Chapter 14 - The House on the Lake
Nico Russo did not answer his phone.
By the time Dominic tried a second number, Nico's corporate phone had been turned off.
By the time Marco tried to locate his company vehicle, the tracker had gone dark.
By the time Harlan sent officers to Nico's condo in River North, the apartment was empty.
His closet doors were open.
A suitcase was missing.
His passport was gone.
I had seen enough people disappear in three days to stop being surprised.
I was getting tired of being impressed by cowardice.
Dominic read Antonio's letter in Harlan's office.
He did it alone.
When he came out, his face was pale.
I did not ask immediately.
We were both learning that the dead could take up more space than the living if you let them.
Finally, in the hallway, he handed me the letter.
"Read it."
I hesitated.
"It's to you."
"Read it."
Antonio's handwriting was clean and narrow.
Dominic,
If Daniel Carter's name ever enters your life, understand first that I failed him.
I promised him protection and did not provide it.
Do not make the mistake of calling that failure fate.
Men made choices.
Some of those men carried my name.
My chest tightened at that line.
The letter continued.
I used the Whitmore theft to build a fund outside our books because I believed I could protect witnesses better than the courts could.
That was arrogance.
I diverted money that was already stolen and returned portions to families harmed by Whitmore operations.
That was still theft, no matter what good I told myself it served.
Daniel did not approve.
He told me a bad system does not become clean because the thief gives some of the money away.
He was right.
I almost smiled through the pain.
That sounded exactly like Dad.
Antonio wrote that Martin Voss had managed the fraud, but he believed Voss was not acting alone.
He suspected Charles Whitmore.
He also suspected someone inside Moretti Logistics had helped Voss create false shipping records.
Antonio never identified the person with certainty.
Then came the line that made Dominic sit down.
I believed for years that Marco might be the leak.
I was wrong.
Marco lied to protect people, but he did not sell us.
The leak sat closer to you than he ever did.
If I die before proving it, trust no one simply because I trusted them.
The final line was underlined.
Especially Nicholas Russo.
I looked at Dominic.
"Your father knew."
"Suspected."
"Enough to write his name."
"Not enough to remove him."
"Why?"
Dominic laughed bitterly.
"Because Nico was twenty-six and had been in our family since he was fourteen."
"Not by blood?"
"His father worked for mine."
"And?"
"His father died."
Dominic looked at the floor.
"Antonio paid for Nico's school, gave him work, treated him like a son."
"So he couldn't believe it."
"He could believe almost anything about strangers."
Dominic folded the letter.
"Family made him stupid."
I thought about Linda returning fifty thousand dollars and hiding fear from me for eight years.
"Family does that."
Harlan entered.
"We have a bigger problem."
I looked at him.
"I am beginning to hate that sentence."
"Nico accessed Moretti corporate servers at 2:14 this afternoon."
Dominic stood.
"From where?"
"Unknown remote connection."
"What did he take?"
"We don't know."
Dominic immediately called his technology director.
Within ten minutes, the answer became worse.
Nico had downloaded archived freight records, old legal files, merger documents, and security schedules.
He had also accessed a private property database.
One file had been opened twice.
Dominic's lake house.
"Why that property?" I asked.
"It's empty most of the year."
"What's there?"
"Nothing important."
Harlan gave him a look.
Dominic corrected himself.
"Nothing I know is important."
I stared at Antonio's letter.
"Did your father use it?"
"Yes."
"For what?"
"Meetings sometimes."
"With Daniel?"
Dominic went quiet.
"Maybe."
I groaned.
"I swear that word is hereditary in your family."
Harlan was already calling for a warrant and local officers.
Dominic reached for his coat.
"I'm going."
"No," Harlan said.
Dominic looked offended.
I almost enjoyed it.
"What?"
"For once, Carter is not the only person I am telling to stay put."
"It's my property."
"And a potential crime scene."
"If Nico is there—"
"Then trained officers can deal with him."
Dominic glanced at me.
"This is what it feels like?"
"Annoying, isn't it?"
He exhaled.
We waited forty minutes.
Then Harlan received a call that changed the plan.
The first officers reached the lake house and found the front door open.
No one was inside.
But one room had been torn apart.
Dominic's late father's study.
A section of wood paneling behind a bookshelf had been removed.
Behind it was an empty cavity.
Whatever had been hidden there was gone.
"Nico got there first," Dominic said.
Harlan shook his head.
"Maybe."
Dominic gave him the same look I usually did.
I nearly laughed despite everything.
Then Harlan continued.
"There is blood on the desk."
The humor vanished.
"Whose?"
"Unknown."
"A lot?"
"Enough to suggest someone was injured."
Marco appeared at the far end of the hallway.
Dominic had fired him less than three hours earlier.
He looked as though none of that mattered now.
"Nico called me."
Dominic's face hardened.
"When?"
"Ten minutes ago."
"What did he say?"
"He said he wanted to trade."
Harlan moved closer.
"Trade what?"
"The original ledger."
My pulse jumped.
"He has it?"
Marco nodded.
"He says he took it from the lake house."
Dominic stared.
"Antonio had it all these years?"
"Apparently."
"Why would he hide it instead of giving it to investigators?"
Marco's face tightened.
"Because it incriminates him too."
Antonio had admitted stealing stolen money.
The original ledger would prove it.
Harlan asked, "What does Nico want?"
Marco looked at Dominic.
"Safe passage out of the country and ten million dollars."
I laughed in disbelief.
"He should have stayed in finance."
Dominic did not smile.
"And if I refuse?"
"He destroys the ledger and releases documents that implicate Moretti companies in every fake shipment."
"Documents he helped create."
"Yes."
"Where does he want to meet?"
Marco hesitated.
"He didn't say yet."
"Then why call you?"
"Because he thinks you won't trust him."
"He's right."
Marco flinched.
Dominic looked at him.
The anger between them remained, but it had changed shape.
There were too many immediate threats for old betrayal to be the only thing in the room.
I asked, "Whose blood was in the study?"
Marco's eyes shifted.
"Nico said Charles surprised him there."
"Charles Whitmore?"
"Yes."
"What happened?"
"Fight."
"Is Charles alive?"
"Nico says yes."
Harlan's phone rang.
An officer at the Whitmore residence reported Charles had not returned from the gala and his driver could not locate him.
Vanessa claimed she did not know where her father was.
Nobody believed her.
Then my phone rang.
Linda.
I answered instantly.
"Mom?"
"I'm fine."
Her voice sounded irritated.
That was reassuring.
"Where are you?"
"Hospital."
"Still?"
"They want one more night."
I exhaled.
"Good."
"Avery, someone came to see me."
My body tightened.
"Who?"
"A woman."
"Name?"
"She said Lydia Roane."
I went cold.
The benefits consultant whose name had appeared on the fraudulent insurance filing.
"Is she there now?"
"No."
"What did she want?"
"She apologized."
"For what?"
"She said she filed the coverage review because someone paid her to."
I signaled Harlan.
He moved closer.
"Who paid her?"
Linda's voice dropped.
"A Moretti company."
I looked at Dominic.
His face went blank.
"Which company?"
"Moretti Administrative Services."
Dominic shook his head immediately.
"That's Nico's division."
I repeated the name to Harlan.
He wrote it down.
Linda continued.
"She gave me an envelope for you."
"Do not open it."
"I already did."
"Mom."
"I'm sixty-one, not six."
"What is inside?"
"A photocopy of a payment authorization."
"Signed by who?"
Silence.
"Mom?"
"Dominic Moretti."
Every eye in the hallway turned toward him.
Dominic stared at me.
"I didn't sign anything."
I held up one finger.
"Mom, send me a picture."
The image arrived seconds later.
The authorization bore Dominic's name and a digital signature.
The request instructed Lydia Roane to initiate a benefits discrepancy review for Linda Carter.
The date was the morning after Vanessa's birthday party.
I held the phone toward Dominic.
"Your signature."
He looked at it.
"Forged."
"How can I know that?"
"Because I did not do it."
"That's not proof."
His jaw tightened.
"No."
"Nico controlled the division."
"Yes."
"Nico had access to your digital signature?"
"He could have."
"Vanessa worked with Nico?"
"I don't know."
Marco answered instead.
"Yes."
We all turned.
Dominic's voice became dangerous.
"What?"
Marco looked at him.
"I've seen them meet without you."
"When?"
"For months."
Dominic stared.
"And again, you told me nothing."
"I thought it was about the merger."
"You thought wrong."
Marco's phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered on speaker.
Nico's voice came through.
"Dominic there?"
Dominic stepped closer.
"I'm here."
Nico laughed softly.
"Good."
"Where is Charles?"
"Alive."
"Where?"
"Not important."
"What do you want?"
"Tomorrow, noon."
"Where?"
"Your lake house."
Harlan silently signaled a deputy to begin tracing.
Nico continued.
"Bring ten million in transferable assets and a route out."
"And the ledger?"
"You get it when I am safe."
Dominic looked at Harlan.
"What about Charles?"
Nico chuckled.
"Ask Vanessa whether she wants her father back."
Then his voice changed.
"And Dominic?"
"What?"
"Bring Avery."
I stepped closer to the phone.
"Why?"
Nico laughed once.
"Because Daniel Carter hid one thing Antonio never found."
My heartbeat increased.
"What?"
"The last page of the ledger."
"I don't have it."
"No."
Nico's voice became almost cheerful.
"But your mother does."
May you like
The line went dead.
