Chapter 4 - The Ledger of Dead Men
By noon, the Lincoln Park safe house looked less like a home and more like a war room.
Maps covered the dining table.
Encrypted laptops replaced breakfast dishes.
Security teams rotated every twenty minutes.
Daniel Hargrove sat in a locked room downstairs under guard.
Alessandro remained in the library with Marco.
And Federica sat beside Gabriele going through twenty years of corporate records.
Nobody had asked if she wanted to help.
Technically.
Gabriele had told her she should rest.
Federica had ignored him.
He had told Marco to remove the laptop.
Federica had stared at Marco until he quietly placed it back.
Gabriele had discovered that his authority, which worked extremely well on armed men, had limited success on accountants.
He was not accustomed to this.
He found it irritating.
And strangely compelling.
Federica opened another archived ledger.
“Here.”
Gabriele leaned closer.
Their shoulders nearly touched.
He smelled faintly of coffee and rain.
She tried not to notice.
“A charitable donation?” he asked.
“Technically.”
“Technically means?”
“It isn’t.”
She enlarged the transaction.
“Your father donated two million dollars to Lakeshore Medical Research nine years ago.”
“I remember.”
“Three weeks later, one-point-four million moved into a separate consulting fund.”
“Gray?”
“Eventually.”
Gabriele’s expression hardened.
Federica traced the chain.
“You were right about laundering legitimate money through ordinary businesses. Whoever built this knew auditors would search for unusually large transactions.”
“So they used normal ones.”
“Yes.”
She clicked.
“Charitable donations. Legal fees. Insurance retainers. Construction consulting. Nothing individually suspicious.”
“But combined?”
Federica looked at him.
“It’s a map.”
“To what?”
“Deaths.”
Gabriele did not react.
She wished he had.
His stillness was more frightening than anger.
Federica opened a spreadsheet she had constructed.
“Your father died nine years ago.”
“Yes.”
“Payments increase six months beforehand.”
Another line.
“Matteo’s accident.”
More payments.
“Four months beforehand.”
Then Leo’s kidnapping.
“Six weeks.”
Gabriele stared.
“Can you identify the next target?”
Federica hesitated.
“I think so.”
“Who?”
“You.”
He barely blinked.
She hated that.
“Could you at least pretend that concerns you?”
“It does.”
“You look like someone told you the elevator is delayed.”
“What would you prefer?”
“I don’t know. Self-preservation?”
His gaze moved over her face.
“You were kidnapped yesterday and refused to leave a computer this morning.”
“That is different.”
“How?”
“I am sensible.”
Gabriele actually laughed.
It was quiet.
Short.
But real.
Federica stared at him.
“That may be the first evidence today that you’re human.”
“You should not spread rumors.”
For two seconds, everything felt almost normal.
Then the screen beeped.
Federica’s smile disappeared.
A new financial connection had appeared.
She opened it.
“Gabriele.”
He leaned closer.
A payment had been scheduled three days earlier.
Half a million dollars.
Destination:
RAVENSWOOD EVENTS LLC.
“What is that?” he asked.
Federica searched.
A company profile appeared.
Her stomach tightened.
“They manage private event security.”
Gabriele stared.
“For what event?”
She checked.
Then looked at him.
“The St. Vincent Foundation gala.”
His expression changed.
“That’s tonight.”
“You’re attending?”
“My family sponsors it.”
Federica looked through the transfer.
“Cancel.”
“I cannot.”
She stared.
“Of course you can.”
“If I cancel, Evelyn knows we found something.”
“And if you attend, she may kill you.”
“Then she reveals herself.”
“By killing you.”
“That would be inconvenient.”
“Inconvenient?”
He gave her a faint look.
“You dislike my vocabulary.”
“I dislike your survival instincts.”
He leaned back.
“Federica, if Evelyn believes her network remains hidden, she will continue operating normally.”
“And you want her to.”
“Yes.”
“So we can track her.”
“Yes.”
She crossed her arms.
“No.”
One eyebrow lifted.
“No?”
“You’re not going.”
“I am.”
“No.”
“Federica.”
“Gabriele.”
Marco entered at exactly the wrong moment.
He looked between them.
“Am I interrupting?”
“Yes,” they said simultaneously.
Marco almost smiled.
Then his expression turned serious.
“We found the captured attackers.”
Gabriele stood.
“Names?”
“Mercenaries. Mostly East Coast.”
“Connection to Sterling?”
“Paid through Ravenswood Events.”
Federica looked at Gabriele.
He looked back.
Point made.
Marco continued.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“One of them had a photograph.”
He placed it on the table.
Federica’s breath stopped.
The photograph showed her leaving her apartment.
Taken from across the street.
Gabriele picked it up.
Behind it was another.
Federica at a coffee shop.
Another.
Entering Romano Holdings.
Another.
Walking home.
Dates marked the corners.
Some were six months old.
Gabriele’s face became terrifying.
“They were watching her before yesterday.”
Marco nodded.
Federica looked through the photographs.
Her hands suddenly felt cold.
“Why?”
Marco said, “We don’t know.”
Gabriele picked up another image.
Federica sitting at a restaurant with her older aunt.
Another at a grocery store.
Another through the window of her office.
“This is surveillance,” he said.
“Very observant.”
Her humor sounded weaker than she intended.
Gabriele noticed.
“Federica.”
“I’m fine.”
“You say that often.”
“Usually when I don’t want people asking questions.”
“I’m asking.”
She looked at the photographs.
Six months.
Someone had known her routines.
Where she lived.
Where she ate.
Who she spoke to.
Before the ambush.
Before Hargrove’s request.
Before she had any idea Sterling existed.
“There must be something I found,” she said.
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
“You would remember.”
“Not necessarily.”
Gabriele frowned.
Federica explained.
“I audit thousands of transactions. Sometimes I flag anomalies and move on when supporting documents arrive.”
She opened her work history.
“Six months ago…”
Search.
Reports.
Compliance flags.
Then she stopped.
“There.”
An internal discrepancy.
Only $18,400.
Small by Romano Holdings standards.
The kind senior executives would ignore.
Federica had not.
“What was it?” Gabriele asked.
“A consulting invoice.”
“To whom?”
She clicked.
The vendor appeared.
GRAY CONSULTING.
Everyone became silent.
“What happened after you flagged it?” Marco asked.
Federica searched.
“My supervisor closed the review.”
“Who?”
She looked at the authorization.
Her face changed.
“Hargrove.”
Gabriele headed toward the door.
Federica stood.
“Wait.”
He stopped.
“If Hargrove wanted me dead, why warn us now?”
“He may be protecting himself.”
“Or he was threatened.”
Gabriele looked at her.
She continued.
“Bring him here.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“He put you in danger.”
“So did whoever controls him.”
“That does not excuse him.”
“I didn’t say it did.”
She stepped closer.
“But angry questions get frightened answers. We need accurate ones.”
Gabriele studied her.
“You want to interrogate him?”
“I want to audit him.”
Marco muttered, “I think I’d prefer interrogation.”
Twenty minutes later, Hargrove sat across from Federica.
Gabriele remained against the wall.
Hargrove could feel his presence.
That was intentional.
Federica placed the small invoice between them.
“Tell me about this.”
Hargrove looked.
His shoulders collapsed.
“That was when everything started.”
“What started?”
“They contacted me.”
“Who?”
“Gray.”
“Why?”
“Because you flagged the payment.”
Federica stared.
“Me?”
“They asked who discovered it.”
“And you told them.”
Hargrove looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
Gabriele moved.
Federica lifted one hand without looking at him.
Stop.
Shockingly, he did.
“What did they want?” Federica asked.
“To know how much you had seen.”
“How much had I?”
“Not enough.”
“But they continued watching me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Hargrove swallowed.
“Because Evelyn Sterling became convinced you would eventually find the entire structure.”
Federica felt sick.
“She wanted me dead?”
“No.”
Hargrove’s answer came too fast.
Gabriele stepped away from the wall.
“Explain.”
Hargrove looked terrified.
“She didn’t want Federica dead.”
“Then what?”
“She wanted her working for Sterling.”
Federica almost laughed.
“That was never going to happen.”
“I told them.”
“What did they say?”
Hargrove looked directly at her.
“That people become cooperative when you threaten someone they love.”
Federica’s face went still.
“My aunt.”
Hargrove nodded.
Gabriele’s voice became lethal.
“Where is she?”
Federica stood so fast the chair fell backward.
“My aunt is at home.”
Marco was already calling.
No answer.
Federica grabbed her phone.
Called.
Once.
Twice.
Voicemail.
Her breathing changed.
Gabriele approached.
“Marco will find her.”
Federica looked at him.
For the first time since the warehouse, true panic appeared.
“My parents are gone. She’s the only family I have.”
Gabriele said nothing.
He reached for her hand.
Federica allowed it.
Marco returned thirty seconds later.
His face told them the answer before he spoke.
“The apartment is empty.”
Federica’s knees almost failed.
Gabriele caught her.
Marco held out a phone.
“We found this outside.”
On the screen was a message.
One sentence.
BRING FEDERICA TO THE GALA TONIGHT, OR HER AUNT DOESN’T SEE MORNING.
Federica stared.
The St. Vincent Foundation gala.
The event Gabriele had planned to attend as bait.
Now the trap had changed.
They were no longer hunting Evelyn Sterling.
Evelyn was inviting them in.
May you like
And this time, Federica was the price of admission.
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