It was attached to a claim from the truck stop’s damaged security system.
Nobody noticed the man in the background.”
“How did it get to you?” Dante asked.
“My father put it there.”
Dante’s brow tightened.
I placed a handwritten note on the table.
The paper was old, creased four times, and addressed in my father’s unmistakable handwriting.
Elena, if this reaches you, I am alive.
Do not look for me until you can prove who betrayed us.
My voice nearly failed when I read the line aloud.
Nearly.
“He survived the warehouse,” I said.
“Sal helped him escape.”
All eyes turned to Sal.
The old man nodded.
“I found Jack in the drainage tunnel behind the building.
I took him to a doctor who owed me a favor.
Vince had already sent men to Elena’s apartment.
Jack knew that if he came home, they would use her to reach him.”
I remembered that night.
Two men had stood across the street from our building until dawn.
I had thought they were reporters.
Sal continued.
“Jack decided to disappear.
I arranged papers and money.
He promised he would come back when he had enough proof to bring Vince down without starting a war.”
“Where is he?” I asked.
Sal looked at me with an expression I could not read.
“I don’t know.”
Vince exhaled, almost relieved.
I closed the red folder.
“That’s not true.”
Every head turned toward me.
I took out my phone and pressed play.
Static filled the room.
Then my father’s voice spoke for the first time in ten years.
“If you are hearing this, Elena found the ledger.”
My knees weakened, but I remained standing.
The recording continued.
“Vince Moretti ordered the false transfers.
He used North Quay Development, Bell Harbor Freight, and three overseas accounts.
Henry Mercer copied the records.
I confronted Vince on October 14.
He admitted everything.”
A second voice entered the recording.
Vince’s voice.
“You should have taken your share, Jack.”
My father answered, “I don’t steal from men who trust me.”
Vince laughed.
“Once Caldwell takes the blame, nobody will ever look at me.”
The recording stopped.
No one in the room moved.
Vince’s face had become gray.
He glanced at the side door.
Paulie stepped in front of it.
