Chương 16
“The rabbit symbol identifies the route,” Matteo said. “The locker held evidence, but Tommaso thinks Daniel also recovered the organization’s central ledger.”
“Did he?”
No one knew.
Clara looked at the rabbit in the evidence pouch.
The stitched symbol used three thorns crossing a circle. Daniel’s number sheet grouped entries in threes. One folded ear had concealed a key. The toy still contained stuffing, patches, seams.
“Open all of it,” she said.
Sofia cut the belly stitches carefully. Blue wool and cotton stuffing were removed onto clean paper.
Nothing.
Clara took the rabbit’s head between her hands. One repaired eye sat slightly higher. The other original eye was made from a black wooden button.
Daniel had always hated decorative buttons. They were difficult for small children to swallow, he said.
She twisted it.
The button unscrewed.
Inside the hollow wooden stem was a rolled strip of translucent film.
The ledger was not a book. It was a photographed index of names, payments, murders, officials, judges, warehouse codes, and family betrayals spanning fifteen years.
Don Ricci’s brother appeared in the earliest frames.
Tommaso Moretti appeared in the latest.
Matteo whispered, “God.”
Clara looked at the tiny images. “Where did Daniel get this?”
“From the courier,” Alessandro said. “The rabbit was the transfer object. He didn’t buy Emma a discarded toy. He took the entire network’s archive and hid it in the one place he thought no one would search.”
Tommaso believed Clara had known all along.
The phone rang.
Matteo answered on speaker.
Tommaso’s voice sounded older than Alessandro’s, warm and mildly impatient, as though calling about a delayed dinner reservation.
“Clara Bennett.”
She stared at the device.
“Speak,” Alessandro said.
“No,” Clara replied. “He asked for me.”
She picked up the phone.
“I’m here.”
A child cried faintly in the background.
Clara gripped the counter.
“Mommy!” Emma shouted.
Then the sound was cut off.
Tommaso said, “Bring the ledger to the old Balestri warehouse at Porta Romana. No police. No family representatives. Alessandro may come because I know he will regardless. Anyone else and the child dies.”
“Let me speak to her.”
“You heard her.”
“She needs shoes.”
Silence.
“What?”
“She is barefoot. The floor will be cold. Give her something for her feet.”
The request was absurd. That was why Clara made it. She needed Emma to hear her being a mother rather than a hostage negotiator.
Tommaso sighed. “She has a blanket.”
“Let me hear her say so.”
There was movement. Emma came back on the line, sobbing.
“Mommy?”
“Sweetheart, are you wrapped in a blanket?”
“Yes.”
“Is Mr. Bunny with you?”
“Yes.”
Clara looked at the dismantled rabbit on the counter.
Tommaso had another toy, or Emma was being coached.
“What color is his good eye?” Clara asked.
Emma sniffed. “One is higher.”
The real rabbit.
Someone at the villa had returned it to her after the key was removed. Tommaso had taken Emma and the toy, but he had not found the film inside the eye.
“I’m coming,” Clara said.
“Bring the ledger,” Tommaso replied. “You have one hour.”
The call ended.
Sofia began objecting before Clara set down the phone.
“You cannot deliver evidence to a hostage-taker.”
“I’m not asking permission.”
“Police need time to establish surveillance.”
“Tommaso has bought police for years.”
“Not all of them.”
“I don’t know which ones.”
Inspector Serra spoke quietly. “She is right to be cautious.”
Sofia turned on her. “Cautious is not walking into a warehouse.”
Alessandro gathered the film and placed it in a clear sleeve. “We make copies.”
“Tommaso will inspect it,” Matteo said.
“He has never seen the original.”
“He knows the format.”
Clara looked at the translucent strip. “Give him the original.”
Everyone turned.
Sofia shook her head. “Absolutely not.”
“The evidence has been copied.”
“The original establishes authenticity.”
“My daughter establishes priority.”
No one answered that.
Alessandro took the sleeve. “I will bring it.”
“He asked for me.”
“You will not go inside.”
“You no longer decide that.”
“Clara.”
“Do not use my name as though it changes the sentence.”
His expression tightened. “Tommaso killed your husband.”
“And he has my child.”
“That is why I am going.”
“He expects you to act like a man defending his power. He expects you to threaten him, stall him, and look for a way to kill him.”
“I will.”
“He doesn’t expect me.”
Tommaso had spent years disregarding staff, wives, technicians, children, and anyone else he considered furniture around powerful men. Daniel had used that blindness against him. Clara could do the same.
The plan formed through argument rather than inspiration.
Serra contacted the Turin prosecutor and obtained an emergency authorization for surveillance and intervention. Sofia arranged redundant transmission of the copied ledger. Matteo identified the warehouse layout from old security plans. Alessandro’s men would remain outside the police perimeter, visible enough to hold Tommaso’s attention but unable to enter without triggering him.
Clara would carry the original film inside a hollow lipstick case taken from Vivian’s belongings. The rabbit’s eye would remain with Sofia as proof of where the film had been found.
A tracker was placed in Clara’s shoe.
She removed it.
Matteo stared. “Why?”
“Tommaso will scan me.”
“It is shielded.”
“Daniel designed systems that found shielded trackers.”
Matteo looked away.
Serra gave Clara a small audio transmitter sewn into the hem of her uniform. Clara accepted it because removing every advantage was not courage.
Before leaving, she washed her face in the station bathroom.
The red mark from Vivian’s hand had darkened along the edge. Clara pressed a cold paper towel against it. In the mirror she looked older than thirty-two and younger than a widow should feel.
Alessandro waited outside.
“You do not have to prove anything,” he said.
“I’m not.”
“Then why go?”
She lowered the paper towel. “Because Emma is waiting for me.”
“That is not the same as having a plan.”
May you like
“Your plans built a room full of armed men who nearly killed each other.”
He absorbed the insult.
