Chương 10
Lorenzo reached for the command vehicle door.
Two agents blocked him.
“Sit down,” Donnelly said.
“He has Sophia.”
“And we are following him.”
“He will use her to move Lucia.”
“That may lead us to Lucia.”
“She is not bait.”
“No. She is a kidnapped witness, and our best chance of finding both victims is to follow the person who arranged it.”
Lorenzo stared through the dark glass.
A traffic camera caught the fake federal van crossing the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Another camera lost it beneath an overpass. Plate recognition returned no match.
The white cargo van from St. Agatha’s had been found abandoned near Sunset Park. Inside were used diapers, formula containers, a portable bassinet, and a bloodstained gauze pad. No child.
Donnelly’s agents followed Matteo from the warehouse to a parking garage in Astoria. He switched cars on the third level, leaving in a sedan registered to a construction company controlled by Dominic.
The captains’ meeting continued without him.
Dominic pushed for an immediate vote.
Enzo asked why Matteo had abandoned a decision that supposedly could not wait.
Calabrese accused him of stalling for his brother.
Enzo replied, “My brother wouldn’t cross the street to piss on me if I was smoking.”
Marco removed his earpiece. “I dislike him.”
Lorenzo almost smiled. It vanished before fully forming.
At five twelve, the bank documents were automatically transmitted to the federal prosecutor’s office. Rachel had refused to delay the release once Sophia was abducted, arguing that the evidence might become their only leverage if Matteo or Dominic attempted to kill everyone connected to it.
Price began preparing emergency warrants.
Donnelly turned to Lorenzo. “We have to discuss your cooperation.”
“My daughter first.”
“You heard the condition.”
“I heard it.”
“We need more than your wife’s files.”
Lorenzo watched Matteo’s sedan move across a digital map.
“What do you want now?”
“Access to your office records before someone destroys them. Names of public officials on your payroll. Locations of cash reserves and weapons. Authorization for your attorney to begin a proffer.”
Marco said, “He is not agreeing to that in a surveillance van.”
Donnelly ignored him. “Russo and Dominic may be relying on everyone’s silence. If we start moving on their financial network, we can force them to communicate.”
“And alert them that I’m cooperating,” Lorenzo said.
“They already believe you know something. They abducted Sophia.”
Lorenzo turned to Marco. “The ledgers in the Mulberry Street safe.”
Marco’s face went still.
“Bring them,” Lorenzo said.
“You are not thinking clearly.”
“I have not thought clearly for six weeks. This is the first decision I recognize.”
“Those records include men who have been loyal to you since your father died.”
“They include men who stood at a child’s funeral while knowing she was alive.”
“Not all of them.”
“No.”
Marco stepped closer. “Then do not condemn all of them to save one person.”
The words hung in the vehicle.
Lorenzo looked at him.
Marco’s eyes shifted toward the silver necklace.
“I heard it,” Marco said. “I know how it sounds.”
“It sounds honest.”
“I have spent twenty-four years keeping you alive.”
“And what has it made us?”
“It made you a man whose enemies hesitated.”
“My wife is dead. My daughter is missing. A maid had to feed her in a boarded daycare because she was too frightened to tell me. Who hesitated?”
Marco looked away.
Donnelly said quietly, “Mr. Bellini, you can leave.”
“No,” Lorenzo said. “He stays.”
Marco’s breathing slowed.
Finally he took out a key ring and removed a small black key.
“The safe has two locks,” he said. “This is mine.”
He placed it in Lorenzo’s palm beside Isabella’s swallow.
“I will bring the ledgers,” Marco said. “But do not confuse obedience with agreement.”
“I never have.”
Marco opened the door.
Before leaving, he looked back. “If Lucia survives this, she will inherit your name.”
“Not the business.”
“You cannot decide that with one sentence.”
“No,” Lorenzo said. “I’ll have to decide it every day.”
Marco shut the door.
At five thirty-seven, Matteo’s sedan entered a private medical complex in Flushing that had closed after a bankruptcy. Dominic’s construction company held the demolition contract. The property consisted of three connected buildings, an underground garage, and a former pediatric rehabilitation wing.
Federal surveillance established at least six adults inside. Thermal imaging suggested one smaller heat signature in a rear room, but old insulation and active space heaters made the reading uncertain.
Matteo parked underground.
Sophia was dragged from the rear seat with tape over her mouth.
Lorenzo saw the grainy image from a traffic camera across the street. She stumbled once. A man gripped her arm and forced her upright.
There was no sign of Lucia.
Donnelly requested a tactical child-recovery team. Estimated arrival was thirty-five minutes. A judge reviewed the warrant remotely. Building plans were incomplete because interior walls had been modified without permits.
Lorenzo sat with both hands on his knees.
Waiting had once been his weapon. Now it stripped him.
Emma called from the rectory.
One of Isabella’s cousins held the phone close to her. Emma’s voice came through small and serious.
“Mr. Lorenzo?”
“Yes.”
“Bad men took Mama.”
“I know.”
“Are you getting her?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
He looked at Donnelly.
“I’m getting her now.”
Emma breathed into the phone. In the background, someone tried to persuade her to drink apple juice.
“You have the bird?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“It belongs to the baby.”
“I’ll give it back.”
“Don’t put it on her neck. She’s too little.”
Lorenzo shut his eyes.
“I won’t.”
“Put it up high.”
“I will.”
Emma was silent.
Then she said, “Mama gets scared in elevators.”
The medical complex had elevators.
“Thank you for telling me.”
“She says they jump.”
“I’ll remember.”
Emma whispered something to her rabbit, then returned to the phone. “Tell Mama I stayed close.”
“I’ll tell her.”
The call ended.
Donnelly watched Lorenzo without expression.
“What?” he asked.
May you like
“Nothing.”
“You have been investigating me for nine years. You always have something.”
