Chapter 10 - The Man Who Killed Margaret
Victor leveled his gun and said, “Take the weapon off him.”
Dominic pressed the barrel harder against Bellandi’s temple.
A gold wedding ring lay on the floor between them.
Margaret’s initials were engraved inside.
Bellandi had carried it for six years.
The moving train rattled through the dark.
Victor stood near the rear door.
Dominic near the front.
Carlo Bellandi between them.
Victor had expected rage if he ever saw Bellandi helpless.
Instead, he felt suspicion.
Nothing tonight was simple enough to enjoy.
“Why is he here?” Victor asked.
Dominic smiled.
“He followed me.”
Bellandi spat blood.
“Liar.”
Victor looked at him.
Bellandi’s face was bruised.
One eye swelling.
Wrists tied.
Still dangerous.
Even seated.
Dominic laughed.
“Everyone lies in this family.”
Victor’s eyes moved to Margaret’s ring.
“Who killed her?”
Dominic’s smile thinned.
Bellandi spoke first.
“I didn’t.”
Victor almost laughed.
“Convenient.”
“I didn’t kill my wife.”
“You threatened your daughter tonight.”
“I threatened Elena.”
“Yes.”
Bellandi looked away.
“Not the same.”
Victor’s expression hardened.
“Interesting moral framework.”
Dominic interrupted.
“Carlo discovered Margaret planned to leave.”
Bellandi’s eyes flashed.
“Shut up.”
“She took financial records.”
“I said shut up.”
“She contacted Antonio Russo.”
Victor watched Bellandi.
“He knew?”
“Yes.”
Bellandi stared at Victor.
“Your father was sleeping with my wife.”
“Years earlier.”
Bellandi’s face twisted.
“You knew.”
“I learned thirty minutes ago.”
For some reason, that answer seemed to matter.
Bellandi looked almost relieved.
Then ashamed of the relief.
Victor filed it away.
Dominic continued.
“Carlo believed Elena might be Antonio’s daughter.”
“Wasn’t.”
“I know.”
Bellandi’s head snapped toward Dominic.
“You knew?”
Dominic smiled.
“Long before you.”
Something shifted.
Victor noticed.
Bellandi did too.
Dominic had information Bellandi never had.
Why?
Because maybe Dominic had been closer to Margaret’s secrets than anyone realized.
Victor looked at the ring.
“How did you get that?”
Dominic glanced down.
Mistake.
Tiny.
Enough.
Bellandi surged upward despite bound wrists.
“You took it from her!”
Dominic fired.
Victor fired simultaneously.
Dominic’s bullet struck the seat.
Victor’s hit Dominic’s shoulder.
The gun fell.
Bellandi lunged.
Victor kicked the weapon away.
Dominic slammed into the train wall.
Bellandi grabbed his coat.
“You were there.”
Dominic laughed through pain.
“So were you.”
Victor separated them.
“Talk.”
Bellandi stared at Dominic with murder in his face.
“That ring disappeared from the crash.”
Dominic wiped blood from his shoulder.
“Many things disappeared.”
“You killed her.”
“No.”
“Then how did you get it?”
Dominic’s eyes moved toward Victor.
“She gave it to me.”
Bellandi froze.
“When?”
“The night she died.”
Silence.
Victor felt the answer before hearing it.
Dominic had been with Margaret.
“Why?”
“She wanted me to help her leave.”
Bellandi laughed bitterly.
“You?”
“Yes.”
“You hated her.”
“I hated you.”
That was different.
Victor understood.
Dominic Rinaldi had lived for years as Bellandi’s brother-in-law by second marriage.
Not blood.
Always near power.
Never holding it.
Margaret’s escape could have destroyed Carlo.
Useful.
“Did you sabotage her car?” Victor asked.
Dominic’s smile disappeared.
“No.”
Bellandi shouted, “Liar!”
“No.”
Dominic looked at Bellandi.
“You did.”
Bellandi surged again.
Victor stopped him.
Dominic’s voice sharpened.
“You had your mechanic cut the brake line.”
Bellandi went still.
Victor saw horror.
Real.
Not guilt.
Recognition of an accusation he had heard before.
“That’s what you told Elias,” Bellandi said.
Dominic blinked.
There.
Victor caught it.
Bellandi continued.
“You told my son I killed his mother.”
Dominic’s face tightened.
“And he believed you.”
Bellandi’s voice broke.
“For three days.”
Victor stared.
Bellandi looked suddenly older.
“Then Elias found the mechanic.”
“What mechanic?” Victor asked.
Bellandi laughed without humor.
“The dead one.”
Dominic looked toward the window.
Victor raised his gun.
“Name.”
Bellandi answered.
“Frank Keller.”
Daniel would know.
If alive.
Victor had no signal on the moving train.
“What did Elias learn?”
Bellandi stared at Dominic.
“That I ordered the brakes checked.”
Silence.
Victor felt the puzzle rotate.
“Checked.”
“Yes.”
“Not cut.”
“No.”
Dominic sneered.
“Of course he says that.”
Bellandi leaned forward.
“Elias recorded Keller.”
Victor looked at him.
“Where’s the recording?”
“Gone.”
“Convenient again.”
Bellandi stared at Margaret’s ring.
“I spent six years thinking Elena had it.”
Victor understood.
“The evidence.”
“Yes.”
“That’s why you hunted her.”
Bellandi closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
“Not because you wanted her dead?”
Bellandi said nothing.
Victor’s voice chilled.
“You told her she shouldn’t be alive.”
“I wanted her afraid.”
“Excellent parenting.”
Bellandi looked at him.
“I thought whoever killed Margaret would come for Elena if she surfaced.”
Victor frowned.
“You’re asking me to believe you threatened your daughter to protect her.”
“No.”
Bellandi shook his head.
“I threatened her because I wanted the evidence.”
At least that sounded honest.
“And if she refused?”
Bellandi’s silence answered.
Victor’s disgust deepened.
Protection did not redeem ownership.
Dominic laughed.
“Family reunion later?”
Victor looked at him.
“Frank Keller.”
Dominic shrugged.
“Dead.”
“How?”
“Overdose.”
Bellandi snapped, “He didn’t use drugs.”
Victor looked at Dominic.
Dominic smiled.
Too calmly.
There it was.
Victor approached.
“Did you kill Margaret?”
“No.”
“Did you kill Keller?”
“No.”
“Elias?”
Dominic’s smile faltered.
Victor stopped.
“What happened to Elias?”
Bellandi stared.
Dominic looked toward the front door of the train.
Bad.
Victor raised the weapon.
Dominic moved.
He slammed the emergency brake.
The train screamed.
Victor hit a seat.
Bellandi fell.
Dominic ran.
Victor recovered and chased.
The train slowed through an industrial yard.
Dominic opened the side door and jumped.
Victor followed.
Gravel struck hard.
His shoulder rolled.
Pain flashed.
He rose.
Dominic limped toward stacked freight containers.
Victor chased.
A gunshot cracked.
Not Dominic.
Victor stopped behind steel.
Another shot.
Dominic shouted.
Then silence.
Victor moved around the container.
Dominic lay on the ground.
Shot through the leg.
Someone stood over him.
Elisa.
Gun steady.
Elena and Daniel were fifty yards behind, running toward them.
Elisa looked at Victor.
“I heard everything.”
Dominic laughed from the ground.
“You heard nothing.”
Elisa aimed at his chest.
Daniel shouted, “Don’t!”
She hesitated.
Dominic looked up at her.
Then smiled.
“Ask Daniel why your brother died.”
Elisa froze.
Daniel stopped.
Elena looked at him.
Dominic continued.
“Go on, Detective.”
Daniel’s face drained.
“Tell them who gave Elias’s location to Bellandi’s men.”
Elena whispered, “Daniel?”
May you like
Daniel said nothing.
Elisa turned the gun toward him.
