Chapter 6 - THE MAN WHO SAVED MY LIFE
I stared at the photograph until the screen dimmed.
Raphael had my father's missing wristwatch.
Marcus was outside the clinic.
And Elena and Sophie were standing between two men whose loyalties I no longer understood.
I called Raphael.
He answered immediately.
"Dante?"
"Why are you at Catherine's clinic?"
Silence.
Then he said, "Because it's the safest place I could bring them."
"Safe from whom?"
"Marcus."
"He's outside."
"I know."
My stomach tightened.
"Then why haven't you left?"
Raphael lowered his voice.
"Because Marcus isn't here for the child."
"Who is he here for?"
"Catherine."
I looked across the room.
My aunt had gone pale.
"She already told me about Lucia Carrera."
Raphael sighed.
"Then you know more than you did yesterday."
"Not nearly enough."
I glanced at the photograph again.
"And why are you wearing my father's wristwatch?"
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Finally, he answered.
"Because he gave it to me."
"When?"
"The night before he died."
"Why?"
"To remind me of a promise."
"What promise?"
Raphael's voice became heavy.
"That I would never let you inherit his worst mistake."
I closed my eyes.
"Raphael, I'm done with riddles."
"I know."
"Then tell me the truth."
"Come to the clinic. Alone. I'll explain everything."
I looked at Catherine.
"No. We're doing this somewhere I choose."
Raphael hesitated.
"All right."
I named a small restaurant on the West Side.
It had belonged to an old family friend and had been closed for renovations for months.
Only three people knew I still kept a key.
Raphael agreed.
I hung up.
Catherine watched me.
"Do you trust him?"
I thought about the years.
The hospital visits.
The holidays.
The times Raphael had risked his life for mine.
"I don't know anymore."
At eleven-thirty, I entered the empty restaurant.
Raphael was already seated beneath the front windows.
Elena sat opposite him.
Sophie was beside her, swinging her feet.
When she saw me, she smiled.
"Mr. Dante!"
I crouched as she ran toward me.
"Hello, Detective."
She showed me her plastic magnifying glass.
"I found something."
"What?"
"Mr. Raphael's watch is noisy."
Raphael looked uncomfortable.
I smiled at Sophie.
"Really?"
"It goes tick-tick even when he takes it off."
I glanced at Raphael.
He unfastened the gold wristwatch and placed it on the table.
"Your father gave me this," he said.
I sat.
"Tell me why."
Raphael folded his hands.
"Because he was afraid he wouldn't live long enough to fix what happened in 2008."
My chest tightened.
"What happened?"
"Anthony Bell had been stealing from your father's businesses for years. But he wasn't working alone."
"Who helped him?"
Raphael looked at Elena.
Then Catherine entered through the side door.
I'd asked her to come after I confirmed the others were safe.
Raphael's face hardened.
"You brought her."
"She deserves answers too."
Catherine took a seat.
Raphael sighed.
"Anthony discovered that Lucia Carrera had evidence against him. He framed her and forced her out."
"And Teresa?"
"Teresa found the same evidence years later."
"Why didn't my father stop Anthony?"
"Because by then, Anthony had powerful partners."
"Names."
Raphael looked down.
"People who could bring down the entire organization."
I leaned forward.
"I said names."
"One of them was your father's business partner, Samuel Vescari."
I remembered Samuel.
He'd been a respected businessman.
A generous donor.
A man who'd attended my mother's funeral and shaken my hand.
He'd died six years earlier.
"Samuel worked with Anthony?"
"Yes."
"Who else?"
Raphael's expression changed.
"Marcus discovered part of the scheme after Lucia died. He believed your father had allowed it."
"So he started helping Anthony?"
"No."
That surprised me.
Raphael continued.
"Marcus approached your father first. He wanted the truth."
"What did my father tell him?"
"That Anthony had framed Lucia."
"And Marcus believed him?"
"At first."
I stared.
"What changed?"
"Anthony convinced Marcus that your father was lying."
Catherine shook her head.
"Marcus never trusted Anthony."
Raphael looked at her.
"He trusted the evidence Anthony showed him."
I felt the pieces shifting.
"Then why did Marcus save my father during the explosion?"
Raphael's eyes darkened.
"Because Marcus didn't know the warehouse was going to explode."
The restaurant fell silent.
"Who ordered it?"
Raphael took a long breath.
"Anthony and Samuel."
I stared.
"They tried to kill my father?"
"Yes."
"And Marcus?"
"He'd gone there to confront him. When the explosion happened, he pulled your father out."
I remembered the newspapers.
The photographs.
Marcus standing beside my hospital bed after I'd rushed to the scene.
He'd been eighteen.
His hands had been burned.
He'd cried when he told me he'd nearly lost my father.
That grief had been real.
"Then why betray me now?"
Raphael's expression tightened.
"Because he believes Teresa kept the proof that could clear Lucia's name. And he thinks your family deliberately hid it."
Elena spoke.
"Why threaten Sophie?"
Raphael looked ashamed.
"Because he's desperate."
"That doesn't excuse it," I said.
"No. It doesn't."
I studied the wristwatch.
"What's inside?"
Raphael hesitated.
Then he turned it over and opened the back.
A tiny folded photograph lay beneath the mechanism.
He handed it to me.
It showed my father standing beside Teresa Rossi.
Between them was a little girl.
Elena.
She couldn't have been older than six.
I looked at the back.
Keep her safe, whatever happens.
My father's handwriting.
Elena pressed a hand to her mouth.
"Why did he have this?"
Raphael's voice softened.
"Because he felt responsible for what happened to your mother."
I looked at him.
"And the other watch?"
"Teresa's pocket watch held the first clue. Your father's rosary held the second."
I took out the brass key.
Raphael stared at it.
"You found it."
"Yes."
His eyes filled unexpectedly.
"Then he was right."
"About what?"
"That you would choose the truth, even if it hurt you."
I felt anger rising.
"Stop speaking for my father."
Raphael nodded.
"You're right."
He removed a small metal box from his briefcase.
It was old, scratched, and stamped with the number 417.
My pulse quickened.
"The key."
Raphael placed it between us.
"Your father gave me this too."
"Why didn't you open it?"
"Because he made me promise I wouldn't."
I stared.
"You've had the evidence for seventeen years?"
"I've had the box. Not the key."
I inserted the brass piece.
The lock turned.
Inside was a stack of photographs, two handwritten letters, and a narrow strip of recording tape.
Beneath them lay a child's yellow bracelet.
Elena gasped.
"That's mine."
I lifted it.
Tiny blue beads spelled her name.
She began to cry.
"My mother told me I lost it during the explosion."
Raphael nodded.
"You were at the warehouse that night."
Elena stared.
"What?"
"Teresa brought you because she had nowhere safe to leave you."
I looked at him.
"And?"
Raphael's face crumpled.
"Your father carried you out before the building collapsed."
Elena covered her mouth.
I turned over the first photograph.
It showed my father carrying a frightened little girl through smoke.
But someone else stood behind him.
A young Marcus.
Holding the hand of another child.
A boy.
I stared at the photograph.
"Who's that?"
Raphael went completely still.
Catherine whispered, "Oh, God."
I looked at her.
"Who?"
She shook her head, tears gathering in her eyes.
"That boy wasn't supposed to be there."
"Who is he?"
Raphael reached for the photograph.
I pulled it away.
"Tell me."
His voice broke.
"Dante, that's Anthony Bell's son."
My stomach tightened.
"Anthony had a son?"
Raphael nodded.
"And you've known him for years."
I stared at the boy's face.
Then I recognized the eyes.
The jaw.
The unmistakable expression.
My voice dropped.
"Marcus?"
Raphael shook his head.
"No."
He looked directly at me.
"The boy in that picture is the man who has been financing Marcus's search."
I felt cold spread through my chest.
"Who?"
May you like
Raphael whispered a name I hadn't heard in fifteen years.
"Your cousin, Nicholas Moretti."
