Chapter 4 - Sofia's Warning
Maribel stared at the monitor.
"Sofia?"
Her sister could not hear her.
Downstairs, Sofia clutched the brown ledger against her chest.
Her hair was messy.
Her coat was torn near one sleeve.
But she appeared physically unharmed.
Nico reached for the intercom.
Maribel stopped him.
"She said not to let you downstairs."
"I heard her."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
"You're surprisingly calm."
"I'm not calm."
He looked at her.
"I'm trying not to make your sister more afraid."
That answer complicated Maribel's anger.
She turned to Luca.
"Bring Sofia upstairs."
Sofia refused.
She would only come if Nico moved into another room.
Nico did so without arguing.
That surprised everyone.
Luca escorted Sofia upstairs.
The moment the elevator opened, Maribel ran to her.
Sofia dropped the ledger and hugged her.
Maribel felt her sister shaking.
"Where were you?"
"I'm sorry."
"Do you have any idea—"
"I know."
"No, you don't. I thought you were dead."
Sofia began crying.
"I'm sorry."
Maribel held her until the anger lost its edge.
Then they sat.
Nico remained inside his study with the door closed.
Maribel pointed at the ledger.
"Start talking."
Sofia wiped her eyes.
"I found it two months ago."
"Mom said."
"I read part of it."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I didn't understand it."
"Then why take it?"
Sofia looked toward the study.
"Because somebody broke into Mom's house."
Elena gasped.
"When?"
"Three weeks ago."
"You knew?"
"I came by while you were at church. The basement window was open."
Sofia had checked the hidden compartment.
Ledger still there.
She became frightened.
So she took it.
"I thought whoever came in would return."
"Why not call police?"
"Because I read Dad's notes."
Sofia opened the ledger.
Inside the back cover, Salvatore had written:
If anything happens to me, assume law enforcement is compromised until proven otherwise.
Maribel's skin prickled.
Sofia continued.
"I started researching the names."
One appeared repeatedly.
Anthony Moretti.
Another:
Vittorio Bellante.
Maribel glanced toward Nico's closed door.
"That doesn't prove Nico did anything. He was a teenager when Dad died."
"I know."
"Then why won't you let him near you?"
Sofia reached into her coat.
She removed a photograph.
Maribel recognized Nico immediately.
The picture had been taken recently.
Nico leaving an Italian restaurant.
Beside him walked Gabriel Torres.
Maribel frowned.
"You said Gabriel only showed up tonight."
Nico had implied he knew of Gabriel.
Not that they had met recently.
Sofia said, "That photo was taken six weeks ago."
Maribel felt something sink inside her.
She knocked on the study door.
"Nico."
He opened it.
His eyes went immediately to the photograph.
Maribel held it up.
"Explain."
He sighed.
"Gabriel contacted me two months ago."
Maribel laughed bitterly.
"You lied."
"Yes."
The honesty stopped her.
"Why?"
"Because he told me someone had restarted the Moretti laundering network inside Bellante Global."
"And my father?"
"Gabriel didn't tell me Salvatore Rivera was your father until tonight."
"Did he mention Salvatore?"
"Yes."
Maribel's anger sharpened.
"So when you recognized the name, you already knew Gabriel was investigating him."
"I knew Salvatore was connected to old financial records."
"You should have told me."
"I should have."
No excuses.
That made it harder to remain furious.
Sofia stood.
"There's more."
She opened the ledger to a marked page.
A list of coded transactions appeared.
Next to several was a handwritten symbol.
A small bell.
Maribel looked at Nico.
"Bellante?"
Nico studied it.
"Probably."
Sofia flipped forward.
Next to another set of transactions was an M.
Moretti.
Then an R.
Rivera?
Maribel asked, "What's R?"
Sofia shook her head.
"I don't know."
Nico examined the handwriting.
"This isn't all Salvatore's."
Everyone looked at him.
"How can you tell?"
"My grandfather wrote like this."
He pointed to annotations in blue ink.
"Salvatore wrote black. Vittorio wrote blue."
Two men had built the ledger together.
That changed everything.
Perhaps Vittorio had not been the enemy.
Maybe he had been helping Salvatore expose one.
Nico opened another page.
At the top:
PROJECT NORTHSTAR.
Maribel remembered something.
"The $2.8 million payment."
Everyone looked at her.
"The transaction code was NS-17."
Nico froze.
"Northstar."
Sofia whispered, "It's active again."
They compared dates.
Eighteen years ago, Project Northstar had tracked money diverted through shell companies.
Today, identical codes appeared inside Bellante Global accounts.
Someone had resurrected the system.
Or never stopped it.
Nico called Luca.
"Get me Grant's personnel file."
Luca accessed it.
Grant Mercer joined Bellante Global nine years earlier.
Before that:
Rossi Maritime Consulting.
Maribel stared.
"He worked for them."
Sofia said, "He's the connection."
Nico shook his head.
"He's a connection."
"Meaning?"
"Grant isn't powerful enough to authorize everything we've seen."
Maribel thought of access levels.
Five people.
Grant.
Paul.
Dominic.
Henry.
Nico.
Grant had vanished.
Paul had vanished with him.
Two suspects.
"What about Caldwell?"
"Henry's been with us twenty-two years."
Sofia gave Nico a look.
"So he was there when Dad died."
Nobody spoke.
Nico immediately ordered Henry Caldwell located.
Security found him at home.
He agreed to come in.
Forty minutes later, Henry entered Nico's penthouse looking furious.
He was sixty-three.
Gray-haired.
Precise.
The kind of CFO who considered loosened ties a personal failure.
He saw Maribel.
Then Sofia.
Then the ledger.
His face collapsed.
"Where did you get that?"
Maribel stood.
"You've seen it."
Henry looked at Nico.
"Nico."
"Answer her."
Henry lowered himself into a chair.
"Yes."
"When?"
"Eighteen years ago."
Maribel's pulse hammered.
"You knew my father."
Henry closed his eyes.
"Yes."
"Was he murdered?"
A long silence.
"Yes."
Elena began crying softly.
Maribel felt almost nothing.
Shock had pushed her beyond grief.
"Who killed him?"
Henry looked toward the windows.
"Anthony Moretti ordered it."
"Why?"
"Because Salvatore and Vittorio were about to expose him."
Nico leaned forward.
"My grandfather was helping Salvatore."
"Yes."
"What happened?"
Henry swallowed.
"Vittorio was supposed to meet Salvatore that night. He never arrived."
"Why?"
"Because someone told him Salvatore had betrayed him."
"Who?"
Henry's expression filled with shame.
"I did."
Nico stepped backward.
"You?"
"I was twenty-nine. Moretti threatened my wife. My newborn son."
Henry's voice broke.
"He told me if I didn't keep Vittorio away, my family would disappear."
"So you lied."
"Yes."
"And my father died because of it," Maribel said.
Henry looked at her.
"Yes."
The room went silent.
Maribel expected hatred.
Instead, she felt exhausted.
Henry had carried this for eighteen years.
Perhaps that was punishment.
Not enough.
But punishment.
"Why is Northstar active again?"
Henry looked confused.
"It isn't."
Maribel showed him the transfer.
Henry stared.
"That code hasn't been used since Salvatore died."
"Someone used it last week."
Henry's fear appeared genuine.
"Then Anthony Moretti isn't gone."
Nico frowned.
"He's seventy-four."
"Age doesn't erase ambition."
Luca interrupted from across the room.
"I found Grant."
Everyone turned.
A traffic camera had captured him entering an industrial property near the Brooklyn waterfront.
Property owner:
Rossi Maritime.
Nico began issuing orders.
Maribel said, "I'm coming."
"No."
She glared.
He corrected himself.
"I would prefer—"
"Nico."
He sighed.
"Fine."
Sofia said, "Me too."
Maribel answered immediately.
"Absolutely not."
Sofia folded her arms.
"Interesting how quickly you became Nico."
Even Nico almost smiled.
They left Sofia with Elena and two guards.
Nico, Maribel, Luca, and four security men drove toward Brooklyn.
The warehouse appeared abandoned.
But lights glowed inside.
Luca's team entered through a side door.
No resistance.
They found Grant Mercer in an office.
Alive.
Terrified.
His hands were zip-tied to a chair.
His face was bruised.
Maribel stopped.
Grant stared at her.
"You shouldn't be here."
Nico cut him loose.
"Where's Paul?"
Grant shook his head.
"They took him."
"Who?"
Grant looked at Maribel.
"The people who want your father's ledger."
She stepped closer.
"You worked for Rossi Maritime."
"I didn't know what they were then."
"You lied about Meridian."
"Yes."
"You deleted the payment."
"Yes."
"Why?"
Grant looked ashamed.
"Because they told me to."
"Anthony Moretti?"
"No."
"Then who?"
Grant began trembling.
Nico crouched in front of him.
"Say the name."
Grant opened his mouth.
A gunshot shattered the office window.
Everyone dropped.
Luca dragged Grant down.
Security returned fire toward the opposite rooftop.
Maribel lay behind a metal desk with Nico shielding her.
Another shot.
Then silence.
Luca checked Grant.
Alive.
The bullet had missed him by inches.
Grant stared at the broken window.
"They're going to kill me."
Nico grabbed his collar.
"Who?"
Grant whispered the answer.
"Gabriel Torres."
Maribel stopped breathing.
Before anyone could speak, Nico's phone rang.
Sofia's security detail.
Nico answered.
His expression changed immediately.
"What happened?"
Maribel stood.
"What?"
Nico slowly lowered the phone.
"The guards are unconscious."
Maribel's blood turned cold.
"My mother?"
"Gone."
"Sofia?"
Nico looked at her.
"Gone too."
Then Maribel's phone buzzed.
A video arrived.
Gabriel Torres appeared on screen.
Behind him sat Elena and Sofia, bound to chairs.
Gabriel smiled.
"Bring me the ledger, Maribel."
A door opened behind him.
Someone stepped into the frame.
May you like
And Maribel recognized the man immediately.
Paul Danner.
