Chapter 9 - THE MAN ABOVE RAYMOND
Nicholas pushed me behind a steel cabinet.
Michael drew his weapon.
Anthony moved beside Gabriel.
The voice outside the vault spoke again.
“You should have burned the evidence in 1989.”
Nicholas called into the darkness.
“Come inside.”
A laugh answered him.
“No.”
Emergency lights flickered red.
Then a man stepped into view.
Detective Eric Malloy.
Nobody moved.
I stared at him.
The detective who had met us at the hospital.
The detective who knew every location we visited.
The detective who always arrived at exactly the right time.
Nicholas’s face became expressionless.
“You.”
Malloy smiled.
“Disappointed?”
Anthony looked stunned.
“You weren’t even a detective then.”
“No.”
Malloy entered slowly.
“My father was.”
Anthony’s eyes changed.
“Patrick Malloy.”
“Now you remember.”
Gabriel cursed quietly.
I looked between them.
“Who was Patrick Malloy?”
Anthony answered.
“A Philadelphia detective we paid.”
Malloy smiled.
“Paid poorly.”
Nicholas said, “And now you run the network?”
“Run?”
Malloy laughed.
“There is no network anymore. Not really. Just old men protecting old money.”
“Then why are you here?”
“The list.”
Susan moved closer to me.
Malloy pointed his gun.
“No heroics.”
Nicholas remained calm.
“The list isn’t here.”
“I know.”
“Then you wasted a trip.”
“No.”
Malloy looked at me.
“Rachel knows where it is.”
I almost laughed.
“I’ve heard that sentence too many times this week.”
Malloy’s eyes narrowed.
“Laura hid the master list separately.”
“I was a baby.”
“But she gave you something.”
“My necklace?”
“No.”
Malloy looked toward Susan.
“The music box.”
Susan’s face betrayed her.
I remembered it immediately.
A small wooden music box from my childhood.
Laura’s.
Susan told me it belonged to my grandmother.
I still had it.
Malloy smiled.
“There.”
Nicholas saw my expression.
So did everyone.
Malloy lifted the gun.
“Where?”
I said nothing.
He aimed at Susan.
“Where?”
“Don’t.”
“Then answer.”
“My apartment.”
Malloy smiled.
“Good.”
Nicholas spoke.
“You won’t make it out.”
Malloy shrugged.
“I made it through thirty-seven years.”
Then Anthony said something unexpected.
“No, you didn’t.”
Malloy looked at him.
Anthony smiled faintly.
“You came alone.”
“I didn’t.”
“Your men aren’t answering.”
Malloy’s expression changed.
Michael’s phone vibrated.
A text.
SECURE.
Nicholas had anticipated betrayal.
He had sent a second team without telling anyone.
Even me.
Malloy raised his gun toward Nicholas.
Gabriel moved first.
He shoved a metal case off the shelf.
It hit Malloy’s arm.
The gun fired.
Susan screamed.
Nicholas tackled Malloy.
Michael kicked the weapon away.
Within seconds, Malloy was on the floor.
Police from Nicholas’s outside team entered.
Real police.
Federal agents followed.
Nicholas looked at Anthony.
“Federal?”
Anthony shrugged.
“I made one call.”
Nicholas almost laughed.
“Twenty-one years absent and suddenly you cooperate with law enforcement.”
“I’m trying new things.”
Malloy was arrested.
But before agents took him away, he looked at me.
“You think this is over?”
I said, “I’m beginning to recognize that sentence too.”
“The music box will destroy your family.”
Nicholas stepped between us.
“Take him.”
We retrieved the music box before dawn.
Inside was a hidden roll of microfilm.
Federal investigators developed it.
The list contained dozens of names.
Most were dead.
Several were retired.
Three remained active in shipping, banking, and local government.
Malloy had been protecting them.
Raymond had worked beneath him.
Victor had moved money.
Evelyn had helped hide accounts.
Anthony and Gabriel had both contributed to the chaos through decisions made decades earlier.
Nobody was innocent.
But some crimes were far worse than others.
Federal authorities offered Anthony, Gabriel, Thomas, and Victor agreements in exchange for testimony.
Nicholas did something that surprised everyone.
He cooperated.
DeLuca Maritime opened its records voluntarily.
Illegal legacy accounts were surrendered.
Victims’ funds were established.
Nicholas walked away from several businesses that had always operated in gray areas.
“It ends,” he told Anthony.
“The secrecy. The cash rooms. The intimidation. All of it.”
Anthony looked proud.
“You’ll lose money.”
Nicholas laughed.
“I have enough.”
“And enemies.”
“I already had those.”
I stood beside him when he signed the agreement.
Afterward, outside the federal building, he looked at me.
“You know you own forty-nine percent of my company.”
“I was hoping everyone forgot.”
“Nobody forgets forty-nine percent.”
“I clean houses.”
“You did.”
“I don’t know anything about shipping.”
“You know when people are lying.”
“That apparently qualifies me for your entire executive board.”
He smiled.
It changed his face completely.
For the first time since I met him, he looked forty instead of ancient.
Then he became serious.
“What do you want?”
“With the company?”
“With any of it.”
I thought about Laura’s letter.
Do not confuse blood with family.
“I want to know the truth before I decide.”
He nodded.
“I can give you that.”
Camille entered a cooperation agreement too.
Her testimony against Victor and Malloy reduced the charges she faced.
Nicholas visited her once before her arraignment.
I did not go inside.
When he came out, his face was sad.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Yes.”
I knew he was lying.
But some lies were private grief.
I let him keep it.
“Did you forgive her?”
“No.”
“Do you hate her?”
“No.”
“That sounds complicated.”
“It is.”
We walked toward the car.
He looked at me.
“Do you hate Thomas?”
I thought about it.
“No.”
“Forgive him?”
“Not yet.”
“Gabriel?”
“I don’t know him.”
“Anthony?”
“That’s your problem.”
Nicholas laughed.
Then we reached the car.
A black envelope sat beneath the windshield wiper.
Nicholas stopped.
Michael checked it first.
No device.
No powder.
Inside was one photograph.
The DeLuca estate.
Taken that morning.
On the back were six words:
YOU MISSED ONE NAME ON THE LIST.
Nicholas stared at it.
Federal agents searched the microfilm again.
One section had been deliberately scratched away.
Someone had removed a name before Laura hid it.
Anthony looked frightened.
“There was one person Patrick Malloy would never expose.”
Nicholas asked, “Who?”
Anthony stared at the photograph of the estate.
“Someone inside our family.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“Everyone is accounted for.”
Anthony looked at him.
“No.”
Then he turned toward Nicholas.
“Your mother had another child.”
Nicholas stopped breathing.
“What?”
Anthony closed his eyes.
“Before you.”
Nicholas whispered, “A son?”
“Yes.”
“What happened to him?”
Anthony looked toward the estate photograph again.
“I thought Evelyn gave him up for adoption.”
“And now?”
Anthony’s face was gray.
“Now I think he’s been inside your house for years.”
Nicholas’s phone rang.
Estate security.
Michael answered.
His eyes widened.
“What?”
He turned to Nicholas.
“Margaret is missing.”
My stomach dropped.
“And the security cameras?”
“Disabled.”
“By whom?”
Michael swallowed.
“One of our own.”
He showed us the access log.
A name appeared.
DANIEL ROSS.
The guard shot at the cemetery.
The man we had believed Raymond attacked.
Anthony whispered:
“Daniel isn’t his real name.”
Nicholas looked at his father.
May you like
Anthony closed his eyes.
“His real name is Daniel DeLuca.”
