Chương 14
“That adults forget.”
“She’ll think that’s rude.”
“She usually does.”
The investigations widened over the following weeks.
Frank D’Amato was arrested at a motel near Rockford after using a debit card to buy cough medicine. The two men who attacked Rosa’s apartment accepted plea agreements and identified the intermediary who had hired them. Bank records, dispatch logs, toll cameras, freight scans, and Elena’s copied invoices connected the narcotics routes to Marco’s private companies.
Nothing fit together as quickly as newspapers suggested.
Evidence was disputed. Phones were encrypted. Witnesses changed their stories. One driver vanished and was later found living with a cousin in Phoenix, more frightened of prosecution than violence. Another insisted he had believed the sealed containers held insulin. That claim remained possible for several shipments and false for others.
Marco denied ordering Elena’s assault.
Frankie blamed Marco, then blamed Vincent, then refused to testify after receiving threats against his family. The corrupt detective Harlan claimed he had discouraged Elena because her complaint lacked urgency. His bank deposits told a different story but not a complete one.
Vincent’s records filled in the structure.
They also exposed crimes unrelated to Marco.
Federal prosecutors charged Vincent with racketeering conspiracy, extortion, fraud, and obstruction connected to years of business activity. His attorneys negotiated without optimism. Men he had protected hired separate counsel and began protecting themselves. Some cooperated. Some lied. A few disappeared into places Vincent had once helped them find.
The Golden Palm closed after its liquor license was suspended.
For several days, flowers appeared outside the oak doors. Most were for Sophie and Elena. A few notes thanked Vincent. Others called him a murderer pretending to be a hero. Someone threw red paint across the entrance. Someone else cleaned it before dawn.
Public opinion moved in confused waves.
Television hosts argued about whether Vincent’s cooperation represented redemption, strategy, weakness, or another crime. Old photographs of Lucia appeared online without the family’s permission. Commentators mispronounced Elena’s name. Strangers posted Sophie’s school picture until Nora’s unit forced several sites to remove it.
Rosa stopped answering unknown calls.
Sophie began sleeping beneath her aunt’s bed instead of on it.
Elena regained speech slowly. She struggled with headaches, dizziness, and gaps in short-term memory. Sometimes she asked the same question three times. Sometimes she remembered an invoice number after seeing it once six months earlier.
Vincent remained in custody pending trial.
Tony was released under strict conditions after prosecutors accepted limited cooperation. He moved into his sister’s basement when his wife asked him to leave. He complained that the furnace clicked all night and that his sister bought only decaffeinated coffee.
He visited Vincent once.
They sat across thick glass with telephones pressed to their ears.
“You look terrible,” Tony said.
“So do you.”
“I look free.”
“You look tired.”
Tony rubbed his face.
“My wife says she doesn’t know who I am.”
“Do you?”
“No.”
“That may help.”
“Don’t talk like a priest.”
“I don’t know how priests talk.”
“They say things that sound useful after you leave.”
Vincent glanced at the guard behind Tony.
“How are your sons?”
“Angry. The older one changed his last name online.”
“That hurts.”
Tony looked at him.
“Look at you, recognizing feelings.”
Vincent waited.
Tony’s sarcasm faded.
“Elena asked for your lawyer’s number.”
“Why?”
“She wants to make a statement at sentencing.”
“That’s a bad idea.”
“Not your decision.”
“No.”
“Sophie sent something.”
Tony lifted a small paper bag.
The guard took it, inspected it, then carried it through the security exchange.
Inside was Vincent’s gold watch.
The blood had been cleaned from the links. The cracked face had been replaced. The hands still showed one-seventeen.
Vincent held it up.
“It’s not fixed.”
Tony smiled for the first time.
“There’s a note.”
Vincent unfolded the paper.
Sophie’s handwriting leaned unevenly across the page.
I told the watch man not to move the hands. He said that was strange. I said it was important.
Mama can walk with a cane now.
I got an A on my spelling test except “necessary.”
You still have to remember.
Sophie
Vincent read it again.
Tony watched through the glass.
“You going to wear it?”
“They don’t allow personal jewelry.”
“Probably afraid you’ll strangle somebody with it.”
“Tony.”
“What? They should know you’re emotional now.”
Vincent looked at the stopped hands.
“How is she?”
“Bossy.”
“Good.”
“She doesn’t like reporters. She told one he should learn manners before asking about blood.”
Vincent almost laughed.
Tony leaned closer to the glass.
“You know she believes you saved her.”
“I didn’t.”
“You went.”
“I went after her mother was already hurt.”
“You called an ambulance.”
“A basic act.”
“For you, apparently revolutionary.”
Vincent looked at him.
Tony shrugged.
“I’m not giving you a halo. I’m saying the kid needed one adult to move when she asked. You moved.”
“Then I put her in danger.”
“Then you admitted it.”
“That did not make her safer.”
“No. But the next thing did.”
The guard signaled that visiting time was ending.
Tony placed his hand against the glass.
Vincent did the same.
Neither spoke for several seconds.
Tony picked up his phone again.
“You destroyed everything.”
“Yes.”
“I’m still angry.”
“I know.”
“I may stay angry.”
“All right.”
Tony looked toward the guard.
“See? That’s what you do now. You say all right like you discovered humility in a vending machine.”
Vincent said nothing.
Tony shook his head.
“Take care of yourself.”
“You too.”
Tony hung up.
Vincent remained seated after he left.
The repaired watch rested in his palm, useless for measuring time and precise about one moment.
Eleven months after Sophie entered the Golden Palm, Vincent pleaded guilty to multiple federal charges. The agreement did not erase his past or reduce it to Marco’s betrayal. Prosecutors described decades of intimidation, illegal profit, and harm. Vincent confirmed the facts he knew and refused to contest the language merely because it sounded worse when spoken aloud.
Marco went to trial.
May you like
Elena testified for two days.
She walked into court with a cane and paused before identifying him. Marco stared at the defense table. His silver ring had been returned after forensic testing and lay inside an evidence bag before the jury.
