Chapter 4 - The Man Who Stole the Ledger
Matteo locked down the mansion in under sixty seconds.
Nobody entered.
Nobody left.
Every exterior gate sealed.
Armed guards moved floor by floor.
Sophie clung to Elena while Matteo stood in the center of the library and studied the open space where the ledger had been.
Luca returned.
"Father Benedetti isn't in the east hall."
"Cars?"
"All accounted for."
"Tunnel?"
"Two men are watching it."
Matteo looked at the ceiling.
"Then he's still inside."
Isabella shook her head.
"He wouldn't steal it."
"Everyone in this house has lied to me tonight."
"Not him."
"Especially him."
Matteo turned toward Elena.
"What did your mother say about Benedetti?"
"Only that she trusted him."
"Trust killed my father."
Sophie looked up.
"Mr. Matteo?"
His expression softened by a fraction.
"What?"
"The old man went through that door."
She pointed to the library's side entrance.
"When?"
"When it got dark."
"You saw him?"
"He bumped my rabbit."
Matteo crouched.
"Which way?"
Sophie pointed.
"Toward the little stairs."
Luca knew exactly what she meant.
Servant staircase.
They moved.
On the second landing, Matteo found Benedetti's priest collar lying on the floor.
Blood marked the wall.
Isabella gasped.
Matteo touched it.
Fresh.
"He didn't leave willingly."
They followed drops upward.
Third floor.
An unused guest corridor.
Blood stopped outside Room 26.
Luca opened it.
Empty.
Window closed.
No second door.
Matteo examined the carpet.
A rectangular indentation near the wall.
Furniture had recently been moved.
"Push the dresser."
Behind it was another narrow passage.
Matteo almost smiled.
"How many secret doors did my family need?"
Luca answered, "Apparently more than normal people."
They entered.
The passage led to a concealed observation room overlooking the library through a one-way mirror.
Matteo could see Elena and Sophie below.
On the floor lay Father Benedetti.
Alive.
Unconscious.
The ledger was gone.
Matteo checked his pulse.
"Call the doctor."
Benedetti stirred.
"Matteo."
"I'm here."
"Victor."
"What about him?"
"He was inside."
"Victor Hale?"
Benedetti nodded weakly.
"He took the book."
"How did he get into my house?"
Benedetti coughed.
"Because you invited him years ago."
Matteo understood.
Victor had security clearance.
Not current clearance.
Unless somebody never deactivated the old override codes.
Luca checked his tablet.
His face tightened.
"Hale's master credential still works."
"Who authorized that?"
"It was grandfathered into the system."
"By whom?"
Luca hesitated.
"Carlo."
Matteo straightened.
"Find Victor."
They located him twelve minutes later through highway cameras.
His car was heading north.
Toward Carlo Valenti's estate.
Matteo made a decision.
"Stay here with Elena."
Luca objected.
"No."
"She's the target."
"So are you."
"I'm harder to kidnap."
Matteo took six men and left.
Carlo lived twenty miles outside the city on an estate surrounded by vineyards.
Matteo arrived shortly before midnight.
The gates opened.
Too easily.
Carlo sat alone on the rear terrace.
Seventy now.
Gray hair.
Expensive suit.
A glass of red wine beside him.
"You took your time," Carlo said.
Matteo approached.
"Where's Victor?"
Carlo smiled.
"Good evening to you too."
Matteo placed his pistol on the table.
Not as surrender.
As punctuation.
"You've got one chance."
Carlo studied him.
"You look like your father when you're angry."
"My father was murdered."
Carlo's expression barely changed.
"Who told you?"
"So you knew."
"I knew he had enemies."
"You poisoned him?"
"No."
"Victor?"
"No."
"Then who?"
Carlo picked up his wine.
"Your father killed himself with stubbornness long before anyone put poison in his glass."
Matteo grabbed him by the collar.
Guards around the terrace reached for weapons.
Carlo lifted one hand.
They stopped.
"Careful," Carlo said quietly. "You're proving exactly what Alessandro feared."
"What did he fear?"
"That you would become him."
Matteo released him.
"Where is the ledger?"
"Victor brought it."
"And?"
"I burned it."
Matteo stared.
Carlo gestured toward a stone fireplace.
Black ash.
Partly burned paper.
Matteo approached.
One corner of a ledger cover remained.
He turned.
"Why?"
"Because dead men should not govern the living."
"You murdered my father to protect names."
Carlo sighed.
"I did not murder Alessandro."
"Then give me the murderer."
"You won't like the answer."
"Try me."
Carlo looked at him for a long moment.
"Your mother."
The world seemed to stop.
Matteo's mother, Alessia, had died when he was sixteen.
Nine years before Alessandro.
"She's been dead twenty years."
"Exactly."
Matteo's stare sharpened.
Carlo leaned back.
"Your father began that ledger after Alessia died, not before. Because her death taught him what the families had become."
"What does that have to do with his murder?"
"Everything."
Carlo explained.
Alessia had discovered the same network years earlier.
Officials.
Judges.
Crime families.
She had threatened exposure.
Someone ordered her death.
A staged car accident.
Alessandro spent years hunting who ordered it.
The ledger was his evidence.
"So my mother's murder led to my father's."
"Yes."
"And you helped cover it."
Carlo looked away.
"Yes."
Matteo's hands curled.
"Why?"
"Because you were a boy."
There it was again.
Protection.
The word people used when they wanted forgiveness for deciding someone else's life.
"Who ordered my mother's death?"
Carlo stared at him.
"Victor Hale's father."
Matteo went still.
"Anthony Russo?"
"No."
Carlo shook his head.
"Anthony wasn't Victor's father."
"Then who?"
Carlo smiled sadly.
"Me."
Silence.
Matteo looked as if he had been struck.
Carlo continued.
"Victor Hale is my son."
Isabella's half-brother.
Another secret heir.
Matteo stepped back.
"Why did he use my initials?"
"To frame you if the ledger ever surfaced."
"Did you know?"
"Not until later."
"Yet you protected him."
"He's my son."
"So was my father your brother."
Carlo's voice broke slightly.
"Yes."
Matteo picked up his gun.
"Where is Victor?"
Carlo looked toward the dark vineyard.
"Gone."
"Where?"
"I don't know."
Matteo pressed the barrel against the table between them.
"Wrong answer."
Carlo leaned forward.
"If I knew, I would tell you."
"Why?"
"Because he took something far more dangerous than that ledger."
Matteo stopped.
"What?"
Carlo looked genuinely frightened now.
"The original recording."
"What recording?"
"Your father's confession."
"My father confessed to what?"
Carlo shook his head.
"Not his confession."
He swallowed.
"The confession he secretly recorded from the person who ordered your mother's murder."
Matteo stared.
"Who?"
Carlo opened his mouth.
A gunshot cracked across the vineyard.
Carlo jerked.
Blood spread across his chest.
Matteo dropped and returned fire toward the tree line.
His guards scattered.
Carlo slid from the chair.
Matteo caught him.
"Who was it?"
Carlo struggled to breathe.
"Listen..."
"Who ordered it?"
Carlo gripped Matteo's jacket.
"Someone... inside your house."
"Who?"
Carlo's eyes lost focus.
"Ask Elena..."
His hand fell.
Matteo stared at him.
Then his phone rang.
Luca.
Matteo answered.
"What?"
Luca's voice was frantic.
"Boss, get back here now."
"Why?"
"Elena found something in Sophie's rabbit."
Matteo looked toward Carlo's body.
"What?"
"A recording device."
Matteo froze.
"Playing what?"
Luca went silent for half a second.
May you like
Then:
"Your mother's voice."
