Chương 12
“That is the only fact that matters right now.”
“No. It’s the fact that matters to you because it lets you avoid the others.”
His eyes darkened.
Elena continued before fear could silence her.
“You can save Lily and still destroy the truth. Then you’ll tell yourself you chose the child. You’ll put us in a safe house, kill Victor, burn the ledger, and call it protection.”
Adrian said nothing.
“You asked what I wanted,” she said. “I want the truth where you can’t own it.”
Marco cleared his throat.
“There may be another way.”
Adrian looked at him.
Marco hesitated. “Daniel’s attorney.”
“What about him?”
“Daniel says Victor ordered the photo. He also says Victor kept duplicate business files with a lawyer named Steven Ames.”
Miriam, who had entered behind them unnoticed, frowned. “Ames died three months ago.”
“His practice closed,” Marco said. “Records went to a storage company in Oak Park.”
Adrian’s gaze sharpened. “Why didn’t Daniel say this earlier?”
“He wanted immunity from us.”
“From us?”
“He thinks Victor will win.”
The honesty irritated Adrian, but not enough to dismiss the information.
Miriam stepped forward. “If the records exist, we need lawful access.”
Marco almost smiled. “That could take weeks.”
“Then we obtain consent from Ames’s estate.”
“At five in the afternoon?”
“His widow is my client.”
Everyone looked at her.
Miriam shrugged. “Chicago is a village wearing a city’s coat.”
By six thirty, Ames’s widow had authorized Miriam to retrieve files clearly belonging to Romano businesses. The storage company’s manager refused access without a notarized letter. Miriam produced one electronically. He then insisted the unit was held under the dissolved firm’s account and required proof she represented the estate. She produced that too.
The manager still called his regional supervisor.
Real life, Elena discovered, did not become efficient merely because armed men were waiting in a parking lot.
She sat in Miriam’s sedan with Lily asleep against her side while Marco and Adrian argued near the storage-office window. Adrian wore a dark coat over his sweater. He had left most of his men at the mansion to search for the missing guard.
“You’re not going to the dock,” Miriam told Elena.
“I know.”
“You are also not returning home.”
“I know.”
“And you will not post anything online.”
“I barely post birthday pictures.”
“Good. Social media has transformed grief into a public utility. Everyone expects access.”
Elena looked through the windshield at Adrian.
“Will he turn the evidence over?”
Miriam followed her gaze.
“He hasn’t decided.”
“He said he wanted the truth.”
“People want many things before learning the price.”
“What is the price for him?”
“Everything he believes makes him useful.”
Elena looked down at Lily.
“And prison?”
“Possibly.”
“Probably?”
Miriam smiled without humor. “You’ve been speaking to Adrian.”
The storage manager finally opened the unit at seven twelve.
Inside were eighty-three banker’s boxes, two broken desk chairs, a framed law-school diploma, and a fake plant coated in dust.
Miriam had four boxes marked ROMANO transported to a private conference room at her office downtown. Adrian, Marco, Elena, and two paralegals began sorting records while Lily slept on a sofa beneath Miriam’s winter coat.
At eight twenty, they found the first duplicate invoice.
At eight forty-six, they found a security-system service report showing the Lakeshore suppression alarms had been manually disabled five weeks before the fire.
At nine ten, Elena found Mateo’s name.
It appeared on an internal memorandum written by Steven Ames.
EMPLOYEE MORALES HAS IDENTIFIED DISCREPANCIES BETWEEN DIGITAL AND PAPER MANIFESTS. VC REQUESTS DISCREET RESOLUTION. AR HAS NOT BEEN BRIEFED.
Elena read the last line twice.
Adrian stood beside her.
“AR has not been briefed,” she said.
“Yes.”
The words should have relieved something. They did not.
“You didn’t know about Mateo.”
“No.”
“But you signed the extension.”
“Yes.”
“And afterward?”
Adrian looked at the paper.
“Victor briefed me after the fire. He said Mateo had been stealing inventory and likely started it while destroying evidence.”
“You believed him.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because belief was convenient.”
The admission hurt more than the forged reports.
Elena handed the memorandum to Miriam.
At nine thirty-five, one of the paralegals found a copy of the missing green ledger on a flash drive taped beneath the cardboard bottom of a file box. The drive was encrypted.
A handwritten note contained a password clue:
THE NAME OF THE BOY WHO HID BENEATH THE PIANO.
Adrian stared at it.
“Thomas,” he said.
The drive opened.
The ledger contained years of payments: city inspectors, union officials, private contractors, police consultants, trucking intermediaries, and shell companies. Some entries bore Victor’s initials. Others bore Adrian’s father’s. Several contained AR beside authorizations Adrian recognized.
Not every signature implicated him in violence. Enough implicated him in criminal business.
Then they reached the Lakeshore entries.
A payment to Kennelly.
A payment to Owen Pike.
A transfer from Greco Logistics.
An emergency authorization for suppression-system deactivation.
Beside it, AR.
Elena looked at Adrian.
He did not defend himself.
Miriam copied the drive onto three encrypted devices.
“What now?” Marco asked.
Adrian checked the time. Ten fourteen.
“Victor expects us at midnight.”
“We’re not bringing Elena,” Marco said.
“No.”
“And the ledger?”
Adrian looked at Miriam.
“Send copies to three places. Your office server, a bank vault, and—”
“Federal prosecutors?” Elena asked.
The room went quiet.
Adrian’s eyes met hers.
“If we send it now,” Miriam said, “we cannot control what follows.”
“That is the point,” Elena replied.
Miriam looked at Adrian. “Your decision.”
He walked to the window. Downtown lights reflected against the glass. Far below, traffic moved along wet streets, red taillights stretching in thin lines.
Lily stirred beneath the coat.
Adrian watched her sit up, confused by the unfamiliar room.
“Where are we?” she asked.
“An office,” Elena said.
Lily rubbed one eye. “Do they have snacks?”
Miriam opened a drawer and produced a package of crackers.
Lily accepted them, then noticed Adrian by the window.
“Your heart is gone.”
May you like
He touched his temple.
“It washed off.”
