Chương 15
"Tell me what Falcone wants."
"A shipping company controls access to three terminals he needs."
"You own it?"
"Partly."
"And you won't sell?"
"No."
"Why?"
"Because Dominic uses legitimate businesses to hide things I want no part of anymore."
The words made Marco glance at him.
Elena caught that.
"Anymore?"
Vincent looked toward Sophie's half-closed door.
"That's another conversation."
"No."
Elena stepped closer.
"That's this conversation."
Vincent rubbed a hand across his jaw.
"The organization changed after my father died."
"That is vague."
"Intentionally."
"Try again."
He almost told her not to push.
The old instinct rose automatically.
Then he saw the unpaid hospital envelopes behind her and the little pink backpack on the chair.
This was her home.
He was the intruder.
"I've spent the last several years moving money and businesses away from anything that can put people in prison."
Elena stared.
"You make that sound noble."
"It isn't."
"Good."
"I did it because prison is inconvenient."
Marco coughed.
Vincent looked at him.
"What?"
"Nothing."
Elena almost smiled despite herself.
"So Falcone wants access to something you're refusing him."
"Yes."
"And now he knows Sophie exists."
"Yes."
Her face went pale.
"Then she doesn't go to school tomorrow."
Vincent blinked.
A minute earlier she had fought him for thinking exactly that.
Elena saw his expression.
"Don't."
"I didn't say anything."
"Your eyebrows did."
Marco looked away.
Vincent nodded.
"She stays home."
Elena pressed both palms against the counter.
"What else?"
"Marco gets security."
"No men standing outside."
"Elena."
"Not men who look like yours."
"Mine look like accountants."
"Your accountants have broken noses."
"Some accountants have difficult lives."
She stared at him.
Marco said, "We can use plainclothes professionals."
"Licensed?"
"Yes."
"Background checked?"
"Yes."
"Not criminals?"
Marco glanced at Vincent.
"Marco."
"Yes."
Elena exhaled.
"Fine."
Vincent called his attorney instead of his soldiers.
That choice irritated him more than he expected.
It also produced results faster.
Within two hours, Falcone's intermediary received a formal notice that any further attempt to obtain information about Sophie Russo would be documented for law enforcement and civil action.
Marco simultaneously gave the payment records from Anthony's phone to an attorney representing Elena.
They did not threaten Falcone.
They created paper.
Paper, Vincent discovered, could make powerful men nervous in ways violence sometimes could not.
Dominic called just before midnight.
Vincent answered from Elena's kitchen.
"You've become dramatic," Falcone said.
His voice was warm and mildly amused.
It had always been warm.
That was one of the reasons Vincent distrusted him.
"You bought information about a six-year-old."
"I bought information about you."
"Her name was attached."
"That was unfortunate."
Vincent looked toward the couch.
Elena sat with Sophie asleep against her side.
She could hear every word.
"Stay away from them."
Dominic laughed softly.
"You're giving orders like it's 2009."
"No."
Vincent's voice remained calm.
"I'm giving notice."
"Of what?"
"That every contact, payment, photograph, and request your people make regarding Elena or Sophie goes directly to attorneys."
A pause.
"Attorneys?"
"Yes."
"What happened to you?"
Vincent looked at Sophie.
"Something good."
Dominic's amusement disappeared.
"You think paperwork scares me?"
"No."
"I think discovery does."
Silence.
Marco looked at Vincent with faint approval.
Vincent continued.
"You want the terminal interest, negotiate through counsel."
"You rejected it."
"Then we have nothing to discuss."
"Exactly."
Dominic's voice hardened.
"Careful, Vincent."
That was the line the old Vincent had been waiting for.
The old answer would have been immediate.
Personal.
Ugly.
Instead Vincent said, "Good night, Dominic."
He hung up.
Elena stared at him.
"What?"
"You didn't threaten him."
"I threatened him with litigation."
"That's disturbingly mature."
"I dislike it."
Marco smiled.
"Growth opportunity."
Vincent pointed toward the door.
"Leave."
Marco did, still smiling.
The next morning, federal agents contacted Vincent's attorney.
Not because Vincent had called them.
Because Dominic's shell company had already been part of an unrelated financial investigation, and the transfers uncovered through Anthony's payment records gave investigators another path into it.
Vincent did not celebrate.
He knew enough about investigations to understand that nothing moved as quickly as television suggested.
Falcone was not arrested that afternoon.
Nobody kicked down a door.
Instead subpoenas appeared.
Accounts were examined.
Lawyers began calling lawyers.
That was less satisfying than revenge and far more dangerous to Dominic.
Sophie stayed home for three days.
On the second day, she became furious.
"I am not sick."
Elena sat at the kitchen table sorting medications.
"No one said you were."
"Then why can't I go?"
"Because we're being careful."
"Careful is boring."
Vincent, sitting across from her with a laptop he had barely touched, said, "That is the most accurate thing anyone has said all week."
Elena kicked his ankle beneath the table.
Sophie noticed.
"Did Mom kick you?"
"No."
Elena said, "Yes."
Sophie looked delighted.
Vincent rubbed his ankle.
"This family has serious honesty problems."
Sophie froze.
Family.
The word had slipped out.
Elena looked at Vincent.
He looked down at the laptop.
Nobody corrected him.
By the fourth day, Marco's security team confirmed there had been no further attempts to approach Sophie.
Dominic's attorneys sent written assurances that neither he nor his employees would contact Elena or her daughter.
Vincent trusted the document less than Elena did.
He respected it more than he expected.
Paper created consequences.
Consequences changed behavior.
Sophie returned to school with Elena walking her to the entrance and a plainclothes security woman named Renee waiting across the street pretending to drink coffee.
Sophie spotted her in under thirty seconds.
"She's terrible at pretending."
Vincent looked through the windshield.
"She's actually excellent."
"She keeps looking at us."
"That's her job."
"Then it's obvious."
Renee later informed Marco that Sophie was "operationally irritating."
Vincent considered having the phrase framed.
Elena's treatment continued.
There were good mornings and bad ones.
Some days she ate.
Some days the smell of toast made her nauseated.
Vincent learned not to ask whether she was okay because she hated the question.
May you like
He learned to ask whether she wanted tea.
Sometimes she said yes.
