Chapter 2 - THE SECRET INSIDE THE TEDDY BEAR
“And they are planning to make sure I do not see Sunday.”
Dante Moretti spoke the words quietly, but Luca Romano had worked beside him long enough to recognize the danger in that silence.
Outside the study, Chicago rain tapped against the tall windows.
Inside, the photograph of Marcus Bellini and Isabella Rossi lay between them.
“Then we cancel Saturday’s dinner,” Luca said.
“No.”
“Dante, they have cameras inside your house. They know your schedule. They may already control half your security.”
“Which means canceling tells them we know.”
Luca stared at him.
“You're going to let them come?”
Dante looked toward the hallway.
“I'm going to find out why they brought a widow and her little girl into my home.”
Before Luca could answer, a small voice came from the doorway.
“Mr. Dante?”
Sophie Hartley stood there wearing a pink bathrobe over her yellow pajamas.
Her brown teddy bear hung from one hand.
Elena appeared behind her, looking exhausted.
“I'm sorry. She had a bad dream.”
Dante crossed the room and crouched.
“What happened, little lion?”
Sophie lifted the bear.
“Mr. Fluffle is hurting.”
Dante almost smiled.
“How does a bear get hurt?”
“His tummy is hard.”
She pushed the toy toward him.
Dante gently squeezed its worn fabric.
Something rectangular rested beneath the stuffing.
His eyes moved to Luca.
Elena noticed.
“What is it?”
Dante examined the bear's crooked stitching.
“Who repaired this?”
Elena's face changed.
“Thomas. The night before his accident.”
“Did he say anything about it?”
“He said Sophie should never lose it.”
Sophie hugged the bear against her chest.
“Daddy said he keeps the bad things away.”
Dante felt an unfamiliar weight settle over him.
Thomas Hartley had known someone was coming.
He had hidden something inside the one possession his daughter would never willingly surrender.
“Sophie,” Dante said, “would you let me help Mr. Fluffle?”
The little girl considered him seriously.
“No scissors on his face.”
“I promise.”
“And Mommy has to stay.”
“Of course.”
Twenty minutes later, they sat around the kitchen table.
Dante had dismissed the staff and asked Elena to bring her sewing box.
Sophie watched as her mother carefully opened the stitches along the bear's back.
A small black memory card, wrapped inside a piece of waterproof plastic, slipped onto the table.
Beside it lay a folded photograph.
Elena picked up the picture.
Her breath caught.
It showed Thomas Hartley standing beside Dante's father, Antonio Moretti, outside a Chicago shipping terminal.
Antonio had died seven years earlier.
Dante knew that face better than his own.
But he had never seen Thomas standing beside him.
On the back, Thomas had written five words.
The second ledger remembers everything.
Elena looked at Dante.
“My husband told me he had never met your family.”
Dante studied the photograph.
“He lied.”
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
But something in his father's expression troubled him.
Antonio was smiling.
Not the polished smile he offered investors.
A genuine one.
Dante had rarely seen it.
Luca inserted the memory card into an isolated laptop.
Three folders appeared.
CARGO LAKES.
BELLINI.
MIRROR.
The first contained spreadsheets showing money transfers through shell companies.
The second held recordings of Marcus authorizing payments to officials and private contractors.
The third required a password.
Dante frowned.
“Try Thomas's birthday.”
Nothing.
“Sophie's birthday?”
Access denied.
Elena closed her eyes.
“Thomas used to tell Sophie that every secret had a home.”
Sophie, busy feeding a strawberry to Mr. Fluffle, looked up.
“Daddy's home was the lake.”
Dante turned toward her.
“What lake?”
“The one with the big boats. Daddy took pictures there.”
Luca entered LAKE MICHIGAN.
The folder opened.
Inside was a single video.
Thomas Hartley appeared in a dim office, his face pale and his shirt collar open.
“If anyone is watching this,” he said, “then Marcus has probably convinced you that I stole from Moretti Holdings.”
Elena covered her mouth.
Thomas continued.
“I didn't steal anything. I found out where the money was going.”
The video flickered.
“Antonio Moretti knew there was something wrong before he died. He asked me to investigate quietly. I kept copies because I believed his son deserved the truth.”
Dante leaned forward.
Then Thomas said something that made his blood turn cold.
“Dante, if you're seeing this, don't trust the person who tells you your father died of a heart attack.”
Luca looked at Dante.
The official cause of Antonio's death had been cardiac arrest.
Thomas glanced toward the office door.
“I've identified the person who helped Marcus move the money. But proving what happened to Antonio will take more time.”
The recording abruptly ended.
Elena began crying.
For nearly two years, she had believed her husband died because he had fallen asleep behind the wheel.
Now she was discovering that he had been afraid for his life.
Dante reached for the photograph.
Something slipped from between its folded edges.
A small silver key.
Attached to it was a faded paper tag.
ROOM 214 — LAKEFRONT STORAGE.
Luca's phone vibrated with a security notification.
He glanced at the screen and went rigid.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“The observation room just received a command from outside.”
Dante stood.
“What kind of command?”
Luca turned the laptop.
Across the screen, a red warning flashed.
REMOTE WIPE INITIATED — ALL SURVEILLANCE RECORDINGS WILL BE DELETED IN TEN MINUTES.
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And beneath it appeared an even more disturbing instruction.
SECONDARY TARGET: HARTLEY CHILD.
