Chapter 8 - The Lawyer’s Confession
Matteo reached the car first.
Daniel stepped out slowly.
His hands were raised.
“No weapon.”
Matteo grabbed his jacket.
“Where is Lena?”
“I don’t know.”
“You were waiting outside a courthouse basement at three in the morning.”
“For you.”
“You called my name.”
“I saw June.”
Matteo shoved him against the car.
June approached.
“Stop.”
Matteo did not.
“Where is she?”
Daniel’s face tightened.
“My father helped create the shell network.”
Silence.
Matteo released him slightly.
“What?”
Daniel swallowed.
“My father represented your father. Officially. Unofficially, he moved money.”
“You knew?”
“Not until tonight.”
June looked at the car.
“Why are you here?”
Daniel opened the rear door.
Boxes.
Old files.
Bank records.
“My father died last year. I inherited his private archive. After seeing Elena’s ledger, I went home and searched it.”
He removed a folder.
“Then I found this.”
Matteo took it.
Inside were payment instructions signed SAINT.
June studied the signature.
“Same code.”
Daniel nodded.
“But there’s more.”
He showed them a notarized affidavit.
Signed by Anthony DeLuca.
Matteo’s father.
June read.
If you are seeing this document, I failed to correct what I helped create.
She looked at Matteo.
He took the pages.
His father admitted joining a network of businessmen who bribed officials to secure contracts in the 1990s.
At first he believed it protected the company.
Then “Saint” expanded the network.
Extortion.
Blackmail.
Fraudulent settlements.
Payments to judges.
Anthony wanted out.
Someone threatened his secret daughter, Lena.
So he created the fake divorce case to move money into a trust for her mother, Theresa.
The protection failed.
Theresa disappeared.
Lena was hidden with relatives under another surname.
Anthony continued collecting evidence.
Then he died.
Matteo lowered the affidavit.
“My father was trying to expose it.”
“Yes,” Daniel said.
“Why did your father keep this?”
“Insurance.”
Matteo’s eyes hardened.
“Against whom?”
Daniel looked toward Caterina, who had stayed at the estate.
Then away.
“I don’t know.”
June heard the hesitation.
“You do.”
Daniel exhaled.
“My father wrote one name repeatedly in his notes.”
“Say it.”
Daniel looked at Matteo.
“Caterina.”
Matteo’s expression became lethal.
“No.”
“I’m not saying she’s Saint.”
“You just accused my grandmother.”
“I said her name appears.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
June stepped between them.
“Then we find out.”
A groan sounded near the archive exit.
Everyone turned.
Lena stumbled from behind a dumpster.
Blood covered one sleeve.
June ran.
“Lena!”
She was conscious.
Barely.
A cut crossed her upper arm.
Not a gunshot.
“Someone attacked me,” she whispered.
“Who?”
“I didn’t see.”
Matteo crouched beside her.
Lena looked at him.
For the first time, brother and sister knowingly faced each other.
“You look like him,” she whispered.
Matteo’s expression cracked.
“My father?”
“Our father.”
June looked away.
Some moments deserved privacy.
Lena reached into her coat.
“File.”
She had hidden the Marino case inside her clothing.
“Why take it?” June asked.
“Because someone texted me that it would be destroyed tonight.”
“Who?”
“Anonymous.”
“Did they tell you to come alone?”
“Yes.”
Matteo closed his eyes briefly.
Another manipulation.
The attacker wanted Lena isolated.
An ambulance was called.
At the hospital, Lena received twelve stitches.
Matteo refused to leave.
Neither did June.
At five in the morning, the two siblings sat across from each other.
Lena spoke first.
“I don’t want money.”
Matteo nodded.
“I didn’t ask.”
“I don’t want your company.”
“I didn’t ask that either.”
“I wanted to know why he abandoned us.”
Matteo looked at the affidavit.
“He didn’t.”
Lena cried quietly.
June pretended not to notice.
By sunrise, they had one clear next step.
Confront Caterina.
They returned to the estate at seven.
The dining room was empty.
Sofia appeared on the stairs.
“Where is Nonna?”
Matteo asked.
Sofia frowned.
“In her room.”
No.
She was not.
Caterina’s bed had been slept in.
Her cane remained beside it.
The window was open.
A cream envelope sat on her pillow.
June opened it.
Inside was a death certificate.
Anthony DeLuca.
Cause of death: motor vehicle accident.
A handwritten correction had been added beneath it.
MURDER.
Then Matteo’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
A distorted voice spoke.
“You found Lena.”
Matteo’s entire body went still.
“Where is my grandmother?”
“Alive.”
June moved closer.
The voice continued.
“For now.”
“What do you want?”
“The ledger. The affidavit. Elena’s recordings.”
Matteo looked at June.
“When?”
“Tonight.”
“Where?”
A pause.
Then the voice gave an address.
June knew it.
Everyone in New Jersey did.
The abandoned St. Augustine Church in Paterson.
Matteo said, “I want proof she’s alive.”
A sound came through the phone.
Caterina’s voice.
Weak.
“Matteo, don’t—”
A slap.
The line went dead.
Matteo lowered the phone.
Then June noticed Sofia behind him.
She had turned completely white.
“What?” June asked.
Sofia stared at the phone.
“I know that church.”
Matteo looked at her.
May you like
“How?”
Sofia whispered, “Because that is where your father used to meet Saint.”
