Chapter 6 - The Woman Everyone Thought Was Missing
Rebecca Vale’s hand did not shake.
“Give me the necklace.”
Josephine stared down the barrel of the gun.
Lucas moved toward Rebecca.
“Mom?”
Margaret grabbed him.
Rebecca’s face broke for half a second.
“Baby, stay with Grandma.”
“You came back.”
“I know.”
“Where were you?”
Rebecca swallowed.
“I’ll explain.”
Josephine said, “He deserves better than explanations.”
Rebecca’s eyes snapped toward her.
“So did you.”
The words stopped Josephine.
Andrew stepped sideways.
Rebecca immediately shifted the gun toward him.
“Don’t.”
“Rebecca.”
“Not another step.”
Gunfire continued upstairs.
Dante’s men shouted.
Rebecca looked at Josephine again.
“Necklace.”
“What’s on it?”
“Names.”
“I know that.”
“No, you don’t.”
Rebecca’s voice trembled now.
“It isn’t only Michael’s evidence.”
“What else?”
“Your husband’s.”
Josephine looked at Andrew.
He did not deny it.
Rebecca laughed bitterly.
“There it is. That face. That’s the same face I had when I learned what Andrew really did.”
Josephine’s stomach tightened.
“What did he do?”
Andrew said, “Rebecca—”
She fired.
The bullet hit the wall beside him.
Lucas screamed.
Margaret covered his ears.
Rebecca’s face crumpled.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart.”
Josephine stepped between Andrew and Rebecca.
“Stop.”
“Move.”
“No.”
Rebecca stared at her.
Josephine continued.
“You want this necklace? Tell me why.”
“They killed my father.”
“Leonard?”
“Yes.”
Andrew looked shocked.
“When?”
“Three days ago.”
Margaret gasped.
Rebecca’s eyes filled.
“They made it look like a heart attack.”
Dante appeared in the cellar doorway.
Blood marked his sleeve.
He raised his gun.
Rebecca swung toward him.
Josephine stepped between them.
“Everybody stop pointing guns!”
For one strange second, they did.
Dante looked at Josephine.
“We have approximately ninety seconds before Carlo’s men reach this floor.”
Josephine pointed toward Rebecca.
“She knows something.”
“Then she can know it while running.”
That made sense.
They escaped through the cellar door into woods behind the farmhouse.
Dante’s vehicles met them on a service road.
Lucas clung to Margaret.
Rebecca refused to release her gun.
No one argued.
They drove toward Chicago using back roads.
Josephine sat between Andrew and Dante in the rear of one SUV.
It was absurdly intimate.
Her dead husband on one side.
A mafia boss on the other.
Rebecca sat opposite them.
“If anyone lies,” Josephine said, “I get out.”
Dante glanced at the moving highway.
“That would be dramatic.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
Andrew almost smiled.
Josephine glared.
“Start with Rebecca.”
Rebecca looked at Andrew.
“You tell her.”
Andrew exhaled.
“Michael Moretti gathered evidence against Carlo and Dante’s father.”
Josephine listened.
“He planned to testify. Before he could, Carlo found out.”
“And killed him.”
“Yes.”
“What happened to the evidence?”
“Your mother took part of it.”
“The necklace.”
“Yes.”
“And the rest?”
“Leonard Vale.”
Rebecca nodded.
“My father kept it hidden.”
Josephine asked, “Why wait thirty years?”
Rebecca answered.
“Because anyone who tried to use it died.”
Silence.
Dante stared out the window.
His sister.
Josephine understood.
“Elena tried.”
“Yes,” Rebecca said.
Dante’s gaze returned.
“What do you know about Elena?”
Rebecca swallowed.
“She found Leonard.”
“When?”
“A month before she died.”
Dante leaned forward.
“What did she tell him?”
“That she knew Michael was innocent.”
Dante’s jaw tightened.
Rebecca continued.
“She wanted to expose Carlo.”
“And my father?”
“She believed he knew Carlo killed Michael.”
Dante said nothing.
Josephine looked at him.
“Did he?”
“I don’t know.”
Andrew spoke.
“He did.”
Dante turned.
“How?”
“I found audio.”
“Where?”
“Leonard’s archive.”
Dante’s voice became dangerously quiet.
“You had proof my father knew who killed my sister?”
Andrew shook his head.
“Not Elena. Michael.”
Dante looked away.
Josephine wondered what it was like to discover your entire family history had been arranged by murderers.
Then she remembered she was doing exactly that.
Rebecca said, “Andrew came to my father four years ago.”
Josephine turned toward her husband.
“Why?”
“Because I was investigating Moretti financial networks.”
“For whom?”
Andrew hesitated.
Josephine’s voice hardened.
“For whom?”
“The Justice Department.”
Dante laughed.
“Finally.”
Josephine stared.
“You were federal?”
“Contracted intelligence. Financial crimes.”
“You told me you worked for a private investment firm.”
“I did.”
“As cover.”
“Yes.”
Every answer stripped another layer from their marriage.
“Did you ever plan to tell me?”
“Yes.”
“When? Our fiftieth anniversary?”
“When you were safe.”
“I was married to a man investigating organized crime. When exactly was I safe?”
Andrew had no answer.
Rebecca spoke.
“He fell in love with you before he knew who you were.”
Josephine looked at her.
“How would you know?”
“Because he wanted off the assignment.”
Andrew lowered his eyes.
Rebecca continued.
“His supervisor refused.”
Josephine looked back at Andrew.
“You asked to leave?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Two months before I proposed.”
Her anger faltered.
Not enough to become forgiveness.
But enough to hurt differently.
Dante asked, “Who was your supervisor?”
Andrew’s face closed.
“That’s part of the problem.”
“Name.”
“Robert Shaw.”
Dante went still.
Josephine noticed.
“You know him.”
Dante nodded.
“He’s not Justice Department.”
Andrew stared.
“What?”
“He’s Carlo’s man.”
Andrew’s face drained.
“No.”
“I’ve paid him for eleven years.”
Rebecca cursed.
Josephine understood before Andrew did.
“Your investigation was controlled.”
Andrew shook his head.
“No.”
“Andrew.”
“He had credentials. Offices. Teams.”
Dante said, “And every piece of evidence you collected went directly to Carlo.”
Andrew stared forward.
The horror on his face was real.
Josephine almost felt sorry for him.
Almost.
Rebecca whispered, “That’s why everyone died.”
Andrew closed his eyes.
Josephine asked, “Then why fake your death?”
He opened them.
“Because I finally discovered Shaw was compromised.”
“How?”
“He ordered me to deliver the necklace.”
Josephine touched it.
“You already knew I had it.”
“Yes.”
“You could have taken it while I slept.”
“Yes.”
“But you didn’t.”
“No.”
“Why?”
Andrew looked at her.
“Because by then I understood what would happen to you after they got it.”
Dante spoke.
“So you disappeared.”
“I staged the crash, fed them false records and convinced Shaw I’d died before locating the card.”
Josephine’s voice tightened.
“And let me mourn.”
Andrew’s answer came quietly.
“If you knew I was alive, they would know.”
Rebecca looked away.
Josephine hated that logic could coexist with cruelty.
They reached one of Dante’s safe houses before sunset.
A modern stone property outside the city.
Lucas was taken upstairs with Margaret.
Rebecca remained with Josephine, Andrew and Dante.
Josephine removed the necklace.
She placed it on the table.
“No one touches it until we make copies.”
Dante nodded.
Andrew nodded.
Rebecca nodded.
For the first time, everyone agreed.
Dante brought an isolated laptop.
They inserted the card.
Encrypted.
Andrew entered a password.
Denied.
Rebecca tried her father’s.
Denied.
Josephine thought about her mother.
About secrets inside ordinary things.
She typed a sentence her mother used to say whenever Josephine was frightened.
HOME IS WHO KEEPS YOU SAFE.
The drive opened.
Folders appeared.
Financial records.
Audio.
Photographs.
Names.
Hundreds of them.
Dante leaned closer.
Andrew whispered, “Jesus.”
Josephine opened the newest folder.
Created eight months earlier.
After Andrew’s death.
Inside was one video.
No title.
Josephine clicked.
Her mother appeared on screen.
Older than Josephine remembered from childhood.
Alive.
The timestamp was from three weeks ago.
Josephine stopped breathing.
Her mother had supposedly been dead for ten years.
On the video, the woman looked directly into the camera.
“Josephine, if you’re seeing this, Andrew failed.”
Josephine gripped the table.
Her mother continued.
“And if Dante Moretti is beside you, tell him his father is still alive.”
Dante’s chair scraped backward.
The video froze.
Then someone knocked three times on the safe-house door.
Dante’s guard entered.
His face was pale.
“Boss.”
“What?”
The guard looked at Josephine.
“There’s an elderly woman outside.”
Josephine could barely speak.
“Who?”
May you like
The guard swallowed.
“She says she’s your mother.”
