Chapter 4 - The Name Hidden Inside the Shipping Contract
Nobody spoke for three full seconds.
Then Matteo said, “Why?”
Gabriel’s voice came through the phone.
“Because she has something they need.”
Tessa stared at the device.
“I don’t even know these people.”
Gabriel heard her.
“Tessa?”
“Yes.”
“You need to listen carefully.”
“No, you need to explain why a threatening text came from a phone registered to you.”
Silence.
Then Gabriel sighed.
“I sent it.”
Matteo’s face became dangerous.
“You threatened her?”
“I warned her.”
“You wrote that four thousand dollars wasn’t worth dying for.”
“Because it isn’t.”
“You could have called me.”
“I didn’t know who inside your organization I could trust.”
Matteo’s eyes narrowed.
“Including me?”
“Especially you.”
That landed hard.
Gabriel continued before Matteo could respond.
“Bellandi Shipping has been using Moretti Development containers to move stolen pharmaceuticals and counterfeit medical equipment for almost two years.”
Matteo’s jaw tightened.
“That’s impossible.”
“No. It’s hidden inside legitimate construction shipments.”
“Who approved the manifests?”
“I did.”
Tessa stared.
Matteo’s voice became cold.
“So you betrayed me.”
“No. I found it six months ago. Someone had been forging my digital authorization.”
“Who?”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to discover.”
“And Elena?”
“She followed me last week.”
“Why?”
“Because she thought I was hiding an affair.”
Even Tessa blinked.
Gabriel sounded almost offended.
“She watches too much television.”
“What did she see?”
“She saw Carlo Vescari meeting with someone from Moretti Development.”
“Who?”
“I couldn’t see the face.”
“And now she’s kidnapped.”
“Yes.”
Matteo started toward the door.
Gabriel shouted, “Don’t go to the warehouse.”
Matteo stopped.
“Why?”
“It’s staged.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I was there twenty minutes ago.”
Matteo’s face darkened.
“And you didn’t take Elena?”
“She wasn’t there.”
Tessa looked at Matteo.
“Then why would they say she was?”
“To make you move,” Gabriel replied. “They wanted you to pull security from the hotel.”
Matteo’s eyes shot toward Tessa.
Understanding hit both of them.
The Italians had not come only to negotiate.
They had come to identify her.
Matteo hung up and called security.
“No employee leaves the hotel. Lock all private access points.”
The security chief began issuing commands.
Tessa felt suddenly dizzy.
“Why me?”
Matteo looked at the old photograph.
Then at the necklace.
He seemed to reach a conclusion he did not like.
“Your mother discovered my father’s laundering scheme.”
“So?”
“What if she kept evidence?”
“She died with twenty-three dollars in her checking account.”
“That doesn’t mean she had nothing.”
Tessa shook her head.
“She would have told me.”
“Would she?”
The question hurt because Tessa did not know.
Her mother had been loving.
Funny.
Protective.
Also secretive whenever Tessa asked about her early twenties.
She had claimed those years were boring.
Apparently they had involved organized crime, a fraudulent charity, and Matteo Moretti.
Tessa remembered the boxes still stored in her apartment.
Her mother’s papers.
Old tax forms.
Photographs.
Letters.
A locked metal cashbox Tessa had never been able to open.
Her breathing changed.
Matteo noticed.
“What?”
“There’s a box.”
“What box?”
“My mother’s.”
“Where?”
“My apartment.”
Matteo was already reaching for his coat.
“No.”
He looked at her.
“You are not going there alone.”
“I didn’t say I was going alone.”
“You’re not going at all.”
“That’s my home.”
“And if they know about the box, they know your address.”
Tessa looked at her phone.
No missed calls.
No alerts.
Then she remembered.
Her neighbor Mrs. Delaney.
Seventy-three.
Lived across the hall.
Always knocked when packages arrived.
Tessa called.
No answer.
She called again.
Nothing.
“Matteo.”
He saw the fear on her face.
“Who?”
“My neighbor.”
Within minutes, they were inside Matteo’s armored SUV.
Tessa sat in the back beside him.
Two security vehicles followed.
“Your ‘no weapons’ rule has officially expired,” Matteo said.
“I noticed.”
“You can still wait in the vehicle.”
“No.”
“Tessa.”
“If someone hurt Mrs. Delaney because of me, I need to know.”
The apartment building looked normal when they arrived.
Too normal.
No broken windows.
No police.
No obvious signs of violence.
Matteo’s security team entered first.
Three minutes later, one man returned.
“Apartment is clear.”
“Neighbor?” Tessa asked.
“Door locked. No response.”
Tessa ran upstairs.
“Tessa!” Matteo followed.
She unlocked her apartment.
Everything looked untouched.
Then she saw the bedroom.
Drawers opened.
Closet emptied.
Mattress shifted.
Someone had searched the room.
She ran to the hallway closet.
The cardboard box containing her mother’s possessions was gone.
“No.”
Matteo stood behind her.
“What?”
“The box was here.”
The security chief entered.
“We found the neighbor.”
Tessa turned.
“Is she okay?”
“She’s downstairs.”
“Downstairs?”
“In the laundry room.”
Mrs. Delaney appeared moments later wrapped in a blanket.
Tessa rushed toward her.
“Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine, sweetheart.”
“What happened?”
“A man knocked and said he was from the gas company. I opened the door like an idiot.”
“You are not an idiot.”
“He pushed me into the laundry room and locked the door.”
“Did you see him?”
“Yes.”
The old woman looked at Matteo.
Then back at Tessa.
“He had a scar here.”
She pointed to her left cheek.
Matteo reacted.
“You know him?”
“Luca Bernetti.”
“Who is that?”
“My father’s former accountant.”
Tessa stared.
“I thought my mother was his accountant.”
“She was one of them.”
“Where is Luca now?”
“Supposedly dead.”
Mrs. Delaney looked confused.
“Well, he looked surprisingly healthy.”
Matteo took out his phone.
Tessa walked into the apartment.
On her kitchen table sat something that had not been there before.
An envelope.
Her name was written across the front.
Inside was a photocopy of a shipping contract.
Several lines were highlighted.
Medical equipment.
Port authorization.
Charitable export exemptions.
At the bottom of the final page was an old handwritten note.
Tessa recognized her mother’s handwriting.
If anything happens to me, follow the charity money. Matteo was never the one I feared.
Tessa’s eyes moved lower.
One additional line had been written underneath.
The man who controls Bellandi is inside the Moretti family.
Matteo read it over her shoulder.
Neither spoke.
Then the lights went out.
The apartment dropped into darkness.
A second later, glass shattered in the living room.
Matteo grabbed Tessa and pulled her down.
Gunfire exploded from outside.
His body covered hers.
Someone screamed in the hallway.
Security returned fire.
Then Matteo’s phone lit his face.
An incoming video message.
Elena appeared on the screen.
Alive.
Crying.
A man stood behind her with a pistol.
His face remained outside the frame.
Elena whispered:
“Uncle Matteo… please don’t trust Gabriel.”
The video ended.
Tessa stared at Matteo.
May you like
And in the darkness, for the first time, doubt entered his eyes.
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