Chapter 5 - LUCA HAD BEEN TRYING TO FIND THE MAN WHO FIXED THE CAR
Luca returned that night.
Not because I ordered him.
Because he learned Victor Raines was in Chicago and realized we had found report.
He walked into study furious.
“You think I planted it?”
“The camera suggests you entered archive.”
“I did.”
There.
“Why?”
“To find it before you did.”
Claire laughed bitterly.
“Everyone in this family has a very creative definition of protection.”
Luca ignored her.
He looked at me.
“My father confessed before he died.”
Matteo.
Eight years earlier.
Heart failure.
Luca sat beside hospital bed.
Matteo was drugged, frightened, dying.
He said:
“I killed Dominic.”
Luca spent eight years believing his father murdered mine.
Why not tell me?
Because Matteo then added:
“But I didn’t touch the car.”
What did that mean?
He ordered?
Maybe.
Matteo confessed he hired Victor Raines to disable vehicle.
But after first tampering was discovered, he canceled plan.
Why?
Dominic had confronted him privately.
Threatened exile but offered chance to walk away.
Matteo backed down.
He told Victor:
“Stop.”
Victor said car restored.
Then crash happened anyway.
So Matteo believed Victor ignored cancellation.
Why would Victor?
Someone paid more.
Who?
Matteo never knew.
He later paid Victor to disappear.
That made him complicit in cover-up even if not final order.
Then why let me blame myself?
Shame.
Cowardice.
Power.
No excuse.
Luca found pieces after father death.
Private payments to Victor.
Then Victor vanished.
Recently resurfaced because someone contacted him asking for “original Moretti crash file.”
Luca tracked.
That was why he used my keycard in archive.
He wanted report before Victor knew we had it.
“Why not tell me?”
Luca looked at me.
“Because you would do exactly this.”
“What?”
“Pull every thread until someone targets you.”
I stared at wheelchair.
“They already did.”
Twenty-two years ago.
Then Claire asked:
“Who contacted Victor?”
Luca didn’t know.
Burner.
But Victor flew in.
We arranged meeting with counsel/security.
Victor Raines looked old.
Hands shook.
He saw me.
Started crying.
“I’m sorry.”
I hated that sentence.
“Who sabotaged the car?”
“I did.”
Silence.
At least direct.
“Who paid you?”
He looked at Luca.
Then me.
“Not Matteo.”
My chest tightened.
“Who?”
“Charles Bennett.”
Claire stopped breathing.
“No.”
Victor nodded.
“Charles gave me forty thousand.”
Claire shook head.
“He was helping Dominic.”
“So I thought.”
Victor told story.
Charles approached secretly.
Said Dominic needed car made temporarily unsafe to scare him into canceling a trip.
What?
Why would Dominic ask through Charles? He didn’t.
Charles claimed Dominic wanted staged mechanical issue for insurance/security reason.
Victor believed? Convenient.
Then first tamper found early.
Matteo separately discovered and told Victor stop.
Victor panicked.
Returned car to normal.
Then Charles came back.
Offered another $60,000.
“Make sure it fails on highway.”
There.
Direct.
Why would Claire’s father kill mine?
Victor didn’t know.
Then:
“I refused.”
Important.
“Then who did final tampering?”
Victor looked terrified.
“I don’t know.”
He claimed he left.
Next morning crash.
Someone replicated technique.
That means Charles could have done himself or hired other.
Evidence tool kit in Charles vehicle.
Claire sat rigid.
“Why is my father telling everyone Matteo did it?”
Maybe because Charles guilty.
Or framed.
Then Samuel Creed, investigator, challenged Victor.
“You’re lying.”
Victor snapped:
“I WAS THERE.”
Samuel:
“So was I.”
What?
Samuel had been following Charles for Matteo.
He watched garage.
Charles came.
Victor came.
Then after both left, another vehicle arrived.
Who?
Black Cadillac.
Owned by Richard Vale.
Federal prosecutor.
The supposed good guy.
He entered garage with mechanic assistant.
Stayed eleven minutes.
Then left.
Samuel never told because Richard threatened him with prosecution.
Could Richard have ordered sabotage?
Why would prosecutor kill cooperating witness Dominic?
Maybe Dominic planned to expose him too.
Then Charles’s ledger? Potential corruption.
Richard Vale may have been dirty.
Photo meeting not cooperation but conspiracy.
Then old federal files.
Vale had investigated Moretti while secretly accepting information.
Maybe he was using Dominic.
Then discovered Dominic had proof of Vale taking money from Matteo? Hmm.
Victor said Charles worked with Vale.
Potentially Charles thought he was cooperating lawfully.
Vale could manipulate him.
Then Claire asked:
“Is my father guilty?”
No one knew.
That truth hurt.
Then Victor produced one thing.
Receipt.
Cash he received from Charles.
Envelope had handwritten initials:
RV.
So Charles may have been passing money from Richard Vale.
Not his own.
Maybe he thought operation authorized by prosecutor.
If Vale told him to disable car as undercover evidence? Still absurd.
Perhaps money used to stage controlled failure to force Dominic into witness protection? Need plausible enough for drama.
Then Victor said:
“Charles kept saying, ‘Richard says this is the only way to get Dominic out.’”
Out of what?
Chicago.
Family.
Maybe they planned fake accident.
My stomach dropped.
What if crash was supposed to be staged?
Dominic and Charles planned to fake Dominic’s death so he could enter protection.
But something went wrong.
Then original file:
Pre-impact steering failure.
Maybe they expected controlled breakdown, not fatal crash.
Someone escalated.
That would explain multiple tampering.
First stage.
Second fatal.
Who changed?
Matteo?
Could be.
But Matteo confessed ordering then canceling.
Richard/Charles maybe staged.
Someone third ensured death.
Then Victor whispered:
“There was another man in garage after Vale.”
Samuel frowned.
“You never told me.”
Victor:
“I was afraid.”
“Who?”
He looked at me.
“Your father’s lawyer.”
Name:
Anthony Caruso.
My current family attorney’s father.
Dead fifteen years.
Then Caruso firm still represented Moretti.
And current senior partner?
Anthony’s daughter:
Elena Caruso.
My personal attorney.
The woman who had reviewed every legal matter in my life since I was twenty-one.
Another family standing inside old secret.
Then Claire said quietly:
“Maybe stop assuming every dead man is the end of a branch.”
She was right.
May you like
Because Elena Caruso was alive.
And she had been in my house yesterday.
