Chapter 5 - THE BLUE CASE
Dominic backed away from the paper as if it could burn him.
“I wasn't there when Nico was killed.”
Victor spoke quickly.
“Of course you weren't.”
Too quickly.
I looked at both of them.
“Sit.”
Neither moved.
“Sit down.”
This time they obeyed.
I remained standing in Sofia's bedroom, holding a piece of paper my dead wife had hidden in her coat.
“Nico died because the Novaks knew his route.”
Victor nodded.
“We established that twelve years ago.”
“No. You established that.”
“Alejandro—”
“Who changed the route?”
Victor said nothing.
Dominic rubbed both hands over his face.
“Dad.”
“Don't.”
“I am done protecting you.”
Victor turned on him.
“You are alive because I protected you.”
“And Nico isn't.”
The words struck harder than anything else that afternoon.
I stepped between them.
“Explain.”
Dominic looked at me.
“The week Nico died, federal agents were watching a warehouse in Cicero.”
I knew the warehouse.
“Nico was supposed to take the western route that night,” Dominic continued. “I was at a club on the western route with people Victor didn't want photographed around me.”
Victor said coldly, “You were twenty-six and stupid.”
“Yes.”
Dominic swallowed.
“So you moved Nico east.”
My heartbeat slowed.
The eastern route was where the Novak gunmen had been waiting.
“You changed my brother's route to keep Dominic away from federal surveillance?”
Victor stood.
“I changed it because Dominic had sensitive information on him.”
“Nico died.”
“I could not know there would be an ambush.”
Dominic stared at his father.
“But you knew somebody had leaked our routes.”
Victor said nothing.
That answer was enough.
My hands shook.
For twelve years I had blamed the Novaks.
Waged war.
Buried men.
Lost Sofia piece by piece because she could no longer recognize the man I had become.
And Victor had known his decision helped start it.
Elena stepped between us before I could do something irreversible.
“Alejandro.”
I looked at her.
“The boys are downstairs.”
Three words.
A lifeline.
I walked to the window.
For years, anger had been the easiest language I knew.
But four children were downstairs deciding whether the stranger with my face was safe.
I would not answer them with blood.
Behind me, Dominic said quietly, “Sofia figured it out.”
“How?”
“She found old dispatch sheets in North Star's archive. The originals. Not the copies Victor gave you.”
Victor looked at him in disgust.
“You helped her.”
“Yes.”
That surprised me.
Dominic nodded toward the hospital invoice.
“I was tired of living inside his lies.”
“Then why follow Sofia the night she left?”
His face tightened.
“Because when my father realized what I'd done, he told me Sofia was about to turn everything over to the government.”
“Was she?”
“I don't know.”
Victor said, “She was about to destroy this family.”
Elena looked at him.
“She was trying to save hers.”
Victor flinched.
Good.
I wanted him to.
Dominic continued.
“I followed her because Victor told me to bring her back.”
I heard my own voice from five years earlier.
Bring her home.
Whatever it takes.
A memory I'd spent years burying.
Sofia had stood in our foyer with a suitcase.
I'd been furious she was leaving during a war.
I had called Victor.
I had said those exact words.
My stomach turned.
“That order came from me.”
Dominic looked at the floor.
“It started with you.”
Elena stared at me.
I didn't defend myself.
“What happened on the road?”
“I followed her. I tried to get her to pull over.”
“Did you hit her?”
“No.”
Victor snapped, “He is lying.”
Dominic stood.
“I never touched her car.”
“You expect him to believe you?”
“I expect him to ask why there were no skid marks.”
Victor froze.
Dominic saw it.
So did I.
“No skid marks?” I asked.
“The police file said Sofia never braked before leaving the road.”
Elena whispered, “The brakes.”
Dominic nodded.
“Something was wrong before I ever caught up with her.”
Victor's face had gone gray.
I turned toward Sofia's blue jewelry case.
Locked.
Silent.
Waiting.
“If the key was stolen yesterday, whoever took it knows what's in there.”
Dominic nodded.
“And Sofia knew enough to hide the evidence from all of us.”
A tiny voice came from the doorway.
“Not stolen.”
We turned.
Mateo stood there in dinosaur socks.
Marco hovered behind him, horrified.
“Elena, I'm sorry. He slipped—”
Mateo lifted his purple backpack.
Elena hurried over.
“What do you mean, sweetheart?”
“The shiny man took the red box.”
“Yes.”
Mateo dug inside his backpack.
“But I took this first.”
He pulled out a silver rosary.
Elena sat down hard on Sofia's bed.
Dominic stared.
Victor stopped breathing.
Mateo smiled proudly.
“I hid it in my shoe yesterday.”
Elena hugged him.
“You wonderful little thief.”
“I'm not a thief.”
“No. You're absolutely right.”
Inside the rosary's cross was a tiny brass key.
I carried it to the blue case.
For a moment, I could not make myself turn it.
Sofia had locked this before leaving me.
Whatever was inside had waited five years.
The lock clicked.
Beneath the velvet jewelry tray was a hidden compartment.
Inside lay Nico's old wristwatch.
A photograph of Victor shaking hands with a Novak lieutenant six weeks before Nico died.
Four hospital bracelets marked BABY A, B, C and D.
And a folded sheet of Sofia's handwriting.
I opened it.
The first sentence made my knees weak.
Alejandro gave the order that put them on the road that night.
Below it, she had written:
But someone prepared my car before I ever packed my suitcase.
Then one final line:
If I do not survive, the man responsible will still be inside our house.
Downstairs, a door slammed.
Marco touched his earpiece.
His face changed.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“Luca wants to know why we're looking for him.”
I stared at Sofia's note.
May you like
Then Marco added:
“And he's coming upstairs.”
