Chapter 6 - The Dead Man in the Photograph
For several seconds, Matteo did not move.
Luca stared over his shoulder.
"Boss..."
Elena stepped closer.
"Is that—"
"My father."
There was no mistaking him.
Older.
Thinner.
Gray through the hair.
But Alessandro Valenti was alive.
Matteo's mind rejected the image even while his eyes confirmed it.
He enlarged the photograph.
Timestamp: seventeen minutes ago.
The message beneath it read:
BRING THE RECORDINGS TO THE OLD SAINT JUDE HOSPITAL. COME WITHOUT POLICE. IF YOU WANT ANSWERS, COME BEFORE DAWN.
Matteo read it twice.
Then he laughed.
Not from amusement.
From disbelief so deep it almost became rage.
Eleven years.
A funeral.
A coffin.
A grave.
A life rearranged around a death that had apparently never happened.
Elena whispered, "Why would everyone lie?"
Matteo looked at the image.
"We're going to ask him."
Luca stopped him.
"It's a trap."
"Obviously."
"They know you'll come."
"Also obvious."
"Then don't."
Matteo turned.
"My father has been dead for eleven years."
"Apparently not."
"Exactly."
Luca knew arguing further was useless.
They prepared carefully.
The recordings were copied three times.
One encrypted drive remained with a lawyer Matteo trusted.
Another was sent automatically to release if Matteo failed to enter a security code by sunrise.
Luca approved.
"Insurance."
"Truth survives us."
They drove to Saint Jude Hospital.
Closed sixteen years ago, the building sat near the river like a concrete skeleton.
Matteo entered with Elena and Luca despite instructions to come alone.
"You never follow directions," Elena whispered.
"Bad habit."
Inside, emergency lights marked a path.
Fourth floor.
Old surgical wing.
A chair waited in the center of the corridor.
Father Benedetti sat tied to it.
Alive.
Victor stood behind him.
And Alessandro Valenti stood near the window.
Matteo stopped.
Father and son looked at each other.
Eleven years vanished.
Then returned all at once.
Alessandro spoke first.
"You got taller."
Matteo's face did not change.
"You got dead."
Alessandro almost smiled.
Matteo wanted to hit him.
Hug him.
Shoot him.
Demand answers.
Instead he said:
"Untie the priest."
Victor laughed.
"Still giving orders."
Matteo looked at him.
"Your father died tonight."
Victor's smile disappeared.
"Carlo?"
"Shot."
"By whom?"
"Someone from the vineyard."
Victor looked genuinely shocked.
Alessandro turned sharply.
"Richard."
Matteo heard it.
"So Hale is behind this."
Alessandro looked at him.
"Richard Hale has been behind everything for twenty years."
"Then why are you standing with Victor?"
"I'm not."
Victor pulled a pistol.
He pressed it against Benedetti's head.
"Enough."
Alessandro sighed.
"Victor."
"Stop talking."
Matteo understood the hierarchy.
Victor controlled the room.
"Let Benedetti go."
"Give me the recordings."
"No."
Victor smiled.
"Then he dies."
Benedetti spoke quietly.
"Don't."
Victor struck him.
Matteo's hand twitched near his jacket.
"Do that again and negotiations end."
Victor laughed.
"You think this is a negotiation?"
Matteo looked at Alessandro.
"You staged your death."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because Richard had already killed your mother. Mercer was dead. I knew I was next."
"So you abandoned me."
The words hit harder than Matteo intended.
Alessandro looked away.
"I thought it was the only way to keep you alive."
"There it is."
"What?"
"Protection."
Matteo's voice sharpened.
"Everyone destroyed my life to protect me."
Alessandro absorbed it.
"You have every right to hate me."
"I don't have time yet."
Victor interrupted.
"Touching. Give me the recordings."
Elena stepped forward.
"You locked me underground."
Victor looked at her.
"You stole something that didn't belong to you."
"My mother hid it."
"Your mother was a servant."
Elena's face hardened.
"She was smarter than all of you."
Matteo almost smiled.
Victor aimed the pistol toward Elena.
Matteo moved instantly.
"Point that at her again."
Victor looked amused.
"Or what?"
"You'll find out."
Alessandro stepped between them.
"Victor, Richard is using you."
"My father gave me everything."
"Carlo was your father."
"Carlo was a coward who hid me."
Matteo understood then.
Victor had known.
Perhaps for years.
Richard Hale had raised him publicly because Carlo could not acknowledge him.
Richard shaped Victor's anger into loyalty.
"You killed my father?" Matteo asked.
Victor looked at Alessandro.
"No."
Alessandro answered.
"Victor helped me fake my death."
Matteo stared.
"What?"
"After your mother died, Victor realized what Richard was capable of. For a time, he worked with me."
Victor's expression tightened.
Alessandro continued.
"He replaced my heart medication with something that simulated cardiac collapse. Benedetti certified the death."
Matteo looked at the priest.
Benedetti lowered his eyes.
"We used a closed coffin."
"Eleven years."
Alessandro nodded.
"I went underground."
"And Victor?"
"He stayed inside Richard's circle."
Matteo looked at him.
"You were an informant."
Victor laughed bitterly.
"Until your father decided protecting you mattered more than finishing the job."
Alessandro said, "Richard discovered Victor's betrayal."
"And then?"
"He turned him back."
Victor's pistol remained steady.
"No one turned me."
Alessandro looked sad.
"You chose him."
"He raised me."
"He used you."
Victor shouted, "He gave me a name!"
The corridor echoed.
Silence followed.
There it was.
Not greed.
Not power.
A wound.
Victor had spent his life choosing between the father who hid him and the father who claimed him.
Richard Hale had known exactly how to exploit it.
Matteo lowered his voice.
"Where is Richard?"
Victor said nothing.
Alessandro answered.
"On his way."
Matteo looked toward the windows.
"Why?"
"Because he wants the original recording."
Matteo remembered Carlo.
"The confession."
Alessandro nodded.
"I recorded Richard admitting he ordered Alessia's death."
"Where is it?"
Father Benedetti whispered:
"Not here."
Victor struck him again.
Matteo moved forward.
Gunfire exploded.
Not from Victor.
From the stairwell.
Luca dragged Elena behind a wall.
Matteo overturned the chair and pulled Benedetti down.
Victor fired toward the stairs.
Armed men entered.
Richard Hale's security.
They had come to kill everyone.
Alessandro grabbed a fallen weapon.
Father and son fought on opposite sides of the same corridor without time to understand how strange it was.
Three minutes later, silence returned.
Two attackers fled.
Luca was bleeding from his shoulder but standing.
Victor had disappeared.
Matteo searched.
"Where?"
Alessandro pointed toward the service stairs.
"He'll go to Richard."
"Let him."
"No."
Alessandro grabbed Matteo's arm.
"Victor knows where the confession is."
"So do you."
Alessandro shook his head.
"No."
Matteo stared.
"Benedetti does."
Everyone looked at the priest.
Benedetti slowly sat against the wall.
"I kept it."
"Where?"
"Saint Michael's Church."
Matteo almost laughed.
"Of course."
"Inside the old baptismal vault."
Alessandro helped him up.
"We need to get there before Richard."
Luca's phone buzzed.
He looked.
Then at Matteo.
"We're too late."
"What?"
"Motion alert from Saint Michael's."
Matteo turned.
Luca showed him the security feed.
A black SUV had arrived.
Victor stepped out.
Then another man.
Senator Richard Hale.
But a third person emerged from the back seat.
A woman.
Elena made a sound beside Matteo.
"No."
Sophie was supposed to be asleep at the mansion.
May you like
Instead, five-year-old Sophie stood between two armed men outside the church.
Clutching her cloth rabbit.
