Chapter 11 - The Man at My Table
Luca reviewed the authentication logs.
Nico checked device locations.
The second approval had been issued from my Manhattan office at 11:32 p.m. eight months earlier.
Security video still existed.
We watched it together.
Peter Vale entered the office carrying a laptop.
He left twelve minutes later.
I summoned him to the house.
He sat down without being asked.
“How much did Marcus pay you?”
“Two hundred thousand.”
“For six million?”
Peter laughed bitterly.
“For my silence. The six million was already moving.”
“Why?”
He offered a solution.
One approval.
One time.
Except one time became six.
“Did you know about Ruby?”
“No.”
“Did you know Marcus wanted her shares?”
“I knew he wanted a guardian vote.”
“That means you knew.”
He looked down.
“You are right.”
Peter agreed to cooperate.
Before leaving, he said, “Marcus kept a second set of books.”
“Where?”
“Not digital.”
“Where?”
Peter looked toward the ballroom.
“Inside the old wine cellar.”
The wine cellar had a sealed brick section left from Prohibition.
I had never opened it.
Nico brought tools.
Behind the false wall, we found a metal case.
Inside were ledgers, cash records, judge payments, consulting invoices, and a list of names.
Kessler.
Sloan.
Marina.
Peter.
And one name I did not expect.
Valentina’s mother, Camilla Bellini.
Camilla had died two years earlier.
Next to her name was a note:
ISABELLA - FAILED.
My heart stopped.
Luca read over my shoulder.
“Domenico.”
I knew what he was thinking.
I said it first.
“We do not invent a murder because of one word.”
May you like
But the ledger meant Isabella’s name had been part of their plan before her death.
And I needed to know why.
