Chương 9
“I’m not part of your family argument,” Lena said.
“You became part of it when you picked up that phone.”
“Did you know I used the alley?”
Vincent’s expression held.
Then he smiled.
“Should I?”
“My name wasn’t public when you said you knew it.”
“It was circulating privately.”
“Among whom?”
“Reporters. Staff. Police scanners. Dominic’s security.”
Daniel spoke from the wall. “Her name wasn’t on the radio.”
Vincent turned. “You’re certain?”
“I reviewed the traffic.”
“Then perhaps Elena told me.”
Elena’s face remained neutral. “I did not.”
Vincent reached for the second coffee and peeled back the lid.
“Then I was mistaken about when I learned it.”
Lemon scented the room.
Lena watched him place a lozenge beneath his tongue.
“Why do you use those?” she asked.
His eyes lifted.
“Reflux.”
“Do you keep them in your car?”
“Usually.”
“Did Aaron Velez drive your car?”
Vincent smiled again, but this time it did not reach even the shape of warmth.
“You ask excellent questions for a waitress.”
Lena felt the insult. She also saw Dominic hear it.
“For a criminal,” she said, “you give poor answers.”
Elena closed her eyes briefly.
Daniel looked at the floor.
Dominic leaned forward.
“Answer her.”
Vincent’s face changed.
Not much. The smile disappeared. His posture stayed relaxed, but something old and resentful surfaced.
“I lent Velez a fleet sedan Tuesday,” he said. “He was delivering contracts.”
“Did you report that to Chen?”
“I told Elena.”
Elena said, “You told me an employee might have accessed a vehicle. You did not say you personally authorized it.”
Vincent shrugged. “Then the distinction was lost.”
“Distinctions don’t get lost around you,” Dominic said. “You bury them.”
The two cousins looked at each other.
Lena saw history without knowing its details: childhood favors turned into debts, shared secrets hardened into leverage, loyalty measured by which betrayals remained unspoken.
Vincent stood.
“When you’re ready to remember who has kept your enemies outside this room, call me.”
He walked to the door.
Dominic said, “Leave your phone.”
Vincent stopped.
“No.”
Daniel moved away from the wall.
Vincent looked at him with genuine surprise. “You would search me?”
“If he orders it.”
“I was at your wedding.”
Daniel’s expression did not move. “I remember.”
Vincent took out his phone and placed it on the table.
“You’ll find nothing,” he said.
“Then you’ll get it back,” Dominic replied.
Vincent left.
Lena looked at the phone.
“Can you search that legally?” she asked.
Elena said, “No.”
Dominic picked it up.
“Then don’t,” Lena said.
He looked at her.
“If you find something and destroy the case by taking it illegally, you help him.”
“I’m not building a case.”
“That’s the problem.”
He put the phone down.
Detective Chen found Maribel the following evening at her sister’s apartment in Aurora.
Maribel had not been kidnapped. She had been hiding.
She admitted that a man paid her two thousand dollars to bring water into a small banquet office and remain with Lily for twenty minutes. He told her the child’s parents were engaged in a custody dispute and that the transfer had to stay private.
“Did she believe him?” Lena asked.
They were sitting in the hospital cafeteria. Lily would be discharged the next morning. Dominic had gone upstairs to handle paperwork.
Chen stirred soup she had not eaten.
“She says she did at first.”
“And after?”
“Lily asked to call her father. Maribel was told not to let her. She became frightened.”
“Why didn’t she help?”
“Two thousand dollars is almost a month of her take-home pay. She has a son with medical debt and a landlord who raised the rent.”
“That explains taking the job.”
“It also explains why she spent the next forty-eight hours telling herself she hadn’t understood.”
Lena pushed away her coffee.
“Did she identify Vincent?”
“She never saw him. Aaron Velez hired her.”
“Where is Aaron?”
“His apartment was emptied Thursday.”
“Before the kidnapping.”
“Yes.”
“So someone expected him to disappear.”
Chen opened a folder and slid a photograph across the table.
It showed the valet claim ticket recovered from beneath the teddy bear’s ribbon. The red corner Lena remembered was part of the Halcyon logo. A handwritten vehicle number matched the gray van in the loading dock footage.
“Lily put it there?” Lena asked.
“Maribel says she gave Lily the bear after Velez took Lily’s backpack. The valet ticket was on the table. Lily may have hidden it.”
“She’s seven.”
“Seven-year-olds hide gum, coins, notes, and evidence without calling it evidence.”
Lena pictured Lily’s small fingers pushing the ticket beneath the ribbon while adults argued beyond the door.
“What happened after the hotel?”
“Velez moved her in the van. Traffic cameras tracked it west until it entered a parking structure owned by a shell company.”
“Whose shell company?”
Chen looked toward the cafeteria entrance.
“Rosetti’s.”
Lena followed her gaze.
Dominic stood there.
He approached the table.
“Which company?” he asked.
Chen closed the folder.
“Talk to your attorney.”
“Which one?”
“North Meridian Holdings.”
Dominic pulled out a chair but did not sit.
“Vincent controls it.”
“That’s not proof he arranged the kidnapping.”
“He created the company.”
“And you signed its incorporation documents.”
Lena looked at Dominic.
His face gave her nothing.
Chen continued. “North Meridian also received transfers from freight contracts you approved.”
“I don’t review every transfer.”
“You review every person.”
“Apparently not.”
The detective stood.
“Mr. Rosetti, I’ll be requesting a formal interview.”
“Elena will contact you.”
“Of course she will.”
Chen gathered the folder.
To Lena, she said, “Don’t meet anyone alone.”
After she left, Dominic remained standing.
“You signed the company papers,” Lena said.
“Years ago.”
“What did it do?”
“Purchased properties that couldn’t be connected publicly to our primary businesses.”
“Why?”
“Storage. Meetings. Payments.”
“Illegal ones?”
“Some.”
“And you handed control to Vincent.”
“He was my closest lieutenant.”
“Cousin.”
“Yes.”
“Friend?”
Dominic finally sat.
“Once.”
May you like
Lena waited.
“He came to live with my family when he was fourteen,” Dominic said. “His father disappeared owing money to men who collected debts with patience. My mother gave Vincent my room. I slept in the library for eight months.”
