Chapter 4 - THE CHAPEL
The Moretti family chapel stood on the northern edge of the estate behind a line of bare maple trees.
It had not hosted a wedding, funeral or Sunday Mass in nearly two decades.
By eleven forty-five, rain had stopped.
Fog clung low to the grass.
Luca walked toward the chapel carrying nothing visible.
Michael hated the plan.
Julia hated it more.
Thomas had used language that would have embarrassed sailors.
None of them changed Luca’s mind.
That did not mean he was alone.
Michael had people positioned beyond the stone wall.
Two police detectives who owed no favors to the Morettis waited three blocks away with copies of the photograph, the hospital footage and Thomas’s statement.
Luca had spent too many years solving family problems privately.
His mother’s letter changed that.
At eleven fifty-nine, he unlocked the chapel.
Dust floated through pale light.
Rows of wooden pews faced a cracked marble altar.
His parents had married there.
He had been baptized there.
His grandfather’s casket had rested beneath those windows.
And now his supposedly dead uncle wanted to meet him inside.
Luca walked toward the sacristy.
No Marco.
He found the old electrical panel Thomas described.
Behind it, a brass plate.
A keyhole.
He inserted Elena’s key.
Click.
The wall beside the cabinet released.
A narrow section swung inward.
Behind it was a room barely larger than a closet.
Shelves.
Metal boxes.
A small desk.
A tape recorder.
And one chair.
Luca entered.
On the desk sat another envelope.
LUCA.
He opened it.
Son,
If you are standing here, one of two things has happened.
Either I was wrong, in which case I hope you forgive an old woman for being dramatic.
Or Marco has returned.
Luca’s jaw tightened.
His mother knew.
He continued.
Your uncle did not die in prison.
Your father arranged his disappearance after Marco agreed to testify against Victor Bellini.
The testimony never happened.
Marco vanished instead.
Salvatore spent years searching.
I learned the truth only after your father died.
Marco chose Bellini over us.
Luca closed his eyes.
Footsteps sounded in the chapel.
He put the letter inside his jacket.
“Still reading her notes?”
The voice came from the doorway.
Marco Moretti stood beneath the arch.
Sixty-six.
Silver hair.
A scar across his chin.
Luca had last seen him in a prison visiting room when he was nineteen.
He remembered a stronger man.
But the eyes were the same.
Black.
Amused.
Dangerous.
“You look disappointing for a dead man,” Luca said.
Marco smiled.
“You sound like Salvatore.”
“That isn’t an insult.”
“To him, maybe not.”
Luca stepped from the hidden room.
“You killed three people in that warehouse.”
Marco’s smile disappeared.
“I killed no one.”
“You started the fire.”
“I followed Victor’s schedule.”
“Early.”
“Yes.”
“Knowing Samuel Bennett was inside.”
“I thought he had left.”
“Three workers were sleeping there.”
“I didn’t know.”
“Convenient.”
Marco’s jaw tightened.
“You think your father was clean?”
“No.”
That answer surprised him.
Luca continued.
“I think he regretted some things. I’m trying to determine whether you ever did.”
Marco laughed softly.
“Regret is expensive.”
“So is prison.”
“I survived.”
“By letting the world bury you.”
Marco’s expression sharpened.
“You think I wanted that?”
“You chose Bellini.”
“I chose survival.”
“There it is.”
“What?”
“The sentence every coward uses after hurting people.”
Marco stepped closer.
“You know nothing about what happened.”
“Then tell me.”
Marco looked toward the hidden room.
“Your father wanted to give everything to the government. Every company. Every account. He would have destroyed the family.”
“Maybe it needed destroying.”
Marco stared at him.
“You really are Elena’s son.”
“Thank you.”
“She made Salvatore weak.”
“No. She made him ashamed.”
The words landed.
Marco’s face changed.
Luca knew he had hit something real.
“Why did Vanessa enter my mother’s life?”
Marco looked almost bored.
“Victor needed the trust.”
“The north properties.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Not the land.”
“What then?”
“The ownership structure.”
Luca frowned.
Marco continued.
“The trust is old. Older than most of your companies. It has banking relationships no regulator looks at twice.”
“Victor wanted to move money through it.”
“He wanted to move ownership.”
“Of what?”
Marco smiled.
“Politicians.”
Luca stared.
“Explain.”
“Campaign donations. consulting contracts. real estate held for friendly officials. Nothing glamorous.”
“You’re describing bribery.”
“I’m describing Chicago.”
Luca’s face hardened.
“You came here for the key.”
“I came here for the ledger.”
“There is no ledger.”
Marco glanced into the hidden room.
“Yes, there is.”
Luca followed his gaze.
One metal box carried no label.
He opened it.
Inside were folders.
Names.
Dates.
Property transfers.
Payments.
Judges.
A state senator.
Two aldermen.
A federal contractor.
Luca felt sick.
“This is why Victor wanted Vanessa inside my family.”
“Yes.”
“To control the trust and destroy this.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you destroy it years ago?”
Marco’s eyes cooled.
“I didn’t know where Elena hid it.”
“And now?”
“Now you opened the door for me.”
Luca looked toward the chapel entrance.
“No.”
Marco smiled.
Two men stepped from behind the pews.
Guns.
Luca did not move.
“Your security is farther away than you think,” Marco said.
“Is it?”
Marco’s eyes narrowed.
Luca tapped twice against the side of his leg.
A tiny movement.
A signal.
Nothing happened.
Marco laughed.
“Michael’s radios are jammed.”
Luca kept his face still.
That was possible.
Then a voice came from the rear pew.
“Not all of them.”
Julia stood.
Luca’s heart stopped.
“What are you doing here?”
She looked apologetic.
“Being terrible at following instructions.”
Marco turned his gun toward her.
Luca moved instinctively.
“Don’t.”
Marco smiled.
“Who is this?”
“Julia Bennett.”
Recognition appeared immediately.
“Thomas’s girl.”
Julia’s face hardened.
“You knew my mother?”
Marco tilted his head.
“Elaine?”
“Yes.”
“Briefly.”
Luca watched him.
Too carefully.
Julia stepped into the aisle.
“Did you kill her?”
“No.”
“Did you threaten her?”
“Yes.”
The honesty stunned them.
Marco continued.
“She found papers Thomas was paid to keep hidden.”
“Then two days later she died.”
“An aneurysm.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I don’t care what you believe.”
Julia’s good eye filled with tears.
“Did you touch her?”
“No.”
“Did Victor?”
Marco’s expression shifted.
Small.
But Luca saw it.
Julia saw it too.
“What did Victor do?”
Marco looked toward the doors.
“Ask Thomas.”
“He doesn’t know.”
“Yes, he does.”
Julia stared.
Luca’s focus remained on the two gunmen.
“Why would Thomas lie?”
Marco laughed.
“Because guilt makes fathers creative.”
Then the chapel doors slammed open.
Vanessa entered.
Everyone froze.
She wore black pants, no jewelry and no makeup.
Nothing like the woman from the engagement dinner.
“Put the guns down,” she said.
Marco smiled.
“Little Vanessa.”
She raised a pistol.
“Now.”
Luca stared at her.
“You followed me?”
“I came to stop him.”
Marco laughed.
“Your father sent you to stop Luca.”
“No.”
“Then Victor finally lost control of you.”
Vanessa’s hand trembled.
“Maybe.”
Marco moved his weapon toward her.
Julia shouted.
The shot exploded.
Luca lunged.
Wood splintered.
Vanessa fell behind a pew.
One of Marco’s men fired toward Luca.
Julia grabbed the chapel’s brass candle stand and swung it into the man’s knees.
He collapsed.
Luca took him down.
Michael’s team stormed the chapel thirty seconds later.
Too late to stop the first shots.
Early enough to stop the last.
Marco ran through the sacristy.
Vanessa fired after him.
Missed.
Michael tackled the second gunman.
Julia stood against the wall breathing hard.
Luca crossed the room.
“Are you hit?”
“No.”
“Are you insane?”
“Probably.”
“You have a concussion.”
“You have terrible relatives.”
“That is not equivalent.”
“It felt relevant.”
Despite everything, he almost laughed.
Then he noticed blood.
“Julia.”
She looked down.
Not hers.
Vanessa’s.
Vanessa Bellini lay behind the pew holding her side.
The bullet had entered below her ribs.
Luca dropped beside her.
“Call an ambulance.”
Vanessa laughed weakly.
“Now you care?”
“Don’t be stupid.”
“Too late.”
Julia knelt and pressed fabric against the wound.
Vanessa winced.
“Don’t.”
Julia looked at her.
“You hit me in the face with a suitcase yesterday. I am still not letting you bleed out.”
Vanessa stared.
Then laughed once, painfully.
“You’re irritating.”
“I’ve been told.”
Luca leaned closer.
“Why did you come?”
Vanessa’s eyes found his.
“Because Marco was going to kill you.”
“How did you know?”
“My father.”
“Victor sent him?”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“Marco stopped taking orders years ago.”
“Then what does Victor want?”
Vanessa’s face changed.
Fear.
Real fear.
“He wants the ledger.”
“I know.”
“No.”
She grabbed Luca’s sleeve.
“You don’t understand.”
Her voice dropped.
“He doesn’t want it destroyed.”
“Then what?”
“He wants to use it.”
“For leverage?”
“For immunity.”
Luca stared.
Vanessa’s breathing became shallow.
“My father is already talking to federal prosecutors.”
“What?”
“He’s offering them everyone.”
“Who?”
“Judges. politicians. contractors.”
She swallowed.
“And you.”
Luca’s face went still.
“Me?”
Vanessa nodded.
“He says he can prove you ran the trust.”
“I didn’t.”
“I know.”
“Does he?”
“He doesn’t care.”
Sirens approached.
Vanessa closed her eyes.
Luca looked toward the hidden room.
The ledger was gone.
He ran inside.
Empty shelf.
Marco had taken it during the shooting.
On the desk, however, one thing remained.
A small cassette tape.
Label handwritten by Elena Moretti.
FOR LUCA AND JULIA BENNETT.
Luca stared at the second name.
Julia came to the doorway.
“Why is my name on that?”
He looked at her.
The tape was at least three years old.
His mother had written Julia’s name before Julia had ever worked at the Moretti estate.
Before Luca had ever met her.
May you like
He picked up the cassette.
And for the first time that night, even Luca Moretti felt afraid to hear what came next.
