Chapter 5
Dante reached Sophia first.
Elena had pulled her beneath a desk.
“I’ve got her,” she said.
Dante handed them to two guards and ran downstairs with Rocco.
A guard lay conscious near the laundry corridor, blood on his temple.
“Two men,” he gasped. “Service door.”
One intruder was caught at the pantry. The other made it as far as the garden gate.
Neither carried identification.
One had a photograph of the stuffed cat.
The other had a text thread from V.B.
GET THE CARD. NO NOISE IF POSSIBLE.
Then another:
VANESSA FAILED. CLEAN UP BEFORE DANTE TALKS TO THE FEDS.
Dante returned to the music room.
Vanessa’s chair was empty.
Her attorney stood beside an open terrace door.
“She stepped outside.”
“You let her leave?”
“I’m not her jailer.”
Rocco’s radio crackled.
Vanessa’s SUV had forced the south gate.
Dante’s phone rang.
Vanessa.
“I didn’t know they would come for the child,” she said.
“Where are you?”
“Listen to me. My father knows about Marco’s card.”
“He sent men into my house.”
“He thinks Marco copied the master ledger.”
“Did he?”
“Yes.”
Dante looked at the memory card. “It’s not here.”
“Then Marco hid another copy.”
“You stole my seal.”
“Yes.”
“You forged the trust papers.”
“Yes.”
“Did you know Vincent had Marco killed?”
Silence.
“Not until later,” she whispered.
Dante’s jaw clenched.
“Who pulled the trigger?”
“Peter Salvi.”
The name was familiar. A contract driver who disappeared after Marco’s death.
Vanessa gave him an address in New Jersey.
Then she said, “If my father finds me before you do, I’m dead.”
The line went dead.
Rocco looked at Dante.
“What now?”
May you like
Dante picked up Marco’s memory card.
“Now we stop treating this like a family secret.”
