Chapter 4 - The Man Behind the Door
“Luca.”
The name barely left Matteo’s mouth.
Naomi stopped breathing.
Luca Ferraro had protected Matteo for fifteen years.
He had driven him.
Guarded him.
Taken a bullet for him.
He had been present the night Naomi collapsed.
He had found the transmitter.
He had brought the vitamins.
He had controlled the investigation.
And he was upstairs.
Matteo reached for his phone.
No signal.
The security network died again.
Naomi understood.
“Luca controls it.”
Matteo ran.
Naomi followed despite his order to stay behind.
They reached the private office.
The door was open.
Luca stood inside.
He was holding David Parker’s ledger.
“Put it down,” Matteo said.
Luca turned.
His face held no surprise.
“I hoped you wouldn’t figure it out this quickly.”
Naomi stared at him.
“You poisoned me?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
“Vittorio.”
Matteo’s jaw tightened.
“Evelyn named you.”
“Because I recruited her.”
“For Vittorio?”
“For your father.”
Silence.
Luca lowered the ledger.
“Your father knew Vittorio was stealing. David Parker discovered it. Alessandro tried to protect Parker.”
“We know.”
“No, you don’t.”
Luca opened a hidden compartment inside Matteo’s desk.
Inside were old documents.
Matteo stared.
“You knew about that?”
“I helped build this office.”
Luca removed a sealed envelope.
“Your father knew Vittorio would eventually come after anyone connected to Parker.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because Alessandro ordered me not to.”
“He’s dead.”
“Yes.”
“Then your loyalty belongs to me.”
“It always has.”
Naomi stepped forward.
“Then why plant Evelyn?”
“To watch you.”
“Why?”
“Because Vittorio found you first.”
Naomi felt cold.
Luca explained.
Months earlier, Vittorio had discovered Naomi Parker was working at Matteo’s mansion.
At first he thought it coincidence.
Then he became terrified she possessed David’s evidence.
Evelyn had been sent by Luca to watch Vittorio’s people watching Naomi.
She had moved Naomi’s belongings while searching for evidence.
She had installed the transmitter so Luca could hear whether anyone approached Naomi.
“You could have told me,” Naomi said.
“And if Vittorio had already bought someone close to you?”
“You terrified me.”
“I kept you alive.”
Matteo remained furious.
“You manipulated both of us.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Vittorio isn’t the top of this.”
Matteo became still.
Luca handed him the envelope.
Inside was a photograph.
Three men.
Vittorio.
A federal prosecutor.
And Matteo’s business attorney, Charles Dane.
The same attorney Matteo had given copies of Parker’s ledger.
Matteo looked up.
“We sent the evidence directly to him.”
“Yes.”
Luca nodded.
“And now he knows exactly what you have.”
Naomi whispered, “We gave everything to the enemy.”
“Not everything,” Luca said.
He looked at her.
“David Parker kept the real evidence somewhere else.”
Naomi remembered the cassette recorder.
They had never played it.
Luca had removed it from the storage unit for safekeeping.
He produced it.
Matteo found an old player.
They pressed play.
Static.
Then David Parker’s voice.
Naomi covered her mouth.
She had not heard her father speak in thirteen years.
“If this recording is being played, I probably failed.”
Naomi began crying silently.
Matteo moved closer.
David continued.
He described Vittorio’s theft.
The laundering.
The shell corporations.
The corrupt officials.
Then he said something unexpected.
“Alessandro Marino did not order this. He tried to stop it.”
Matteo closed his eyes.
His father had been many things.
But not this.
David continued.
“The original records are stored under Naomi’s name. She doesn’t know. She must never know unless they come after her.”
Naomi looked at Matteo.
“Under my name?”
The recording gave instructions.
A bank.
A safe-deposit box.
Matteo checked the time.
The bank opened at nine.
At 8:45 the next morning they arrived through a private entrance.
Naomi provided identification.
The manager confirmed the box had existed for fourteen years.
Nobody had opened it.
Until three days earlier.
Naomi stared.
“Who accessed it?”
The manager looked uncomfortable.
“According to the authorization…”
He turned the screen.
Naomi Parker.
Her signature.
Her identification.
Someone had impersonated her.
The box was empty.
Matteo called Luca.
“Find Dane.”
Too late.
Charles Dane had vanished.
So had Vittorio.
Naomi felt hope collapsing.
Then the bank manager returned.
“There is something unusual.”
“What?”
“The person who accessed the box left one item.”
He handed Naomi a small envelope.
Inside was a photograph of Naomi as a child with her father.
On the back, David had written:
Numbers can be copied. Truth cannot. Ask Naomi what I taught her about birthdays.
Naomi stared.
Birthdays.
Her father had made puzzles for every birthday.
Numbers.
Codes.
Dates.
She suddenly remembered the twenty-three letters.
Each contained a birthday memory.
Each mentioned a number.
She had assumed they were sentimental.
They were a cipher.
Back at the mansion, Naomi arranged the letters chronologically.
Matteo watched.
Seven.
Three.
Eleven.
Nine.
The numbers produced coordinates inside old Marino accounting records.
Luca entered them into an archived database.
Files appeared.
Hundreds.
Bank transfers.
Audio recordings.
Contracts.
Photographs.
Everything.
David Parker had hidden copies inside Marino’s own system.
Vittorio had never found them.
Neither had Dane.
Naomi stared at her father’s final gift.
“He knew.”
Matteo stood behind her.
“He knew you would understand him.”
A notification appeared.
REMOTE ACCESS REQUEST.
Someone was attempting to enter the archive.
Luca blocked it.
Another request appeared.
Then another.
The source was not outside the mansion.
It was coming from inside.
Matteo looked toward the hallway.
Footsteps approached.
Slowly.
May you like
The office door opened.
And Vittorio Marino walked in carrying a gun.
