Chương 13
Nora met Vincent in the lobby.
“Your attorney?”
“Upstairs.”
“You brought records?”
“Copies are being delivered to the federal building. Originals remain secured until receipts are signed.”
“You’ve done this before?”
“No.”
“You sound disappointingly organized.”
“I’ve had practice protecting paper.”
She looked at Tony, who stood several feet behind Vincent with his own attorney.
“Mr. Rizzo is cooperating?”
Tony answered.
“Mr. Rizzo is reconsidering every decision since 1998.”
Nora almost smiled.
Vincent removed the broken watch and placed it in a property tray before passing through security.
The officer behind the desk looked at it.
“Doesn’t work.”
“It does one thing.”
“What’s that?”
Vincent glanced at the stopped hands.
“It tells the truth about one minute.”
The officer shrugged and placed it in an envelope.
The interviews lasted through the night and into the following afternoon.
Vincent answered questions about Torino Freight, construction contracts, cash loans, union pressure, city inspectors, campaign donations, and men whose names had not been spoken inside police buildings for years. He refused to speculate. When he did not know, he said so. When he remembered, he gave details that caused attorneys to request breaks.
At eleven in the morning, his lawyer leaned close.
“You understand this is not limited cooperation anymore.”
“Yes.”
“You are building a case against yourself.”
“Yes.”
“There may be no agreement worth what you’re giving.”
“I understand.”
“Then why are we here?”
Vincent looked through the interview-room glass.
Nora stood outside reading a message on her phone.
“Because Marco relied on me behaving predictably.”
His lawyer removed his glasses.
“That is not a legal strategy.”
“No.”
“It is barely a sentence.”
“It’s enough.”
At one-twenty, Nora entered.
“Elena is awake.”
Vincent’s breathing changed before his face did.
“Can she speak?”
“Briefly.”
“Sophie?”
“With her.”
“Did Elena identify Marco?”
Nora sat.
“She identified Marco, Frank D’Amato, and one other man. She also described the altered routes. Her statement matches the invoices recovered from the green folder at the apartment.”
“There were three folders.”
Nora nodded.
“Sophie told Rosa where the others were after Marco’s men attacked them.”
“Where?”
“One was sealed inside the bottom of a box of powdered laundry detergent. The other was taped beneath a drawer in Sophie’s school desk.”
Vincent pictured detectives searching a second-grade classroom.
“She put it there?”
“Elena did during a parent conference two days ago.”
“She expected trouble.”
“Yes.”
“Why send Sophie to me instead of police?”
Nora looked at the table.
“Elena said she tried police.”
Vincent waited.
“A detective named Harlan met her at a coffee shop three weeks ago,” Nora said. “He told her invoices weren’t enough and advised her to return company property before she got charged with theft.”
“Marco’s friend.”
“We arrested Harlan this morning.”
“What did he receive?”
“Money, according to bank records we’re still reviewing.”
Vincent looked toward the one-way glass.
“Elena thought I was safer than police.”
“She thought you would care about the narcotics.”
“Did she think I knew?”
“At first. Then she found older accounting entries showing Marco created the routes after your daughter died. She realized he was hiding them from you.”
Vincent rubbed his thumb against the place where his watch usually rested.
Nora watched.
“She also said something else.”
“What?”
“She applied for the job because Marco recruited her.”
“I know.”
“She had worked at a medical supplier that Marco used as a front vendor. She didn’t know that at the time. When the company closed, he recommended her to Torino Freight so she could maintain the billing system she already understood.”
“Then she saw the duplicate invoices.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t he fire her?”
“He tried. Human resources required your office to approve termination of accounting staff with access to audit records.”
Vincent almost laughed.
A policy created years earlier to prevent casual theft had kept Elena in place long enough to expose a larger one.
“Marco offered her money,” Nora said. “Then threatened her immigration status.”
“She’s a citizen.”
“He knew that. Her mother isn’t.”
Vincent looked at Nora.
“She was protecting family.”
“Yes.”
“And the pregnancy?”
Nora’s expression changed.
“Elena knows. The pregnancy did not survive.”
Vincent closed his eyes for one second.
“Does Sophie know?”
“Not yet.”
“Who was the father?”
“Why does that matter?”
“It may not.”
Nora studied him.
“Elena said he left before she knew. Not connected to this.”
Vincent nodded.
A detail without conspiracy. A private loss the investigation could not organize into meaning.
Nora gathered the papers in front of her.
“Elena asked whether you were arrested.”
“What did you tell her?”
“That you were giving a statement.”
“What did she say?”
“She said, ‘Good.’”
Vincent looked at the table.
Nora stood.
“Sophie wants to see you.”
His lawyer objected immediately.
“No.”
Nora looked at him.
“Not in the interview room. At the hospital, later, with supervision.”
“He should not speak to a witness.”
“Sophie has completed two recorded forensic interviews.”
“She is still a witness.”
Vincent said, “He’s right.”
Nora looked surprised.
“I’ll write her a note.”
“No,” the lawyer said.
Vincent turned toward him.
“You may advise me against it.”
“I strongly advise you against it.”
“Good.”
He asked Nora for a sheet of paper.
The note took him longer than any confession he had given that day.
He wrote:
Sophie,
Your mother is alive. Marco has been arrested. You told the truth when adults had reasons not to hear it.
I was wrong when I said he could not follow you. I was wrong about other things too.
I am doing what I should have done before you came through the doors.
Vincent Torino
He read it twice.
Then he added:
The watch is still broken.
Nora took the note.
“You know she may not understand everything.”
“She understands too much.”
“That isn’t the same as understanding correctly.”
“No.”
Nora folded the paper.
Before leaving, she said, “For what it’s worth, she asked whether you had eaten.”
May you like
Vincent looked at the untouched sandwich beside his attorney’s files.
“What did you tell her?”
