Chương 6
“No.”
Anthony stepped aside.
“Hospital policy.”
She looked at Teresa.
“And if I catch anyone blocking that door again, I’ll have all of you removed except the patient.”
After she left, Nico made a tiny sound that might have been laughter.
“I like her.”
Elena squeezed his fingers.
“Stay with me.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“Don’t say things like that in a hospital.”
“Sorry.”
Teresa rubbed both palms over the umbrella handle.
“Your grandfather kept a reserve.”
“A reserve of what?”
“Money.”
Anthony said, “How much?”
Teresa looked at him with open dislike.
“Enough that people still care where it went.”
Elena felt the shape of the answer before she wanted it.
“Illegal money.”
“Some.”
“That means yes.”
“It means some.”
“From what?”
“Produce distribution.”
Anthony laughed once.
Nobody joined him.
He said, “That is a spectacularly Italian answer.”
Teresa’s stare could have stripped paint.
“Trucking contracts, cash payroll, kickbacks, loans, businesses that preferred not to explain every transaction to the government.”
“Better.”
“I wasn’t trying to entertain you.”
Elena looked down at Nico.
“You found records of this?”
“I found copies.”
“Where?”
Nico hesitated.
His gaze moved toward the hall.
Anthony noticed.
“So somebody inside the hospital is part of this?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then why are you looking at the door?”
“Because I got hit with a tire iron six hours ago and I’m developing trust issues.”
Anthony’s expression softened by a fraction.
“Fair.”
Nico turned back to Elena.
“The ledger isn’t one book.”
Teresa stopped rubbing the umbrella.
“What?”
“That’s what everybody thinks.”
“Nico, what did you find?”
“Dad had a box.”
Elena felt a familiar irritation at the phrase, not because it was vague but because their father had always had boxes.
Boxes of tax papers, receipts, old baseball cards, warranties for appliances nobody owned anymore.
He distrusted filing cabinets for reasons he had never explained.
“Where?”
“At the shop.”
“What shop?”
“The old appliance place on Mulberry.”
“That closed.”
“Dad still has the lease.”
Teresa whispered something under her breath.
Anthony heard it.
“You didn’t know?”
“No.”
That frightened Elena more than anything else had.
Nico shifted and winced.
“I was helping him move stuff.”
“You told me you were working deliveries.”
“I was.”
“You said the money was good.”
“It was.”
“Dad paid you?”
Nico looked embarrassed.
“No.”
Teresa rose.
“Calderone.”
Nico’s silence answered.
Elena pulled her hand away.
“You were working for Calderone Produce?”
“Not exactly.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means exactly,” Teresa said.
Nico looked at her with sudden anger.
“You don’t know everything.”
“No, apparently I know less every hour.”
“Then stop acting like you built all of us.”
Teresa went pale.
Elena had never heard Nico speak to her that way.
He seemed surprised by it too.
The pulse monitor accelerated.
The nurse appeared again as if summoned by the machine.
“That’s enough.”
“We’re fine,” Nico said.
“You’re not fine.”
She pointed at Elena.
“One person stays.”
Teresa started to object.
The nurse pointed toward the hallway.
“I have twelve patients, two call-outs, and a gentleman in fourteen who believes his IV pole is government property being wrongfully detained.”
Nico smiled despite himself.
“Now I really like her.”
“Good.”
The nurse adjusted his line.
“Then make my night easier.”
Teresa left first.
Anthony followed.
Elena stayed.
For almost a minute neither sibling spoke.
The nurse finished checking Nico’s blood pressure, wrote something on the board, and told him she would return with medication.
When she was gone, Elena leaned toward him.
“Tell me the part you didn’t want Grandma hearing.”
Nico stared at the doorway.
“I found the box because Dad asked me to burn it.”
Elena’s mouth went dry.
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Where is it?”
“I moved it.”
“To where?”
He looked at her.
“Your building.”
Elena sat back.
“What?”
“I didn’t know Grandma used to own it.”
“Where in my building?”
“The basement.”
“You put a box of criminal records in my basement?”
“I panicked.”
“You could have put it literally anywhere else.”
“I know that now.”
“You knew it then.”
“Okay.”
His voice sharpened.
“I screwed up.”
Elena stood and walked two steps before the IV pole forced her to stop pretending there was anywhere to go.
“Why my building?”
“Because Dad wouldn’t look there.”
“Why not?”
Nico’s expression changed.
“He doesn’t know where you live.”
Elena turned.
“That’s ridiculous.”
“You never gave him the address.”
“He’s been there.”
“No, he hasn’t.”
“Yes, he has.”
“When?”
“My birthday.”
“He met you at the restaurant.”
Elena opened her mouth.
A memory arrived with irritating clarity.
Her father calling from the curb because parking was impossible.
Her walking three blocks to meet him.
Another Christmas when he claimed his knee hurt and asked her to come to his place instead.
Packages always went to her office.
For three years she had interpreted these things as laziness.
“Why wouldn’t he know?”
“Because Grandma made sure he didn’t.”
Elena stared toward the door.
Nico whispered, “She’s been protecting that building.”
“From Dad?”
“From everybody.”
Elena sat again.
“Where exactly did you put the box?”
“There’s an old utility closet behind the boiler room.”
Her skin prickled.
“That’s not beneath my apartment.”
“No.”
“Then why would somebody be in the hidden room?”
Nico looked confused.
“I don’t know.”
Elena reached for Teresa’s borrowed phone in her pocket and stopped.
A thought had arrived too late.
The cloud notification had shown her apartment because the network address belonged to her connection.
Not necessarily because the person was physically inside her apartment.
She looked at the ceiling.
“Nico, when you hid the box, did you open it?”
“Yeah.”
“What was inside?”
“Ledgers, canceled checks, photographs, a couple flash drives.”
“What photographs?”
“Old ones.”
“Of what?”
“People.”
“Which people?”
He swallowed.
“Dad.”
Elena waited.
“And Grandma.”
“That’s not surprising.”
“They weren’t together.”
“What do you mean?”
Nico’s good eye held hers.
“I mean somebody had been following them.”
A vibration came from Elena’s pocket.
Teresa’s phone.
May you like
She pulled it out.
A message had appeared from an unknown number.
