Chapter 17 - What Happened on the Highway
Daniel Voss decided he preferred cooperation to spending his life protecting a man who had already abandoned him.
He told investigators what happened six years earlier.
Salvatore had ordered Daniel to follow Carlo that night.
Not to kill him.
To retrieve the archive.
Daniel said another vehicle forced Carlo toward the shoulder during the confrontation.
Carlo swerved.
The car hit the barrier.
"Who was driving the other vehicle?" an agent asked.
Daniel gave a name.
Malcolm Sterling.
Evelyn's father.
Daniel said Malcolm panicked after the crash.
Salvatore ordered everyone to leave.
Carlo died before help arrived.
Whether the impact was intentional became a matter for prosecutors and reconstruction experts.
But the cover-up was no longer a theory.
Malcolm Sterling was arrested before dawn.
Salvatore disappeared.
Then he called Adrian directly.
"You turned the girls against their fathers."
Adrian said, "They did that themselves."
"For a waitress?"
I was in the room.
Adrian looked at me.
"No. For the truth."
Salvatore laughed.
"You always were Carlo's son."
"Good."
Then Salvatore offered a deal.
He would surrender if Adrian met him alone at the old Moretti restaurant in Boston.
Marco said absolutely not.
Federal agents agreed.
Adrian surprised everyone.
"Fine."
I stared at him.
"Fine?"
He looked at the agents.
"He wants me alone. He doesn't get it. You wire the building, cover every exit, and I walk in with nothing he can call a weapon."
Before he left, Adrian came to me.
"You don't owe me a promise."
"Good."
"But if this goes badly—"
"Don't."
He stopped.
I touched his face.
"Come back, and then we'll decide what we are."
He nodded.
At the restaurant, Salvatore was waiting at the table Carlo once used every Sunday.
The first thing he said was:
"I never wanted your father dead."
May you like
Adrian sat across from him.
"Then tell me who did.
