Chương 11
Or nobody had needed to.
Elena looked down at Teresa’s phone.
“How did they know I had this?”
Teresa’s eyes settled on the device.
“They didn’t message you.”
Elena went cold.
“They messaged the phone.”
“Yes.”
Anthony held out his hand.
“Turn it off.”
Elena did.
He removed the case and examined the back.
“What?”
Teresa asked.
“Nothing obvious.”
He handed it back.
“Leave it here.”
“No.”
“Elena.”
“If Dad calls again—”
“He called Nico.”
The hospital elevator opened.
Three people stepped out.
Behind them stood a woman in a charcoal coat.
She saw Anthony and stopped.
Anthony went rigid.
The woman’s eyes moved from him to Teresa.
Then to Elena.
Teresa whispered, “Rachel.”
Rachel Sloane stepped out of the elevator holding a manila envelope against her chest.
There was blood on one sleeve.
She walked directly toward them.
“They don’t have Michael,” she said.
Elena stared at her.
Rachel held out the envelope.
“They have the wrong man.”
Elena stared at the blood before she looked at Rachel’s face.
“Whose?”
Rachel glanced down as if she had forgotten it was there.
“Not mine.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“Michael’s alive.”
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
Anthony stepped forward.
“You called me.”
“I did.”
“You hired me to watch Nico.”
“Yes.”
“Maybe now would be a good time to explain why.”
Rachel looked toward the nurses’ station.
“Not in the hall.”
Teresa said, “Then start walking.”
They moved into an empty family waiting room near the elevators.
There were six vinyl chairs, a dead ficus, and a coffee machine displaying an error message.
Elena stayed standing.
Rachel put the manila envelope on a low table.
Teresa did not touch it.
“You kept it.”
“I kept what Michael gave me.”
“What is it?”
Elena asked.
Rachel looked at Teresa.
“You want to tell her?”
“No.”
“Of course you don’t.”
Elena said, “I am developing a serious problem with people looking at my grandmother before answering me.”
Rachel opened the envelope.
Inside was a photograph, a photocopied bank record, and a folded sheet of paper yellowed at the edges.
She handed Elena the photograph first.
It showed four men outside the Mulberry appliance shop.
Her grandfather stood second from the left.
He was younger than Elena remembered him, broad through the chest, his dark hair combed straight back.
Beside him stood a man Elena recognized after several seconds.
“Calderone?”
“Salvatore Calderone,” Rachel said.
“His father.”
Elena looked at the other two men.
“Who are they?”
“One was Emilio’s accountant.”
“And the other?”
Rachel pointed.
“Daniel Velez.”
Teresa turned away.
The name meant nothing to Elena.
It clearly meant something to her grandmother.
“Who was he?”
Rachel answered.
“A federal informant.”
Anthony leaned closer.
“Against Vassallo?”
“Against several people.”
“What happened to him?”
Rachel folded her arms.
“He disappeared in 1998.”
Elena looked at Teresa.
“Did Grandpa kill him?”
Teresa’s answer was immediate.
“No.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Because Emilio spent the last five years of his life trying to find out who did.”
Rachel watched her.
“That’s not what you told the grand jury.”
Teresa’s head turned.
Elena looked between them.
“What grand jury?”
“1999,” Rachel said.
“Your grandmother testified under immunity.”
Teresa’s voice dropped.
“You have no right.”
“I have every right now.”
“No, you have Michael’s permission.”
“That was enough for him.”
“It is not enough for her.”
Elena slapped the photograph onto the table.
“Could everyone stop deciding what is enough for me?”
Silence followed.
A child cried somewhere beyond the wall.
The coffee machine made a sudden grinding noise and then returned to displaying its error.
Rachel pulled out the bank record.
“Velez was moving money.”
“For Grandpa?”
“For someone.”
“Who?”
“That’s the problem.”
The photocopy showed transfers between numbered accounts, amounts Elena could barely process, and initials written in the margins.
E.V. appeared repeatedly.
So did S.C.
Near the bottom was another set.
M.V.
Elena’s finger stopped.
“Michael Vassallo.”
Rachel nodded.
“My father was involved in 1998?”
“He was twenty.”
“Teresa said he was trying to get out.”
“He was.”
Teresa spoke without turning around.
“Those initials aren’t his.”
Elena looked at her.
“They’re his initials.”
“They were meant to look like his.”
Rachel said, “That was Michael’s position too.”
“Position?”
Elena asked.
“You mean he could be lying.”
“I mean I’m an attorney and I don’t convert claims into facts because somebody is frightened.”
Anthony pointed at the yellowed paper.
“What’s that?”
Rachel unfolded it.
A handwritten list of dates and dollar amounts ran down the page.
At the bottom was a signature.
Emilio Vassallo.
Teresa finally turned.
Her face changed.
“Where did you get that?”
“Michael.”
“Where did he get it?”
“He wouldn’t say.”
Teresa stepped closer.
“You should have destroyed it.”
Rachel laughed without humor.
“That sentence is exactly why he didn’t give it to you.”
Elena looked at the list.
“What is it?”
Rachel said, “Payments to Velez.”
“For informing?”
“No.”
“Then for what?”
“We don’t know.”
Teresa sat down.
It was the second time that night Elena had seen her grandmother surrender to a chair.
“Emilio was paying him to investigate Calderone.”
Rachel’s expression sharpened.
“You knew?”
“I suspected.”
Elena said, “Grandpa hired a federal informant to investigate his business partner?”
“Salvatore wasn’t his partner.”
Teresa rubbed her forehead.
“He was supposed to be.”
“What does that mean?”
“Emilio was trying to leave.”
The room went quiet.
Elena stared at her.
“Leave what?”
“All of it.”
Teresa looked at the photograph.
“He wanted legitimate companies.”
“After spending decades running illegitimate ones.”
“Yes.”
“That’s convenient.”
“He was getting old.”
“He was in his fifties.”
“To Emilio, that was old.”
For the first time, Teresa’s mouth twitched.
It was gone almost immediately.
“He had grandchildren.”
Elena looked down at the photograph.
“I was six.”
“You were enough.”
The words struck somewhere Elena did not want touched.
She pushed the feeling aside.
“So Calderone didn’t want him leaving.”
“No.”
“And Velez was investigating Calderone for Grandpa.”
“I believe so.”
“Then Velez disappeared.”
May you like
“Yes.”
“And everyone assumed Grandpa did it.”
