”
Roderick stared at him.
Victor’s lips trembled.
“He survived it.”
“That’s impossible.”
“No.”
“Then what killed him?”
Victor tried to answer.
A shot shattered the window.
Roderick pulled Elena and Leo down.
His men moved.
Another shot struck the wall.
Victor’s body jerked.
Roderick crawled toward him.
“Victor.”
Victor’s eyes were fading.
“Who killed my father?”
Victor lifted one bloody finger.
He pointed toward the hallway.
Footsteps approached.
Slow.
Unhurried.
May you like
Then someone knocked three times on the hotel-room door.
And Roderick’s uncle called from the other side.
