Chương 11
Emil swept petals into a pile. “Dog likes the little girl.”
“So it appears.”
“Dog likes almost nobody.”
“I’ve noticed.”
“Maybe little girl has excellent judgment.”
Lorenzo glanced at him.
Emil bent over the drain with sudden concentration.
The audit began that week.
It did not move quickly. Banks required subpoenas or consent. Vendors produced incomplete records. Former employees ignored calls, feared retaliation, or demanded payment before speaking. Several managers blamed Arthur for everything, including decisions bearing their own signatures. Others claimed that missing wages resulted from software updates, scheduling errors, or employees forgetting to clock out.
Mara’s team found that Arthur had taken more than three million dollars over four years through fake vendors, ghost workers, inflated maintenance contracts, and diverted insurance refunds. Yet he had not kept most of it.
Large sums moved into accounts controlled by Duca Strategic Services, a consulting company that technically belonged to Lorenzo’s uncle, Paolo Duca.
Paolo had been Lorenzo’s father’s younger brother. He was sixty-three, elegant, vain, and skilled at entering a room as though everyone had been waiting for him. He had no formal role in the household, but he served as chairman of two family companies and treated the distinction between family money and personal money as a clerical inconvenience.
When Lorenzo asked him to meet, Paolo suggested lunch at a private club.
Lorenzo chose Mara’s office.
Paolo arrived twenty minutes late wearing a camel coat and carrying no documents. He kissed Mara’s cheek despite her attempt to prevent it.
“This is hostile architecture,” he said, looking at the glass walls. “No paintings. No decent chairs. People confess because they want to leave.”
Mara pointed to a seat.
Paolo remained standing until Lorenzo sat.
The investigators laid out transfer summaries, vendor registrations, and copies of messages recovered from Arthur’s devices. Arthur had not confessed, but his attorney had begun negotiating access to records in exchange for consideration. The masked contact identified as R had communicated through an account funded by one of Paolo’s companies.
Paolo read the first page and pushed it away.
“You brought me here for bookkeeping.”
“You ordered Arthur to remove Clara,” Lorenzo said.
Paolo looked genuinely confused. “Who is Clara?”
“The woman you framed for stealing my mother’s watch.”
Recognition came slowly, then annoyance. “The maid.”
Mara placed a hand on the recorder. “For clarity, are you acknowledging familiarity with the matter?”
“I am acknowledging that Lorenzo has spent a week discussing a maid as though she were secretary of state.”
Lorenzo leaned back. “Did you order it?”
“No.”
“Did you send Arthur instructions?”
“I send Arthur instructions every day. He manages properties.”
“He managed fraud.”
Paolo shrugged. “Then he stole from us. I assume this is why God invented accountants.”
“The money went to your companies.”
“The money went through my companies. That is not the same.”
“What was it used for?”
Paolo looked at Mara. “Is this privileged?”
“No,” she said.
“Then why would I answer?”
Lorenzo knew his uncle’s habits. Paolo lied most confidently when offered broad questions. Specificity irritated him because it reduced the room available for charm.
“Three hundred eighty thousand dollars paid to North Quay Advisory,” Lorenzo said. “North Quay transferred it to a political consultant who arranged zoning meetings for the Hudson property. The consultant was never disclosed on the project.”
Paolo smiled. “You found lobbying.”
“Unregistered influence.”
“You found New York real estate.”
“Another two hundred thousand went to settle an assault claim involving your son.”
The smile disappeared.
Paolo’s son, Gabriel, was thirty-two and had inherited his father’s appetite without his discipline. Two years earlier, a nightclub employee accused him of beating a man in a service alley. The complaint vanished after a private settlement. Lorenzo had been told Gabriel paid from personal funds.
Paolo adjusted his cuff. “That was a family matter.”
“You used stolen wages.”
“I moved money between accounts.”
“From people who clean our rooms.”
“Do not perform morality for an investigator, Lorenzo. It fits you badly.”
Mara’s gaze moved between them.
Paolo sat at last. “Arthur became nervous because the maid copied records. I told him to solve the employment problem. That is all.”
“How?”
“I did not ask.”
“You knew he planned to frame her.”
“No.”
“You knew about the watch.”
Paolo’s silence lasted half a beat too long.
Lorenzo placed the jeweler’s service invoice on the table. Paolo’s assistant had approved the appointment. Arthur had collected the watch from the jeweler afterward, claiming Lorenzo requested secure delivery. A driver’s log showed Arthur stopped at Paolo’s townhouse before returning it to the mansion.
“You touched my mother’s watch,” Lorenzo said.
Paolo’s expression hardened. “It is a piece of jewelry.”
“It was in Clara’s locker.”
“Then Arthur lost his mind.”
“You told him to use it.”
“I told him the accusation needed credibility. I suggested property from the house. I did not specify that watch.”
Mara pressed a button on the recorder. “Mr. Duca, you should consider obtaining counsel before continuing.”
Paolo ignored her. “This did not need to become a crisis. Renata dismisses the woman, the records look like revenge from a caught thief, and we correct the accounting internally.”
“You forged Clara’s confession.”
“Arthur did.”
“You instructed him.”
“I instructed him to protect the companies.”
“At what cost?”
Paolo stared at his nephew. “Do you truly want that question answered in front of a prosecutor?”
“Former prosecutor,” Mara said.
“You people never become former anything.”
Lorenzo looked through the glass wall at office workers moving between desks. One carried a birthday cake. Another struggled with a printer. Ordinary life continued twenty feet away from a family argument that could dismantle companies and send men to prison.
Paolo lowered his voice. “Your father understood that institutions punish the visible mistake and ignore the reason behind it. We moved money because projects were stalled, claims had to disappear, people needed convincing. You benefited.”
“I didn’t authorize stolen wages.”
“You authorized results.”
May you like
The words struck because they were not entirely false.
Lorenzo had demanded budgets, deadlines, silence, and outcomes. He had rewarded men who solved problems without burdening him with methods. When Arthur said labor costs were controlled, Lorenzo approved the report. When Paolo said the Hudson project was moving again, Lorenzo did not ask which reluctant official had become cooperative.
