Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN WHO REMEMBERED EVERYTHING
Dominic’s mother lived in a townhouse on East Seventy-Third Street.
No gates.
No armed guards visible from the street.
No indication that one of New York’s most feared families lived behind the limestone facade.
The SUV stopped hard.
Dominic was out before the driver opened my door.
I followed.
“Stay here,” he ordered.
“No.”
“Stella.”
“Derek is there because of me.”
“That is exactly why you’re staying here.”
I crossed my arms.
“You don’t get to order me around.”
For the first time since meeting him, anger flashed across his face.
Then disappeared.
“You’re right.”
He breathed once.
“But I am asking you to stay somewhere secure while I find out whether a violent man is holding my mother hostage.”
That was different.
I nodded.
“Fine.”
Dominic entered.
Thirty seconds later, Anthony received a message.
He frowned.
“What?”
I asked.
He looked almost amused.
“Mrs. Russo wants you inside.”
“Me?”
“She specifically said, ‘Stop leaving the poor girl in the car like luggage.’”
Despite everything, I almost smiled.
Inside, I expected chaos.
Instead, I found Derek’s coat draped over a chair.
No Derek.
Dominic stood beside an elegant woman in her seventies.
Elena Russo.
She held a pistol.
“Where is he?” Anthony demanded.
Elena pointed toward the rear door.
“Ran when he heard Dominic.”
“You let him leave?”
“I shot at him.”
Dominic pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Ma.”
“I missed intentionally.”
“Did you?”
She considered it.
“No.”
Then she saw me.
Her expression softened.
“Daniel’s girl.”
I stopped.
“You knew my father?”
“Oh, sweetheart.”
She crossed the room.
I stiffened automatically.
She stopped.
Another person who noticed.
“May I?”
I nodded.
Elena hugged me gently.
“You have his eyes.”
My throat tightened.
Dominic looked away.
Elena released me.
“Come.”
She led us into a library.
“Derek came asking about the carousel.”
Dominic shut the door.
“What did you tell him?”
“That he could go to hell.”
“Ma.”
“What? You wanted me to offer coffee?”
I liked her immediately.
She opened a cabinet.
Inside were dozens of files.
“Your father came here the night before he died.”
I stared at her.
“He was terrified.”
“Of your husband?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
“Gabriel.”
Dominic’s expression hardened.
Elena sat.
“Daniel had discovered Gabriel and another man moving money through shell companies. But money wasn’t the real problem.”
“What was?”
“Names.”
“What names?”
“Judges. Police officers. Port officials. Businessmen. People Gabriel had bribed.”
Dominic frowned.
“You never told me that.”
“Your father asked me not to.”
“He’s dead.”
“And I made him a promise.”
“You’re telling me now.”
“Because Daniel Bennett’s daughter is standing in my house while the man hunting her knows about the carousel.”
Silence.
I sat opposite her.
“What happened that night?”
“Daniel told my husband he had made copies of everything. Vincent became angry because Daniel refused to reveal where they were.”
“Why?”
“Because Daniel no longer trusted anyone.”
“Including your husband?”
Elena nodded.
“That argument Derek mentioned was real.”
My heart sank.
“But Vincent didn’t hurt Daniel.”
“How do you know?”
“Because after Daniel left, Vincent sat in this room until sunrise.”
She pointed toward a chair.
“He kept saying the same thing.”
“What?”
“I’ve lost my friend.”
I looked down.
“Daniel died that morning.”
“Yes.”
“Who was the fourth man in the photograph?”
Elena’s expression changed.
“Carlos Martinez.”
“Derek’s father.”
“Yes.”
“What did he do?”
“He was Gabriel’s partner.”
The pieces connected.
“Derek knew.”
“Probably since he was young.”
“Then he dated me because his father told him to?”
Elena shook her head.
“Carlos died eight years ago.”
“How?”
Dominic answered.
“Someone shot him outside his home.”
“Gabriel?”
“We never proved it.”
Elena looked at me.
“Derek may believe Daniel’s evidence can tell him who killed his father.”
“So he’s been using me.”
“Perhaps.”
That word hurt worse.
Perhaps meant there might have been something real.
I didn’t want anything real.
Not anymore.
“What is the carousel?”
Dominic asked.
Elena looked toward the window.
“Your father and Daniel used to meet at an old amusement property the family owned.”
“Which property?”
“Bellini Pavilion.”
Anthony pulled out his phone.
“It closed seventeen years ago.”
“Still standing?”
“Partially.”
I remembered the photograph.
My father beside the carousel.
“Then we go there.”
Dominic looked at me.
“No.”
“Absolutely yes.”
“Derek expects that.”
“Then why send me the picture?”
“Because he wants you there.”
“Exactly.”
Dominic stared.
“That isn’t an argument for going.”
“He has my father’s key.”
“And possibly a gun.”
“He knows something.”
“He wants something.”
“So do I.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“You want the truth.”
“Yes.”
“He wants leverage.”
“Then let him think he has it.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
“You’re suggesting bait.”
“I’m suggesting me.”
“No.”
“You said I get to make my own decisions.”
“Bad decisions still count.”
“Dominic.”
“No.”
Elena cleared her throat.
We looked at her.
“If you two are finished pretending this argument is only about strategy, perhaps we can focus.”
Heat rushed into my face.
Dominic ignored the comment.
“I’m not putting her in front of Martinez.”
Elena looked at me.
“Do you want to go?”
“Yes.”
“Then apparently you are not putting her anywhere.”
Dominic stared at his mother.
She smiled sweetly.
“Women have legs, Dominic.”
Anthony coughed suspiciously.
Dominic gave him a look.
Two hours later, we were driving toward Brooklyn.
Bellini Pavilion stood behind rusted fencing near the water.
Rain had stopped.
The carousel building looked abandoned.
Broken windows.
Faded paint.
Dominic gave instructions to his men.
Nobody entered until the building had been checked.
Ten minutes later, Anthony returned.
“Empty.”
We went inside.
My footsteps echoed.
The carousel remained.
Dust covered painted horses frozen beneath a ceiling of cracked mirrors.
My chest tightened.
I remembered being five.
My father lifting me onto a white horse.
His laugh.
His hands.
“He loved this place,” I whispered.
Dominic stood beside me.
“So did mine.”
I looked at the photograph on my phone.
My father had been standing near horse number seventeen.
We found it.
Nothing.
Dominic examined the brass pole.
Anthony checked beneath the platform.
I looked at the horse itself.
Painted roses covered its saddle.
One rose was different.
Not painted.
Carved.
I touched it.
Something clicked.
A tiny compartment opened.
Inside was empty.
Except for a note.
Fresh paper.
Not twenty years old.
Dominic read it first.
His face hardened.
I took it.
STELLA,
YOU’RE STILL FOLLOWING MEN WHO KEEP YOU IN THE DARK.
ASK DOMINIC WHY HIS FATHER LEFT HIM THE LEDGER.
D.
I looked at Dominic.
“What is he talking about?”
“I don’t know.”
Then a mechanical sound echoed beneath us.
The carousel lights came on.
One by one.
Yellow bulbs illuminated the darkness.
Music began playing from speakers that should have been dead for years.
Dominic reached for me.
“Everyone out.”
Too late.
A screen lowered from the ceiling.
Derek appeared.
Live.
He smiled.
“Hi, Stella.”
I stared upward.
“Where are you?”
“Close enough.”
His gaze shifted toward Dominic.
“Hello, Russo.”
Dominic’s voice was ice.
“You touched my mother.”
“She shot at me.”
“She missed.”
“Barely.”
Derek smiled again.
Then he held up a photograph.
My father.
Behind him was a bank of safe-deposit boxes.
“I found the bank.”
My heart stopped.
“The key works.”
Dominic stepped forward.
“What do you want?”
Derek’s smile vanished.
“Something your father stole from mine.”
“What?”
“The ledger.”
Dominic shook his head.
“I don’t have it.”
Derek laughed.
“That’s the problem with family secrets. Parents always think they’re protecting their children.”
The screen changed.
A document appeared.
Vincent Russo’s will.
One line had been highlighted.
PERSONAL ARCHIVE, ACCOUNT 617, TO DOMINIC VINCENT RUSSO.
Dominic went pale.
I looked at him.
“You knew about this?”
“No.”
Derek leaned toward the camera.
“You have until midnight tomorrow.”
“For what?”
“To open account 617.”
“And if I don’t?”
Derek smiled.
Then the screen changed again.
Maria appeared.
Bound to a chair.
Blood at the corner of her mouth.
My scream tore through the empty pavilion.
May you like
Derek’s voice came through the speakers.
“If you don’t, Stella’s friend dies.”
