Chapter 4 - The Envelope Under the Block
They did not speak inside the police station.
Dominic called one attorney.
Riley called nobody.
The cemetery officers had found no weapons on Dominic because Paulie had hidden them before patrol cars entered.
Bellini’s men were gone.
Nobody mentioned Arthur’s grave.
By three in the morning, they were released.
Noah slept in Riley’s arms as they returned to Hayes Prime Cuts.
The upstairs window remained broken.
Dominic stood inside the apartment while Vincent covered it with plywood.
Paulie waited downstairs.
Riley had not spoken to him since the cemetery.
Dominic understood.
Paulie did too.
At four fifteen, Riley put Noah to bed on the sofa farthest from the damaged window.
She came downstairs.
Paulie stood beside the cutting table.
“I didn’t kill your father.”
Riley walked past him.
“I didn’t ask.”
“My brother didn’t either.”
She stopped.
“Then why were they there?”
Paulie looked at Dominic.
Dominic nodded.
“Tell her.”
Paulie sat.
“My brother Sean drove for your father.”
Riley’s eyes moved to Dominic.
“Salvatore?”
“Yes.”
Paulie continued.
“Tony came to Arthur because he believed Arthur had records proving he was taking money off the books. Salvatore found out.”
“Why did Salvatore go?” Riley asked.
“To stop Tony.”
Riley folded her arms.
“And?”
Paulie rubbed both hands over his face.
“I only know what Sean told me. They argued. Arthur threatened to expose Tony. Salvatore told Tony he was finished.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
“He never fired Tony.”
“No.”
“Why?”
Paulie looked at the floor.
“Because Arthur collapsed during the argument.”
Riley’s face drained.
“What happened?”
“Sean said Arthur grabbed his chest. Tony wanted to leave him.”
Riley stepped forward.
Paulie raised both hands.
“Salvatore called an ambulance.”
“Then why hide it?”
“Because Tony convinced him that if anyone found out what they were fighting about, the records would come out.”
Dominic’s voice sharpened.
“My father was afraid of a notebook?”
“He was afraid of what was in it.”
Riley looked toward the metal box.
“The leather ledger.”
Paulie nodded.
Dominic turned on him.
“How long have you known?”
“Not everything.”
“How long?”
“Five years.”
Dominic punched the wall.
The sound woke Noah upstairs.
Riley immediately looked toward the ceiling.
Dominic lowered his hand.
“I’m sorry.”
The apology surprised Paulie.
Riley disappeared upstairs.
Dominic stared at Paulie.
“You let me keep Tony as underboss.”
“I made a promise to Sean.”
“To protect Tony?”
“To keep you from starting a war over Arthur’s death.”
Dominic laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“You don’t get to decide what truth I can handle.”
“I know.”
“No. You knew.”
Paulie looked at him.
“I thought your father knew what he was doing.”
“My father died still protecting Tony.”
“I think he was protecting you.”
Dominic stared.
“From what?”
Paulie glanced toward the box.
“That.”
Riley returned.
Noah was asleep again.
She carried the leather ledger.
She placed it on the table.
“This ends tonight.”
Dominic looked at her.
“You’re opening it?”
“Yes.”
“Your father told you—”
“My father is dead because too many men kept secrets.”
She removed the elastic.
The first pages contained dates.
Payments.
Names.
Initials.
Arthur had organized everything like shop inventory.
Dominic recognized city officials.
Judges.
Union representatives.
Police commanders.
Business owners.
Some entries were decades old.
Others ended weeks before Arthur died.
Riley turned pages.
Tony Valente’s name appeared repeatedly.
Amounts increased over time.
Beside several payments Arthur had written:
NOT AUTHORIZED BY S.C.
Dominic leaned closer.
“S.C. My father.”
Paulie nodded.
Riley continued.
Then one entry stopped them.
January 14.
T.V. demanded location of C.F.
S.C. intervened.
Threatened exposure.
If I am gone, open envelope beneath east block.
Riley looked across the shop.
“East block?”
There were three old butcher blocks.
The eastern one stood beside the freezer.
Dominic helped move it.
Riley ran her hands along the bottom.
Nothing.
Paulie found a narrow groove.
They tipped the block.
A sealed envelope had been taped inside a recessed panel.
Riley removed it.
Arthur’s handwriting covered the front.
FOR DOMINIC CASTELLI ONLY.
Dominic stared.
Riley held it out.
“This is yours.”
He opened it.
Inside was one photograph.
And a handwritten page.
The photograph showed Tony Valente shaking hands with Marco Bellini.
Between them stood Councilman Frederick Hale.
On the table was a map of the neighborhood.
Several properties had red circles.
Hayes Prime Cuts was one.
Dominic’s legitimate construction company was another.
The old waterfront warehouses were circled too.
The handwritten page explained the plan.
Tony and Bellini intended to create violence between their organizations.
Property values would drop.
Businesses would close.
Hale would push redevelopment permits through the city.
Shell companies would buy the properties cheaply.
Then luxury development would begin.
Both criminal organizations would profit.
Except Dominic.
Arthur believed Tony planned to arrange Dominic’s death during the manufactured war and blame Bellini.
Dominic read the final line twice.
Tony does not want to inherit the Castelli family.
He wants to sell it.
Paulie swore.
Riley went quiet.
Dominic sat.
For the first time since she met him, he looked tired.
Not physically.
Older.
Riley recognized that kind of exhaustion.
It came from discovering that the story you had believed about your life had been written by someone dishonest.
“What now?” she asked.
Dominic stared at the photograph.
“Now I find Tony.”
Paulie stood.
“I’ll get the men.”
“No.”
“Boss.”
“No armies.”
Riley watched him.
Dominic continued.
“That’s what Tony wants. Noise. Violence. Bodies. He wants Bellini and me tearing the city apart.”
“So what do we do?” Paulie asked.
Dominic looked at Arthur’s ledger.
“We use the butcher’s method.”
Riley raised an eyebrow.
“What exactly is the butcher’s method?”
Dominic looked at her.
“Cut precisely.”
Despite herself, Riley smiled.
It disappeared quickly.
“There’s more.”
She turned several pages.
A list of names appeared.
At the top:
C.F.
Dominic saw it.
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know.”
Paulie went pale again.
Dominic noticed.
“You do.”
Paulie did not answer.
“Paulie.”
He exhaled.
“Castelli Foundation.”
Dominic frowned.
“There is no Castelli Foundation.”
“There was supposed to be.”
Paulie pointed at the initials.
“Your mother started it.”
Dominic froze.
“My mother died when I was twelve.”
“Yes.”
“What does she have to do with this?”
Paulie looked at Arthur’s letter.
“Everything.”
Riley flipped the page.
Taped inside was a photograph of a beautiful dark-haired woman standing beside Arthur Hayes.
Dominic knew her instantly.
Elena Castelli.
His mother.
Riley looked between him and the photograph.
On the back, Arthur had written a sentence.
Elena’s money belongs to Dominic, not Salvatore, not Tony, and not the family.
Dominic stared.
“My mother had money?”
Paulie nodded slowly.
“A lot.”
“How much?”
“I don’t know.”
Riley turned another page.
Arthur had written a bank name.
An account reference.
And beneath it:
If Dominic ever decides to leave the life his father chose for him, this will give him the chance.
Nobody spoke.
Dominic sat in his father’s enemy’s butcher shop, holding proof that his mother had planned an escape for him twenty-four years earlier.
Riley watched something break behind his eyes.
Quietly.
Not dramatically.
That somehow made it worse.
Then the shop phone rang.
Everyone looked at it.
Four thirty-seven in the morning.
Riley answered.
“Hayes Prime Cuts.”
A familiar voice came through the receiver.
Tony Valente.
“Put Dominic on.”
Riley handed him the phone.
Dominic listened.
Tony laughed.
“You’ve been busy tonight.”
Dominic’s expression emptied.
“What do you want?”
“The ledger.”
“No.”
“Then perhaps you should look outside.”
Dominic turned.
Across the street stood a black Lincoln.
Beside it, a man held a gasoline can.
Tony continued.
“Arthur should have burned those records when he had the chance.”
Dominic watched the man unscrew the cap.
Tony’s voice dropped.
“You have one hour.”
The line went dead.
Riley looked at Dominic.
He put down the receiver.
“One hour for what?”
Dominic stared at the shop his mother’s old friend had tried to protect.
“To decide whether Tony burns the building…”
He looked upstairs, where Noah slept.
May you like
“…or I burn his entire plan first.”
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