Chapter 5 - THE BRACELET
The Great Hall of Union Station echoed with the dull roar of a late-night crowd.
Nobody noticed the man with the gun hidden beneath his folded newspaper.
Nobody noticed the terrified six-year-old boy.
"Mommy?" Leo's voice was a tiny, frightened squeak.
He was wearing only his sweater, shivering, his huge brown eyes filled with tears.
"Leo," I choked out, taking a step forward.
Keller casually shifted the newspaper. The dark barrel of the gun tracked my movement.
"Not another step, Sophie," the strange woman said.
I looked at her.
She was in her late fifties, wearing an expensive tailored trench coat.
Her hair was silver, pulled back in a severe twist.
Her eyes were cold. Empty.
But it was her wrist that caught my attention.
She was wearing a heavy, intricately carved gold bracelet.
It looked incredibly old.
"Who are you?" I demanded, my voice trembling. "Let him go."
"I am Eleanor Moretti," the woman said smoothly.
My breath caught.
Luca's mother.
The woman who supposedly died in a boating accident five years ago.
"You're dead," I whispered.
Eleanor smiled thinly. "I prefer the term 'relocated.' The weather in Switzerland is much better for my joints."
She tightened her grip on Leo's wrist. He winced.
"Where is my son, Sophie?" Eleanor asked.
"I'm right here, Mother."
The voice came from behind Keller.
Keller spun around, raising the gun.
Luca was standing there, his own weapon already drawn and pressed directly against the base of Keller's skull.
"Drop it," Luca said softly.
Keller froze.
"Luca," Eleanor said, her voice dripping with disappointed maternal scolding. "Always so dramatic. Have your man put the gun down."
"I am not playing a game, Mother," Luca said. "Let the boy go."
Eleanor sighed. "I can't do that, darling. Not until you give me the ledger."
Luca kept his gun pressed to Keller's head, but his eyes locked onto his mother.
"You faked your death," Luca said, his voice tightening. "You let me bury an empty casket. And now you come back to blackmail me?"
"I didn't come back for money, Luca. I came back to save the family."
"By stealing from it?"
"By protecting it from you!" Eleanor hissed, her composure finally cracking. "You were going to take the family legitimate. You were going to hand over the politicians, the judges, the entire network! You were going to destroy everything your father built!"
She pulled Leo slightly closer to her as a shield.
"So I took the ledger," Eleanor said. "And I hired David Bennett to doctor the accounts to cover my tracks. But David got a guilty conscience. He was going to tell you."
My stomach dropped.
David didn't find the missing money.
He was forced to hide it.
"You killed my husband," I said, tears spilling over my cheeks.
Eleanor didn't even look at me. "He was a casualty of business. Just like Vanessa."
Luca frowned. "Vanessa works for you?"
"Vanessa is a useful idiot," Eleanor scoffed. "She wanted to be a mafia wife. I promised her the position if she kept an eye on you. But she got greedy. She found out I had the ledger, and she wanted it for herself. That's why she brought Keller into your house today."
I looked at Keller.
He was sweating, the barrel of Luca's gun pressing hard into his neck.
"She wanted to steal it back from me," Eleanor continued. "But Vanessa didn't realize I already moved it."
Eleanor looked at me.
"I moved it into your apartment, Sophie."
I froze. "What?"
"Four years ago," Eleanor said. "The night David died. I needed a place to hide the ledger where Luca would never look. What better place than the apartment of a grieving widow?"
My mind spun.
"It's not in my apartment," I said. "I would have found it."
"You didn't find it," Eleanor smiled, tapping the heavy gold bracelet on her wrist. "Because you didn't know what you were looking for."
She pointed to the silver key in my hand.
"Locker 402, Sophie. Open it."
I looked at Luca.
He gave a sharp, almost imperceptible nod.
I slowly turned around and walked to the wall of metal lockers.
I slid the key into 402.
I turned it.
The door popped open.
Inside sat the small cedar box from my closet.
The box that held David's broken rosary.
I reached in and pulled it out.
"Open it," Eleanor ordered.
I opened the lid.
It was empty.
"Where is it?" Eleanor snapped, her voice rising in panic. "Where is the false bottom?"
I looked down at the box.
"There is no false bottom," I said.
Eleanor's face twisted in rage. "Don't lie to me! David hid the microfiche inside that box! Where is it?!"
Suddenly, a new voice echoed behind us.
"It's right here."
We all turned.
Standing near the ticketing counter, blood still dried on the side of her face, holding a tiny square of microfilm between her fingers...
May you like
Was Vanessa.
And she was holding a lighter directly under it.
