Chapter 7 - THE FEDERAL INFORMANT WHO VANISHED
Joseph Vale had disappeared under witness protection.
Teresa had been told he died two years later.
He hadn’t.
Federal records showed he lived under another identity until three months ago.
Then he died for real.
In Arizona.
Natural causes.
Before his death, he left a sealed statement.
Addressed to Dominic Vitali.
The statement arrived through federal channels two days later.
Dominic opened it with Emily beside him.
Not because he wanted her involved.
Because Daniel’s name appeared on the envelope.
Joseph wrote:
Antonio Vitali was alive when Marco Bellini left Warehouse 17.
Enzo entered at 9:41 p.m.
Serena Whitaker’s father entered at 9:46.
Dominic frowned.
“Serena’s father?”
Emily leaned closer.
Serena had always said her father died when she was a child.
His name was Robert Whitaker.
According to Joseph, Robert was a financial investigator secretly working with Antonio.
Then:
At 10:02, a shot was fired.
Enzo left.
Robert did not.
Dominic continued.
I entered five minutes later.
Antonio was dead.
Robert was wounded.
He told me Enzo did not fire the shot.
Dominic’s pulse quickened.
The shooter was someone Antonio trusted enough to turn his back on.
Then the page ended.
“No name?” Emily asked.
“There’s another sheet.”
Dominic unfolded it.
A photograph.
Antonio at the warehouse.
Behind him:
Serena’s father.
Enzo.
And a woman.
Dominic recognized her immediately.
Teresa.
He looked at the elderly housekeeper.
She was not the shooter.
She had been home with Dominic that night.
Then he noticed the reflection in a warehouse window.
Another figure.
A man wearing a long coat.
The face unclear.
But the ring on his hand was visible.
Vitali crest.
Dominic had only one relative alive then who wore that ring.
His uncle.
Matteo Vitali.
The man who became Dominic’s legal guardian after Antonio died.
The man who died ten years later.
Dominic whispered:
“Uncle Matteo.”
Emily looked at him.
“Could he have killed your father?”
“Yes.”
Then Joseph’s final note answered part of it.
Matteo ordered the murder.
But he was not the one who fired.
Dominic turned the page.
One last sentence:
The shooter was his daughter.
Dominic went still.
Matteo had only one child.
A daughter Dominic had grown up beside.
A girl who disappeared from Chicago eighteen years ago.
Serena Whitaker’s real name was not Serena Whitaker.
She was Sofia Vitali.
May you like
Dominic’s cousin.
And she had come back under a new identity to finish what her father started.
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