Chapter 4 - Three Days Nobody Knew About
Silvio Vescari looked older than the photographs I remembered.
But not weak.
Men like him rarely became harmless with age.
They became patient.
The last time I had seen Silvio, I was nineteen.
He had been leaving my father’s study after midnight.
The next morning, an accountant named Paul Rinaldi disappeared.
Two weeks later, Silvio was gone too.
My father never explained.
He simply said, “Some men become liabilities.”
I assumed Silvio was dead.
I had been wrong.
He stepped away from the black SUV wearing a gray summer jacket and an expression almost warm enough to fool somebody who did not know him.
“Adrian.”
I moved Sophie behind me.
“Silvio.”
He smiled.
“You remember.”
“You're difficult to forget.”
Elena whispered, “Sophie, inside.”
“I want to stay.”
“Inside. Now.”
Something in her mother's voice convinced her.
Sophie ran.
Silvio watched her disappear.
Too carefully.
I noticed.
“Elena Vale,” he said.
Elena stood beside me.
“You stay away from my daughter.”
“Of course.”
Silvio looked almost offended.
“I would never harm a child.”
I had heard men say things like that before.
Usually shortly before explaining why circumstances had forced them to do exactly what they claimed they would never do.
I glanced at the SUV.
Moretti fleet number.
One of ours.
“How did you get that vehicle?”
Silvio smiled.
“I borrowed it.”
“From whom?”
“You should ask your people.”
“I’m asking you.”
“Still impatient.”
“And you’re still alive. We’re both surprising each other.”
His smile faded slightly.
Elena whispered, “Why are you here?”
Silvio looked at her.
“Because your mother made promises.”
“My mother is dead.”
“Yes.”
The casual way he said it made Elena flinch.
I stepped closer.
“Careful.”
Silvio looked at me.
There it was.
The old calculation.
He was trying to determine what Elena meant to me.
Whether I knew.
How much I knew.
“Rose was a good woman,” he said.
Elena’s hands clenched.
“You threatened her for thirty years.”
“I protected her.”
“From what?”
Silvio's eyes moved toward me.
“From the Morettis.”
I laughed once.
“You expect that to work?”
“Your father expected loyalty.”
“My father is dead.”
“But his mistakes are very much alive.”
He glanced toward the house.
I stepped into his line of sight.
“Don't look at the child again.”
Something changed in his expression.
Understanding.
“So she told you.”
“Elena told me enough.”
“Did she?”
Silvio looked almost amused.
“You think Rose Vale was Vittorio’s only secret?”
Elena stared at him.
“What does that mean?”
“You don't know?”
“Silvio,” I warned.
He lifted his hands.
“Relax.”
“You came here in my vehicle to a property nobody in my organization should know about. I’m not relaxed.”
“I came because somebody else is coming.”
That silenced me.
“Who?”
“The people who have been watching Elena.”
Elena's face tightened.
“You?”
“No.”
Silvio sounded genuinely offended now.
“I spent years making sure nobody found you.”
“You threatened my mother.”
“I made her disappear.”
“That isn't protection.”
“It was from where I stood.”
I watched him.
“Who is coming?”
“You know the answer.”
“No, I don’t.”
Silvio sighed.
“Then your organization is in worse condition than I feared.”
He reached slowly into his jacket.
My hand moved to my weapon.
He stopped.
“Photograph.”
“Use two fingers.”
He obeyed.
He removed an envelope and placed it on the hood of a rusted truck.
I picked it up.
Inside were photographs.
My Manhattan office.
My apartment building.
Luca Ferraro entering a restaurant.
Elena leaving a grocery store.
Sophie getting off a school bus.
My stomach turned.
The last photograph showed my sedan.
Taken Wednesday morning.
The day before I supposedly vanished without anybody knowing my route.
“That picture was taken in Manhattan,” I said.
Silvio nodded.
“Keep going.”
Another photograph.
My sedan at a gas station north of the city.
Another.
A toll plaza.
Then the turnoff toward Dutchess County.
Somebody had followed me.
All the way.
“Who took these?”
“Men working for Carlo DeMarco.”
The name landed hard.
Carlo DeMarco controlled a faction of organized crime that had spent fifteen years pretending to be at peace with my family.
“What does DeMarco want with Elena?”
Silvio looked at me.
“Not Elena.”
He pointed toward the house.
“The girl.”
Elena moved forward.
“Why?”
“Because of what Rose left behind.”
“I don't have anything.”
Silvio's expression said otherwise.
“Elena.”
“I don't.”
“Your mother was many things. Careless wasn't one of them.”
I stepped between them.
“Start explaining.”
Silvio looked at me for a long moment.
“Vittorio created an insurance policy.”
“My father hated insurance.”
“He hated trusting people more.”
“What policy?”
“A ledger.”
I felt my jaw tighten.
“What kind?”
“The kind powerful men kill entire families to control.”
Elena shook her head.
“My mother never said anything about a ledger.”
“She wouldn't.”
“Why?”
“Because the fewer people who knew, the safer you were.”
“And Sophie?”
Silvio's gaze hardened.
“Rose changed the hiding place before she died.”
“You think she gave it to a six-year-old?”
“No.”
He looked toward the garage.
“I think she hid the key somewhere only Sophie would recognize.”
Elena stared at him.
“That’s insane.”
“Your mother expected somebody to come eventually.”
“Who?”
Silvio looked at me.
“Adrian.”
Elena turned.
I felt as surprised as she did.
“Me?”
“Vittorio told Rose that if he died before fixing what he had done, his son would eventually find the truth.”
I laughed bitterly.
“My father had a remarkable opinion of my detective skills.”
“He knew you would start questioning the business.”
“He knew nothing about me.”
Silvio’s expression softened unexpectedly.
“He knew more than you think.”
I hated hearing that.
“Why follow me here?”
“I didn't.”
“Then how did you know?”
“Because the moment your sedan entered Dutchess County, somebody inside your organization made a call.”
My body went still.
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
“Lie.”
“It isn't.”
“You've had nineteen years to become a better liar.”
“I've had nineteen years to understand when not to lie to a Moretti.”
He looked at my car.
“Your breakdown wasn't accidental.”
Elena looked at me.
“What?”
I stared toward the sedan.
Silvio continued.
“Cooling line was cut.”
“How do you know?”
“Because the man who arranged it believed you'd be stranded two miles south, where there are no homes.”
“Why?”
“A second vehicle was supposed to meet you there.”
“Meet me?”
Silvio gave me a humorless smile.
“Kill you.”
The world narrowed.
Sophie.
The wrench.
The hidden road.
If the sedan had lasted another two miles, I would never have met her.
I would have been alone.
Exactly where somebody wanted me.
“Who sabotaged it?”
“One of your own mechanics.”
“On whose order?”
“That is what you need to discover.”
A sound came from inside the garage.
Metal falling.
We all turned.
Then Sophie screamed.
Elena ran.
I was faster.
I reached the garage door and drew my weapon.
A rear window stood open.
The curtain moved in the breeze.
“Sophie!”
No answer.
Elena rushed toward the stairs.
“Sophie!”
We found the child crouched behind a cabinet.
She was shaking.
I lowered the gun.
“Sophie.”
She pointed toward the rear door.
“A man was there.”
Elena dropped to her knees and pulled her close.
“What man?”
“I don't know.”
“What did he want?”
Sophie held out her fist.
Inside was a small brass key hanging from a faded red ribbon.
“He tried to take Grandma's key.”
Silvio entered behind us.
The moment he saw it, all confidence vanished from his face.
“My God.”
I looked at him.
“What?”
He stared at the little brass key.
May you like
“That’s what they came for.”
And somewhere in the woods behind the house, a branch snapped.
