Chapter 9 - The Confession They Wrote for Her
The handcuffs were too tight.
Sadi told the officer twice.
He tightened them again.
Enzo stood against the apartment wall with three guns pointed at him.
Captain Dorsey took the brass key from Sadi's hand.
"Evidence."
Sadi glared at him.
"That belonged to my father."
"Now it belongs to the city."
"You mean Matteo."
Dorsey's expression did not change.
"Careful."
"Why?"
"Because you are already having a bad night."
Enzo's voice turned dangerous.
"Take the cuffs off her."
Dorsey looked at him.
"You are in no position to give orders."
"Neither are you."
Dorsey smiled.
"I have a badge."
"You have a rental costume and three minutes before lawyers bury you."
The smile disappeared.
"Mr. Rinaldi is free to call as many lawyers as he likes."
Sadi looked at Enzo.
"Do not let them take the key."
Dorsey laughed.
"Little late."
He slipped it into an evidence bag.
Sadi was taken down four flights past neighbors watching through cracked doors.
No one spoke.
Outside, two television vans were already parked at the curb.
Sadi stopped.
"How did the press know?"
Dorsey pushed her forward.
"Big murder."
"The warrant was sealed."
He did not answer.
Camera flashes exploded as officers moved her toward the cruiser.
A reporter shouted.
"Sadi, did Gabriel Falcone order you to kill the waiter?"
Another yelled over him.
"Did you have a relationship with Mr. Falcone before tonight?"
Sadi stared at Dorsey.
"You brought them."
He opened the car door.
"Get in."
She sat in the back seat with her wrists behind her.
Enzo remained on the sidewalk.
For one second, their eyes met.
He gave no signal.
No reassurance.
Nothing.
Then the cruiser pulled away.
Sadi spent the first ten minutes trying to control her breathing.
The second ten minutes she spent memorizing the route.
They were not going toward the nearest precinct.
She leaned forward.
"Where are you taking me?"
The officer in front did not answer.
The car turned onto the expressway.
"The central station is the other direction."
Still nothing.
Sadi looked at the locked doors.
Her father's voice returned from childhood.
Do not fight the room until you know where every wall is.
She watched.
Two officers.
One camera mounted near the windshield.
One radio.
No cage divider.
The driver wore a wedding ring.
The passenger kept touching the left side of his jacket where a holster sat beneath it.
The cruiser exited near an industrial district.
Sadi's pulse quickened.
"This is not a police station."
The passenger finally looked back.
"Sit quiet."
"Are you actually police?"
He smiled.
"Tonight."
Sadi's stomach dropped.
The cruiser entered a fenced vehicle yard.
A concrete building stood at the far end.
Dorsey's black sedan was already parked outside.
They brought Sadi inside through a side door.
The room looked like an old evidence warehouse.
Metal shelves lined the walls.
A table and two chairs sat beneath a fluorescent light.
Captain Dorsey entered five minutes later.
He placed a folder on the table.
"Sit."
Sadi remained standing.
"Where is my lawyer?"
"On the way."
"You did not let me call one."
"Then he is very proactive."
The door opened.
Matteo Falcone walked in.
Sadi's anger became almost physical.
He removed his charcoal coat and handed it to one of the officers.
"Miss Moreno."
"Go to hell."
Matteo smiled.
"Tomas said that to me once."
Sadi pulled against the cuffs.
"Do not say his name."
"You sound just like him."
"Victor said the same thing."
For the first time, Matteo's smile weakened.
"Victor talks too much."
Sadi noticed.
There was tension between them.
Useful tension.
Matteo sat across from her.
"You are in a difficult position."
"Because you manufactured one."
"You are charged with murder."
"By a captain you bought."
Dorsey took one step forward.
Matteo lifted a hand.
Dorsey stopped immediately.
Sadi saw the hierarchy clearly.
Matteo opened the folder.
He slid a photograph across the table.
It showed the fake waiter in the freezer.
"His name was Colin Weiss."
"I do not care."
"You should."
"Why?"
"Because he was alive when someone put him in there."
Sadi stared at the photograph.
She hated that her stomach reacted.
Matteo watched her carefully.
"You did not know that."
"I did not put him there."
"Of course not."
Sadi looked at him.
"Then why am I here?"
Matteo slid another page forward.
It was a typed confession.
Her name appeared at the bottom.
The signature line was blank.
"Because you are going to sign this."
Sadi read the first paragraph.
It claimed Gabriel had ordered her to lure Colin Weiss into the freezer.
It claimed Gabriel had threatened Lucia.
It claimed Gabriel had arranged the shooting himself to justify violence against Matteo's faction.
Sadi laughed.
"This is terrible."
Dorsey frowned.
"What?"
"The writing."
Matteo leaned back.
Sadi continued.
"If you are going to frame me, at least make me sound literate."
Matteo smiled again.
"Tomas had that mouth too."
"You keep mentioning him because you want me angry."
"Do I?"
"Angry people stop listening."
Matteo's eyes sharpened slightly.
Sadi knew she had hit something.
"I am listening now."
He tapped the confession.
"Sign it."
"No."
"Then you spend the next twenty-five years explaining why your apron was on a dead man's body."
Sadi froze.
"My apron was on him?"
Matteo smiled.
Too late, he realized he had revealed something not yet public.
Sadi leaned forward.
"Interesting."
Matteo's face hardened.
"Sign."
"You knew exactly how the body was staged."
"I saw photographs."
"Before the police released them?"
Dorsey stepped closer.
"Enough."
Sadi looked at him.
"You are not very good at this either."
Matteo pulled another item from the folder.
Sadi stopped smiling.
It was an old photograph of her parents.
Rosa stood in hospital scrubs.
Tomas stood beside her in a dark work jacket.
Between them was a boy of about seventeen.
Gabriel.
Sadi stared.
The photograph had been taken before Route Nine.
"You said Gabriel barely knew my mother."
Matteo's eyes gleamed.
"Gabriel says many things when he is frightened of the truth."
"What truth?"
Matteo turned the photograph over.
A date was written on the back.
Four months before Rosa died.
"Your parents were not random employees."
Sadi looked at him.
"Then what were they?"
"They were preparing to disappear with something my father built."
"The covenant."
Matteo's eyes narrowed.
"Enzo told you."
Sadi said nothing.
"Where is it?"
"I do not know."
"You found a key tonight."
Sadi looked at Dorsey.
He had already handed it over.
Matteo placed the evidence bag on the table.
"Locker 317."
Sadi kept her face still.
"Could be a bus station."
"Could be."
"Train station."
"Also possible."
"Gym."
Matteo watched her.
Sadi realized she had said too much.
His smile returned.
"Thank you."
Rage flashed through her.
She had walked into it.
Matteo stood.
"Find every locker three seventeen connected to Tomas Moreno."
Dorsey nodded.
Sadi pulled hard against the cuffs.
"You will not find anything."
Matteo leaned close to her.
"Tomas made the same mistake you are making."
"Which one?"
"Believing ordinary people can hide from powerful men forever."
Sadi met his eyes.
"My father hid from you for fourteen years."
The smile disappeared.
"And where is he now?"
The cruelty of it hit exactly where Matteo intended.
Sadi refused to show him.
"Still making your life difficult."
Matteo's jaw tightened.
He left the room.
Dorsey stayed.
He moved behind Sadi and loosened one cuff only to attach it to a steel ring on the table.
"You should have signed."
Sadi looked at him.
"You should have picked a cheaper man to sell yourself to."
He slapped the table beside her hand.
She did not flinch.
"You think Falcone is coming for you?"
"Which one?"
Dorsey smiled.
"Good answer."
He left.
Sadi sat alone beneath the fluorescent light.
She counted thirty-eight seconds before the door opened again.
Enzo stepped inside.
Sadi stared at him.
He closed the door.
"How did you get in here?"
"Dorsey thinks I am cooperating."
Sadi laughed bitterly.
"Are you?"
Enzo placed a key on the table.
"Stand up."
"Why should I trust you?"
"You should not."
"Useful."
"But you should decide whether you trust Matteo more."
Sadi held out her cuffed wrist.
Enzo unlocked it.
"Gabriel sent you?"
"No."
Sadi rubbed her wrist.
"Then what are you doing?"
Enzo looked toward the door.
"Making the choice Tomas asked me to make fourteen years ago."
"What choice?"
"You over the Falcones."
Sadi stared at him.
"Where is Gabriel?"
Enzo's face tightened.
"Matteo's vote passed at 3:18."
Her stomach dropped.
"What happened to Gabriel?"
"He disappeared from Mara's clinic three minutes before the vote."
"Disappeared how?"
"Blood on the floor, broken window, no body."
Sadi felt cold.
"Victor?"
"Probably."
"And Matteo?"
"Now controls the trust."
Enzo reached into his coat and handed her the brass key.
Sadi stared.
"Dorsey gave that to Matteo."
"I switched the bag."
"With what?"
"A key from a janitor's closet."
Despite everything, Sadi almost laughed.
Enzo opened the side door.
"We have six minutes before Dorsey realizes I am not on his payroll."
Sadi followed him into the corridor.
"Where are we going?"
Enzo looked back at her.
"Locker 317."
They reached the loading bay.
A black car waited outside.
Sadi stopped when the rear window lowered.
Victor Falcone sat in the back seat.
He looked exactly like the photograph.
Alive.
Smiling.
Enzo raised his gun.
Victor raised one hand.
"If you shoot me, Gabriel dies before sunrise."
Sadi stared at him.
May you like
Victor's smile widened.
"Get in, Sadi."
