Chapter 3 - The Name on the Tape
Mara could not speak.
Luca did not move.
The old recorder hissed between them.
Antonio Bellandi had been dead for twelve years.
Yet somehow his voice had named a woman Luca had never met until that night.
“Mara Ellis,” the recording repeated. “If that name means nothing to you now, it will soon.”
Luca stopped the tape.
The click sounded loud in the underground archive.
He turned toward Mara.
“Tell me.”
“I can’t.”
His expression hardened.
“You can’t?”
“I mean I don’t know.”
“My father knew your name.”
“My father died when I was seventeen.”
“How old are you?”
“Thirty-eight.”
“So you were twenty-six when Elena died.”
Mara’s pulse jumped.
“I never knew your sister.”
“Think carefully.”
“I am.”
Nero moved closer to Mara.
Luca noticed.
Something about that seemed to stop him from pressing harder.
Vittorio searched the cabinet.
“There are photographs.”
He handed one to Luca.
The picture showed Antonio Bellandi standing beside a younger woman.
Dark hair.
Elegant face.
She held the same brass key.
Luca whispered, “Elena.”
His sister.
Mara looked at the photograph.
A strange sensation moved through her.
Not recognition.
Something adjacent to it.
She had seen the necklace Elena wore.
A small silver compass.
Mara touched her own throat.
Empty tonight.
But at home, inside a wooden jewelry box, she owned the same pendant.
Her mother had given it to her.
“What?” Luca asked.
Mara hesitated.
“My mother had that necklace.”
Luca stared.
“Identical?”
“I think so.”
“You think?”
“She gave it to me before she died.”
“Where is it?”
“At my apartment.”
Luca reached for his phone.
“No.”
He looked at her.
“No what?”
“You are not sending armed men into my apartment.”
“I was going to send Vittorio.”
“That sentence did not improve.”
Vittorio cleared his throat.
“I have been called worse than armed.”
Mara almost laughed despite herself.
Luca did not.
“What was your mother’s name?”
“Caroline Ellis.”
Luca turned toward the files.
Vittorio began searching.
Minutes later, he stopped.
“Luca.”
He held a thin folder.
CAROLINE ELLIS.
Mara felt the floor shift beneath her.
Luca opened it.
Inside were bank statements, old photographs, and a handwritten page.
Mara recognized the handwriting immediately.
Her mother’s.
“What does it say?” Luca asked.
Mara read aloud.
“If Antonio is gone, Elena must take the evidence to Caroline. If Elena cannot reach her, the evidence goes to Mara.”
Mara stopped.
Luca’s eyes locked on hers.
“Evidence of what?”
The next line answered.
“Project Janus.”
Vittorio swore.
Luca looked at him.
“You know it?”
“Rumors.”
“Speak.”
“An old financial network. Judges. shipping companies. politicians. organized crime families. People paying people so everybody owned a piece of everybody else.”
“My father?”
“May have built part of it.”
Luca looked disgusted.
“And Elena?”
“Maybe she tried to expose it.”
Mara searched the folder.
There was another photograph.
Her mother stood beside Elena.
They were smiling.
Friends.
Mara sank onto a chair.
“I remember her.”
Luca turned sharply.
“You said you didn’t.”
“I didn’t know her name.”
Mara looked at the photograph.
“She came to our house twice. Maybe three times. My mother called her Ellie.”
Luca closed his eyes.
“Elena hated her full name.”
Mara continued.
“She brought me books.”
Her throat tightened.
“She told me never to judge people by the stories told about them.”
Luca stared at his sister’s face.
“She was twenty-nine.”
“I was twenty-six.”
“Why didn’t you know she died?”
“My mother moved us constantly. She said her work involved people who could become dangerous.”
“What work?”
“Accounting.”
Vittorio gave a humorless laugh.
“With Antonio Bellandi, accounting could be dangerous.”
The recorder still sat on the table.
Mara pressed PLAY.
Antonio’s voice returned.
“Project Janus began as protection. It became a prison. By the time I understood that, too many men had learned that secrets were more valuable than loyalty.”
The tape crackled.
“Elena discovered that Janus was being used to finance assassinations without attribution.”
Luca’s jaw tightened.
“She wanted out.”
Antonio continued.
“I told her to take the ledger to Caroline Ellis.”
Mara whispered, “My mother.”
“But someone intercepted her.”
The tape paused.
“I was told my daughter died that night.”
Luca gripped the table.
Then Antonio said something that changed everything.
“I never believed it.”
Luca stared at the recorder.
Mara covered her mouth.
The recording continued.
“There was no body I was permitted to identify. Only a burned vehicle and dental records provided by a doctor later found dead.”
Vittorio looked at Luca.
“You told me she was buried.”
“A sealed casket.”
Mara whispered, “My God.”
Antonio’s voice lowered.
“If Elena survived, Janus would have hunted her. If she died, someone took the ledger.”
The tape ended.
For several seconds nobody spoke.
Then Nero walked toward the back wall.
He sniffed beneath a wine rack.
Scratched once.
Luca moved to him.
“What is it?”
The dog scratched again.
Vittorio pulled the rack aside.
Behind it was a narrow door.
Unlocked.
Fresh air moved through the opening.
Mara stared.
“Someone was here.”
The tunnel beyond led toward the old carriage house.
As they emerged, Luca received a call.
Vittorio answered his own phone simultaneously.
Both men froze.
“What?” Mara asked.
Luca lowered the phone.
“Preston is gone.”
“What do you mean gone?”
“He disappeared from the ballroom.”
“The doors were locked.”
“Yes.”
Vittorio spoke quietly.
“One guard is unconscious.”
Luca’s face hardened.
Then another message arrived.
A photograph.
Preston sat in a chair somewhere dark.
His hands were tied.
Behind him stood a woman.
Only part of her face was visible.
Dark hair.
Silver compass necklace.
Text appeared beneath the image.
YOU OPENED THE ARCHIVE.
NOW CHOOSE.
YOUR SISTER OR THE WOMAN IN BLUE.
Mara stared at the screen.
Then her own phone rang.
Unknown number.
Luca said, “Don’t answer.”
Mara answered.
No voice came.
Only breathing.
Then a woman whispered:
“Mara, your mother lied to you.”
The line went dead.
A second message appeared immediately.
A street address.
Mara knew it.
Her childhood home.
May you like
Beneath the address were five words.
COME ALONE IF YOU WANT ELENA.
