Chapter 9 - THE BLACK LEDGER
Matteo moved first.
He stepped between Adeline and the open concourse while scanning every entrance to Gate 4.
Enzo turned toward the glass doors overlooking Canal Street.
A man in a dark cap stood near a newspaper kiosk.
The moment Enzo's eyes found him, the man walked away.
“Matteo.”
“I see him.”
Matteo started forward.
Daniel's voice came sharply through the phone.
“Don't chase him.”
Adeline pressed the phone closer.
“Why?”
“Because he wants you to.”
Enzo heard through the speaker.
He raised one hand.
Matteo stopped.
The man near the kiosk disappeared around a corner.
Adeline's heart pounded.
“Daniel, tell me where you are.”
“I can't.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don't know who is listening.”
“You called this phone.”
“And I have less than two minutes.”
Adeline fought the urge to shout.
“You disappeared for four months.”
“I know.”
“You let me think you were dead.”
“I know.”
“You let me walk into this house alone.”
“I tried to stop you.”
“How?”
“The photograph.”
Adeline looked at the picture from Leo Benton's car.
“You had someone photograph me?”
“No.”
Daniel sounded frightened.
“That was them.”
“Who is them?”
“The people who found out you were asking questions.”
“Ashford?”
Silence.
“Daniel.”
“Victor is part of it.”
“Camilla?”
Another pause.
“Yes.”
Adeline closed her eyes.
Enzo's face hardened.
“What about the Marchettis?” she asked.
Daniel breathed slowly.
“That is complicated.”
“Make it simple.”
“I can't.”
“Try.”
“The money moved through Salvatore Marchetti's companies before Enzo took control.”
Enzo stepped closer to the phone.
“Did my father know?”
Daniel heard him.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Then he answered.
“I don't know.”
Enzo's eyes narrowed.
“What do you know?”
“I know Thomas Croft discovered the accounts.”
Adeline's breath caught.
“I know Michael Bell copied records.”
“I know someone inside the Marchetti organization told Victor Ashford what they were doing.”
“Who?” Enzo asked.
“I don't know.”
“Then what is the black ledger?”
Daniel went silent.
Adeline looked at Enzo.
“How do you know he knows about it?”
“My note,” Daniel said.
Adeline remembered.
The black ledger is not the evidence.
It is the map.
Daniel continued.
“Salvatore kept private payment codes instead of names.”
“Bell figured out how to read them.”
“Thomas found the matching corporate records.”
“Together they could identify who was being paid.”
Enzo's expression darkened.
“And someone just stole the ledger.”
“I know.”
“How?”
Daniel's voice dropped.
“Because they think you found the key.”
“What key?”
“The code sheet.”
“Where is it?”
“I don't know anymore.”
Enzo swore quietly.
Daniel coughed.
The sound was rough and painful.
Adeline's fear returned.
“You're hurt.”
“Not badly.”
“You are lying.”
“I learned from you.”
Despite everything, the line sounded like her brother.
It nearly broke her.
“Please tell me where you are.”
“I can't yet.”
“Daniel.”
“Addie, listen.”
His voice became urgent.
“Leo Benton helped me copy part of the system before I disappeared.”
“He knows who shut down the cameras tonight.”
“Where is he?”
“That is what I am trying to find out.”
Enzo glanced at Matteo.
Daniel continued.
“Do not trust anyone who tells you Benton ran because he was guilty.”
“Why?”
“Because he ran from someone inside the house.”
Matteo's jaw tightened.
“Who?”
Daniel ignored him.
“Addie, the flash drive in the bag has one file.”
“Open it on a machine that has never touched the Marchetti network.”
“What is on it?”
“The first page of the code sheet.”
Enzo looked at Matteo.
“Can we do that?”
“Yes.”
Daniel spoke again.
“And Enzo?”
“Yes.”
“If Antonio tells you he did not know about the payments, he is telling the truth.”
Enzo's expression changed.
“How do you know?”
“Because Thomas trusted him until the end.”
Antonio's guilt on the staircase suddenly looked different.
Enzo asked the question that mattered most.
“Who did Thomas stop trusting?”
Daniel took too long to answer.
Then a sound came through the phone.
A door opening.
Daniel whispered something away from the receiver.
Adeline's body went rigid.
“Daniel?”
“Go back to the house.”
“No.”
“Now.”
“Tell me where you are.”
“I love you.”
The line went dead.
Adeline stared at the phone.
“No.”
She tried calling back.
Nothing.
Again.
Nothing.
She looked at Enzo.
“He is in danger.”
“Yes.”
“We have to find him.”
“We will.”
“Do not say that like a promise you can make.”
Enzo met her eyes.
“Then I will say it like an intention.”
Matteo returned from the concourse.
“The man is gone.”
“Cameras?” Enzo asked.
“Station security can pull them.”
“Do it.”
Matteo hesitated.
“The police will ask questions.”
“Let them.”
Adeline looked at him sharply.
She had expected a man like Enzo to avoid police at any cost.
He saw her expression.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You expected me to threaten the station manager?”
“Maybe.”
Enzo almost smiled.
“You have watched too many movies.”
“You are a mafia boss.”
The word finally entered the open air between them.
Matteo looked away.
Enzo did not.
“That is what newspapers call me.”
“What do you call yourself?”
“Tired.”
For one second, Adeline laughed.
It surprised both of them.
Then the moment disappeared.
They left Union Station through a different exit.
Matteo arranged a second car.
The flash drive remained in Adeline's hand.
They did not return directly to the mansion.
Instead, Enzo took them to a small office above a closed restaurant in the West Loop.
The building belonged to a company unconnected to the Marchetti network.
Inside was an old laptop used only for emergency document review.
Matteo turned off the wireless adapter before inserting the drive.
One encrypted file appeared.
Daniel had left the password in the photograph.
Adeline found it in the date stamped beneath the image.
The file opened.
A scanned handwritten page filled the screen.
The writing belonged to Michael Bell.
Across the top were six codes.
M1.
A7.
V4.
H2.
P9.
C3.
Beside each code was a name.
Enzo leaned closer.
M1 - Salvatore Marchetti.
A7 - Victor Ashford.
H2 - Peter Hale.
P9 - Eleanor Price.
V4 - Malcolm Voss.
Adeline pointed to the last code.
C3.
There was no name beside it.
Only a question mark.
Under the list was a note.
C3 receives copies of every transfer before Salvatore sees them.
C3 is inside the house.
Enzo read it twice.
Matteo went very still.
Adeline looked from the screen to him.
“Inside the house could mean staff.”
Matteo did not answer.
“It could mean family,” Enzo said.
He looked at the first code again.
His father's name sat beside the others.
Whether Salvatore had been a participant or a victim was still unclear.
Adeline scrolled down.
At the bottom of the page, Daniel had added a note in red text.
I think C3 is still active.
Below it was a timestamp from three months earlier.
And one more sentence.
C3 met Camilla Ashford at the Marchetti north gate on May 14.
Matteo's face lost color.
Enzo turned toward him.
“What?”
Matteo said nothing.
Enzo stood.
“Matteo.”
His oldest friend finally looked at him.
“On May fourteenth, I was the man assigned to the north gate.”
Matteo sat down across from the laptop after admitting he had been assigned to the north gate.
The confession did not accuse him of anything by itself.
Still, his hands remained flat on the table as if he did not trust himself to move them.
Enzo watched him.
“What happened when Camilla arrived?”
“I opened the gate.”
“Alone?”
“Owen was on exterior patrol.”
“Did you leave the gatehouse?”
“For about four minutes.”
“Why?”
Matteo closed his eyes briefly.
“Camilla said there was a man following her car.”
“I walked down the drive to check.”
“There was no one.”
Adeline understood first.
“She got you away from the gate.”
“Yes.”
“What could she access in four minutes?”
“Security terminal.”
“Visitor log.”
“Emergency key cabinet.”
Enzo's face hardened.
“And your token?”
“I had it with me.”
“Then she could not enter C wing.”
“No.”
Adeline tapped the note again.
“Unless she was not meeting C3 at the gate.”
Enzo looked at her.
“She may have been collecting something left there.”
Matteo stood and began pacing.
“I checked the terminal when I came back.”
“Nothing looked wrong.”
“You checked what you expected to be wrong,” Adeline said.
He stopped.
She continued.
“If she knew the system better than you thought, she could have copied something instead of changing it.”
Enzo looked at the list of codes.
“Visitor history.”
“Staff patterns.”
“Credential timing.”
Matteo nodded slowly.
“She could have learned when tokens were used and when they were not.”
The theft of his token during the engagement party suddenly looked less opportunistic.
It looked rehearsed months earlier.
Adeline stared at Camilla's name in her mind.
The riding crop had made her look uncontrolled.
But underneath the rage was a woman who had spent months studying doors, schedules, and weaknesses.
That combination was more dangerous than either quality alone.
Enzo shut the laptop.
“We stop thinking of tonight as the beginning.”
Matteo looked at him.
“When did it begin?”
Adeline answered.
“Nine years ago for my father.”
She looked at the photograph of Daniel.
“Four months ago for my brother.”
Then at Enzo.
“And at least three years ago for your engagement.”
Enzo's expression tightened.
May you like
For the first time, he considered the possibility that Camilla had not entered his life because their families fit together.
She may have entered because someone needed a place inside his house.
