Chapter 7 - The Case Against Aleandro Moretti
By noon, the first story appeared online.
MORETTI COMPANY LINKED TO DEATH OF WATERFRONT ENGINEER.
Claire read it twice.
Then a third time.
The article cited anonymous documents showing that Ethan Bennett had reported safety violations connected to Moretti Maritime shortly before his death.
Another document allegedly showed a payment approved by Aleandro Moretti to Northline Industrial days later.
The implication was obvious.
Ethan had discovered something.
Aleandro had silenced him.
Within an hour, reporters gathered outside Moretti-owned offices.
By afternoon, television vans waited near Il Corvano.
Aleandro watched the coverage without visible emotion.
Claire hated that.
"Say something."
He looked at her.
"You keep asking me to do that."
"Because you stand there like none of this matters."
"It matters."
"Then look like it."
Aleandro lowered the tablet.
"What would make you comfortable? Anger? Fear?"
"Anything human."
His jaw tightened.
"There are police outside businesses that employ four hundred people. My sister has reporters outside her hotel in Rome. Luca's wife received three calls asking whether her husband helped cover up a murder."
Claire's anger vanished slightly.
Aleandro continued.
"And the woman whose husband actually died is standing five feet from me trying to decide whether the accusations might be true."
Claire looked away.
"Are they?"
"No."
"You said yourself you can't prove everything."
"I did not kill Ethan."
"Did you order anyone to frighten him?"
"No."
"Did you know who he was before the crash?"
"No."
"Did you approve money to Northline?"
"Legitimate invoices, yes. The transfers they're showing, no."
Claire studied him.
"Then why aren't you fighting publicly?"
"Because Matteo expects me to."
"What does that mean?"
"He wants me angry. Defensive. He wants me calling reporters liars and threatening lawsuits while more documents appear."
Luca nodded.
"Then every reaction becomes part of the story."
Claire looked at the television.
"So you do nothing?"
"No."
Aleandro picked up his phone.
"We find the original records."
The investigation moved from defense to reconstruction.
Claire worked beside Luca for ten hours.
She traced timestamps.
Bank transfers.
Credential logs.
Server backups.
Aleandro called people whose names rarely appeared on paper.
Giovanni contacted retired employees from Northline.
By midnight, they understood Matteo's method.
He had created real transactions, then attached false descriptions.
He had copied Aleandro's authorization credentials on dates when Aleandro was away.
He had redirected compliance complaints.
He had arranged settlements through law firms he controlled.
Then he saved everything.
Not to hide it.
To use it.
"It's a dead man's switch," Claire said.
Luca looked up.
"What?"
"Not literally. Financially."
She pointed at the screen.
"Matteo created evidence implicating Aleandro so that if anyone ever discovered his fraud, he could expose enough of this to destroy Aleandro first."
Aleandro stood behind her.
"Mutually assured destruction."
"Except you didn't know you were participating."
"Which gave him an advantage."
Claire scrolled.
Then stopped.
A payment code caught her eye.
EB-38.
"What?"
Aleandro asked.
"Ethan Bennett. Pier Thirty-Eight."
She opened the underlying record.
A payment of $75,000.
Recipient hidden through two holding companies.
Date: four days after Ethan's death.
Claire's breathing became shallow.
"Can we trace it?"
"I can try."
Two hours later she did.
The ultimate recipient wasn't a mechanic.
It wasn't Northline.
It belonged to a private investigative company called Dalca Risk Management.
Giovanni recognized it.
"They do surveillance."
Claire felt sick.
"They followed Ethan."
"Probably."
"For how long?"
Luca requested archived billing records through a contact.
The answer arrived shortly before dawn.
Six weeks.
Photographs were attached.
Ethan leaving work.
Ethan buying coffee.
Ethan picking Sophie up from preschool.
Ethan walking Max.
Claire had to stop looking.
"He watched my family."
Aleandro closed the laptop.
"Enough."
"No."
"Claire."
"I said no."
She reopened it.
"If Matteo watched Ethan, there may be something he saw that matters."
Photograph after photograph.
Then Claire stopped.
One image showed Ethan outside a diner.
Across from him stood a man.
Claire didn't recognize him.
Aleandro did.
"Victor Salvi."
Luca leaned closer.
"You're sure?"
"Yes."
"Who's that?" Claire asked.
Aleandro didn't answer quickly enough.
"Who?"
"A federal investigator."
Claire stared.
"Ethan went to the government?"
"Apparently."
"Then why wasn't there an investigation?"
"We need to ask Victor."
"Can we?"
Luca's expression was grim.
"Victor Salvi died eight months ago."
Claire closed her eyes.
Another dead man.
Another unanswered question.
But the photograph gave them something.
Ethan had tried more than one route.
He tried reaching Aleandro.
He tried Giovanni.
He tried federal authorities.
Somebody had blocked all three.
Sophie appeared in the doorway at seven in the morning.
"Are you guys ever going to sleep?"
Claire looked at the clock.
"Apparently not."
Sophie walked over carrying three cereal bowls.
"I made breakfast."
Aleandro inspected his bowl.
Dry cereal.
No milk.
Sophie explained, "I can't reach the milk."
He stood.
"I can."
Claire watched Aleandro Moretti walk to the refrigerator because a seven-year-old had assigned him breakfast duty.
It was absurd.
And painfully ordinary.
Later, Sophie sat across from him.
"Are you famous?"
Aleandro paused.
"Why?"
"You're on TV."
Claire immediately reached for the remote.
Too late.
Sophie had seen the headline.
She sounded out the words.
"Suspected... cover..."
Claire turned off the television.
"It's grown-up stuff."
"Did Mr. Aleandro hurt Daddy?"
The room went silent.
Aleandro looked at Claire.
She could have answered.
Instead she waited.
Maybe because some part of her needed to hear what he would say.
Aleandro crouched beside Sophie.
"No."
"Do you know who did?"
"I think I'm getting closer."
"Will you tell Mommy?"
"Yes."
"Even if it's somebody you like?"
Aleandro glanced toward Luca and Giovanni.
Then back at Sophie.
"Especially then."
Sophie studied him with the serious intensity children sometimes possessed when adults expected innocence.
"Okay."
She returned to her cereal.
Claire had to look away.
That afternoon, a package arrived at the local post office under Claire's maiden name.
Nobody knew how Matteo had connected her to the cabin.
Inside was a small voice recorder.
One file.
Ethan's voice.
Claire pressed play.
Static.
Then her husband.
"If you're hearing this, it means I couldn't get the documents where they needed to go."
Claire covered her mouth.
Sophie was outside with Max.
Aleandro stood behind Claire.
Ethan continued.
"The person covering this up has access to Moretti's office. I don't know whether Moretti knows. I don't know whether he's part of it."
Claire closed her eyes.
Then Ethan said something that made Aleandro step forward.
"But if something happens to me, don't assume Aleandro Moretti ordered it."
Claire looked at him.
The recording continued.
"I think somebody is using his name."
Then another man's voice appeared.
Faint.
Distant.
Ethan stopped speaking.
Footsteps.
The file ended.
Claire stared at the recorder.
For eighteen months she had wondered what Ethan had known.
Now she finally had part of the answer.
He had suspected Aleandro was being framed before his death.
Matteo's attempt to turn Claire against Aleandro had failed.
But Aleandro understood something worse.
"If Matteo sent this..."
Claire looked at him.
"He has Ethan's belongings."
"Yes."
"How?"
Aleandro's face darkened.
"Because whoever reached Ethan after he died took more than his life."
The package contained one additional item.
A photograph.
Recent.
Taken that morning.
Sophie and Max outside the cabin.
Claire's blood went cold.
Somebody had been close enough to photograph her daughter.
Aleandro looked through the window toward the tree line.
The cabin was compromised.
And this time Matteo hadn't sent men to test the door.
He had sent proof that he could see them whenever he wanted.
May you like
Before sunset, Aleandro would move Claire and Sophie again—but Matteo had already decided where he wanted them to go.
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