Chương 12
“Enough people did.”
Rachel tapped the photocopy.
“Especially after these records surfaced.”
Elena looked at the initials again.
“M.V.”
“A convenient fall guy,” Anthony said.
Teresa’s eyes lifted.
“Not convenient.”
“What?”
“He was leverage.”
“Against Emilio?”
“Against me.”
Elena’s attention sharpened.
“Why you?”
Teresa looked at her for a long moment.
“Because I was the one moving the legitimate money.”
Rachel sat across from her.
“There it is.”
Teresa ignored her.
“Emilio could threaten people.”
“He could frighten them.”
“He could make their lives difficult.”
She looked at Elena.
“But he couldn’t read a balance sheet without getting angry at it.”
Despite herself, Elena almost smiled.
“That sounds hereditary.”
Teresa noticed.
For one strange second they were simply grandmother and granddaughter sharing an old complaint about a dead man.
Then Rachel said, “Salvatore Calderone needed Teresa.”
The moment vanished.
“For what?”
Elena asked.
“To access the reserve.”
Teresa shook her head.
“He never got it.”
“Someone did.”
Rachel pointed to the bank record.
“Money started moving six months after Velez disappeared.”
“Grandpa?”
“No.”
“Dad?”
“No.”
Elena looked between them.
“Then who?”
Rachel said, “That’s what Michael hired me to determine.”
Anthony frowned.
“You hired me to follow Nico, not trace money.”
“Because Michael thought Nico was being used as a courier.”
Nico’s angry voice returned in Elena’s head.
Calderone.
She sat down.
“He was.”
Rachel nodded.
“Michael found out three weeks ago.”
“Why didn’t he stop him?”
“He tried.”
“Nico said Dad was the one giving him work.”
“Michael gave him legitimate deliveries.”
“And Calderone?”
“Added others.”
Anthony leaned against the wall.
“So Nico was unknowingly moving something.”
“Records, probably.”
“Probably isn’t good enough.”
“No, it isn’t.”
Elena looked at Rachel’s bloody sleeve again.
“What happened tonight?”
Rachel was silent.
“Where did the blood come from?”
“Michael came to my office at seven twenty.”
“Tonight?”
“Yes.”
“He was carrying that box?”
“No.”
“He had the envelope.”
“What happened?”
“He said someone had found the copies.”
“The copies Nico found?”
“I assume so.”
“He knew Nico had them?”
“No.”
“Then what copies?”
Rachel closed her eyes briefly.
“I don’t know.”
Elena stood.
“You people have built an entire family tradition around knowing half of something and hiding the half you do know.”
Rachel accepted the insult.
“Michael was frightened.”
“Of Calderone?”
“He wouldn’t give me a name.”
“What did he want?”
“He wanted me to take this to federal prosecutors if he didn’t call by midnight.”
Anthony checked his watch.
“Why were you at the hospital?”
“Because he called me at eight fifty-three.”
Elena’s heart kicked.
“What did he say?”
“Only that Nico was hurt.”
“And?”
“And that I should find Elena.”
Teresa looked up.
“Why?”
Rachel met Elena’s eyes.
“Because Michael said you had the original.”
Elena shook her head.
“I don’t have anything.”
“He thought you did.”
“I don’t.”
Teresa’s expression changed.
Rachel noticed.
“So did he.”
Elena turned toward her grandmother.
“What?”
Teresa stood slowly.
“The pantry wall.”
“What about it?”
“When the stairs were sealed, there was a cavity left between the old frame and the new wall.”
Anthony said, “How large?”
“Large enough.”
“For a ledger?”
Teresa did not answer.
Elena felt sick.
“I’ve had shelves screwed into that wall.”
“By whom?”
“My landlord.”
“Before you moved in?”
“Yes.”
Teresa looked at Rachel.
“Michael must have hidden it there.”
Elena said, “When?”
“Years ago.”
“You don’t know that.”
“No.”
“Could it still be there?”
Teresa’s silence was answer enough.
Anthony straightened.
“Then the photograph makes sense.”
Elena looked at him.
“The wall is open.”
“Someone searched it.”
“And found something.”
Rachel said, “Or wants Teresa to believe they did.”
Elena pulled Teresa’s phone from her pocket and turned it back on.
Anthony immediately objected.
“Don’t.”
The screen lit.
Three missed calls appeared.
All from the same unknown number.
Then a fourth call came through while they watched.
Elena answered.
“Dad?”
For two seconds there was nothing.
Then her father said, “Elena?”
His voice sounded breathless.
She gripped the phone.
“Where are you?”
“Don’t say my name.”
“What?”
“Listen to me.”
“Are you hurt?”
“I’m okay.”
“Rachel said—”
“I said listen.”
His voice cracked on the last word.
Elena stopped.
Behind him she heard traffic.
A horn.
Wind.
He was outside.
“Are you alone?”
“Yes.”
“Where are you?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me.”
“I know.”
Something in his voice made her throat tighten.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For a lot.”
“Dad, not now.”
“You always say that.”
Elena closed her eyes.
He was right.
“Where are you?”
“Did they contact Teresa?”
“Yes.”
“Did they tell her they found the original?”
“Yes.”
A long exhale traveled through the phone.
“They’re lying.”
Teresa moved closer.
Elena put the call on speaker.
Michael continued.
“The original was never in your apartment.”
Teresa frowned.
“Michael, where is it?”
Her father went silent.
“Michael.”
“You shouldn’t be there.”
“Where is it?”
“You should have stayed out of this twenty years ago.”
Teresa’s face hardened.
“And you should have burned it when I told you.”
Elena looked between the phone and her grandmother.
“Dad, where is the ledger?”
Michael breathed into the receiver.
“When your grandfather died, everybody searched the obvious places.”
“The shop?”
“The offices, apartments, warehouses, safe-deposit boxes.”
“Then where?”
“You remember his funeral?”
Elena almost shouted.
“I was six.”
“You wore red shoes.”
The memory came without permission.
Patent leather.
Too tight across the toes.
Her father kneeling on the church steps, trying to buckle one while people passed around them in black coats.
Her crying because the strap pinched.
Him telling her they could throw the shoes into the river afterward.
She had thought he was joking.
“Dad.”
“Your grandfather hated cemeteries.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“He said dead people didn’t need paperwork.”
Anthony looked suddenly alert.
Michael continued.
“So when he needed somewhere nobody in the business would search, he chose a place full of dead people.”
Teresa whispered, “No.”
Elena heard fear in it.
Real fear.
May you like
“Where?”
Michael said, “Your mother’s grave.”
