Chapter 12 - The Ledger With Nico'S Name
Julian survived.
Barely.
The medic stabilized him long enough for an ambulance controlled by Grace's contacts to take him to a private hospital under another name.
Nico said almost nothing on the drive back.
Neither did I.
Julian's final warning sat between us.
Do not give the ring to Nico.
Because the ledger says his name too.
The ring was still in police evidence.
At least officially.
Grace obtained an emergency order forcing Pike's precinct to transfer the evidence to a neutral forensic unit by noon.
When the sealed bag arrived, she inspected every signature in the chain of custody herself.
Then she handed it to me.
My grandmother's ring sat inside clear plastic.
I had imagined getting it back a thousand times after David stole it.
In none of those fantasies did a crime attorney return it under armed guard because it contained evidence in a multigenerational conspiracy.
"Romantic," I muttered.
Nico sat across the table.
"What?"
"Nothing."
Grace cut the seal.
She photographed the ring from every angle.
Then Clara showed us how the sapphire mount turned.
It resisted at first.
My grandmother had probably intended it to.
Nico used a jeweler's cloth and a tiny tool from a security kit.
The setting loosened.
Beneath the sapphire was a cavity no wider than a pencil eraser.
Inside was a tightly rolled strip of microfilm.
Marco whistled.
"Eleanor was dramatic."
I looked at him.
"She watched soap operas every day."
"That explains it."
I almost smiled.
A forensic technician digitized the film on an isolated machine.
The first image was not a ledger.
It was a letter.
ELEANOR HAYES - 2004.
My hands began to tremble.
The words were typed, but the signature at the bottom belonged to my grandmother.
I knew that looping E.
I had seen it on birthday cards and school permission slips.
Grace read aloud.
"If this record is being opened, I assume Vittorio has finally discovered that the copies exist."
Nico's face hardened.
"I do not know who will find them, and I do not know which Valenti will be friend or enemy when that day comes."
Marco leaned forward.
"Smart woman."
Grace continued.
"Do not trust names without dates."
"Do not trust payments without account numbers."
"Most importantly, do not trust the letter V."
I frowned.
"Why?"
The next line answered me.
"V is not always Vittorio."
Nico looked at Marco.
Marco looked back.
Grace scrolled.
The microfilm contained hundreds of ledger entries.
Dates.
Initials.
Amounts.
Bank codes.
Police badge numbers.
Judicial campaign funds.
Property transfers.
Names of men who had publicly denied knowing the Valentis for decades.
Then we reached the year Bianca disappeared.
Three entries were highlighted by Eleanor's old indexing system.
APRIL 14 - M.V. - 500,000.
APRIL 17 - A.P. - 75,000.
APRIL 19 - S.C. - 150,000.
Marco pointed.
"S.C. is Salvatore Conti."
Grace nodded.
"A.P. could be Aaron Pike."
"He was a patrol officer then," Nico said.
"Seventy-five thousand could buy a lot of blindness," I said.
Nobody disagreed.
Then we looked at the first entry.
M.V.
Nico Valenti.
Marco Valenti.
Or someone else.
"Julian said your name was in the ledger," I said.
Nico did not look away from the screen.
"It is."
"Five hundred thousand dollars."
"I did not receive it."
"Can you prove that?"
His eyes came to mine.
"Not yet."
The honesty hurt less than defensiveness would have.
Marco leaned closer.
"M.V. could be me."
Nico looked at him.
"Did you receive half a million three days before Bianca disappeared?"
"No."
"Then we have the same problem."
Clara spoke from the end of the table.
"Bianca believed it was Marco."
Marco's face darkened.
"She thought I sold her out."
"Yes."
"And Nico believed I betrayed him."
Nico nodded once.
"Because Salvatore showed me a transfer carrying your name."
Marco laughed without humor.
"There it is."
"What?"
"Same lie, two directions."
He pointed at the ledger.
"Someone moved five hundred thousand under M.V. and then told each of us the M was the other man."
Grace zoomed into the account code.
"Bank branch forty-two."
My breath caught.
"The lucky number."
"Exactly."
She typed in the branch archive request.
The account no longer existed, but the bank had retained beneficiary records on microfiche.
Grace's investigator obtained a scan within two hours through a federal subpoena already opened in another corruption case.
The beneficiary name appeared on screen.
MERCURY VENTURES LLC.
Marco stared.
"M.V."
Not Marco.
Not Nico.
A company.
Grace pulled the incorporation file.
Mercury Ventures had been registered by a lawyer employed by Vittorio.
The five hundred thousand went into a shell company used to pay contractors.
One contractor received two hundred thousand the week Bianca disappeared.
Lake County Recovery Services.
Nico went white.
"They pulled Bianca's car from the river."
Grace nodded.
"And controlled the wreck before police processed it."
Another payment went to the coroner's office through a consulting company.
Mateo's failure to verify the DNA had not created the fraud.
It had merely allowed the fraud to work.
Nico sat back slowly.
"Vittorio built the death from the beginning."
Marco's eyes darkened.
"Both deaths."
"Yours too?"
"My coffin was closed because Vittorio said the body was damaged."
Nico looked sick.
"I did not question it."
"No."
Marco's voice turned cruel.
"You did not."
Nico stood.
"Say what you want to say."
Marco stood too, unsteady but furious.
"You were happy to believe I betrayed you."
"You vanished with Bianca's files."
"Because I was trying to get them away from Salvatore."
"You never called."
"I was unconscious in a trunk."
"I did not know."
"That is the story of your life, isn't it?"
Nico's face went blank.
Marco stepped closer.
"The great Nico Valenti knows everything except what happens inside his own family."
Nico hit him.
Marco hit back.
The two brothers crashed into the table.
Leo screamed from the doorway.
"Stop."
Both men froze.
Leo stood there holding his dinosaur.
Tears filled his eyes.
"Everybody keeps coming back and fighting."
Nico released Marco instantly.
Marco looked ashamed.
Leo's voice broke.
"Mama comes back and she is gone."
"Uncle Marco comes back and you hit him."
"Emma comes back and police take her."
"Why does everybody come back just to leave again?"
No one had an answer.
I went to him.
"I'm not leaving right now."
"Promise?"
I hesitated.
His face crumpled.
I knelt despite the ache in my back.
"I promise I will never leave without telling you the truth about why."
He studied me.
It was not the promise he wanted.
It was the only honest one I could give.
He nodded.
Nico crouched beside us.
"I am sorry."
Leo looked at him.
"Don't hit Uncle Marco."
Nico glanced at his brother.
"I will try."
Marco touched his bruised jaw.
"Inspirational."
Leo glared at him.
"You too."
Marco raised both hands.
"Understood."
The strange family truce lasted twelve minutes.
Then Grace found another ledger entry.
This one was recent.
Six months earlier.
D.M. - 40,000.
I knew before anyone spoke.
"David Mercer."
Grace checked the account.
The payment had come from a Mercury Ventures subsidiary.
Forty thousand dollars.
Six months ago.
The same month Clara first approached him.
I felt nausea rise.
"He told us Clara paid Russo to reduce his debt."
Nico's expression turned hard.
"Perhaps she did."
"Then what was this?"
Marco answered.
"Vittorio paid David too."
My chest tightened.
"For what?"
Nico picked up his phone.
"Bring Mercer in."
The guard on the other end went silent.
Nico's face changed.
"Repeat that."
He lowered the phone slowly.
"David is gone."
"Gone how?"
"The two men guarding him were found unconscious."
My pulse accelerated.
"He escaped?"
"Maybe."
Nico's phone vibrated again.
A text appeared from an unknown number.
There was a photograph attached.
David sat in the passenger seat of a car.
Beside him was a woman with dark hair.
Bianca.
Alive.
Her eyes were open.
Her face was turned toward the camera.
And she was holding a gun against David's ribs.
Below the photograph was one sentence.
May you like
NICO, IF YOU WANT YOUR SON TO KEEP HIS MOTHER, COME ALONE.
