Chapter 5 - THE COMPASS
Moretti talked after his lawyer arrived.
Not because he suddenly grew a conscience.
Because kidnapping a ten-year-old gave prosecutors leverage he had not planned for.
Sam was found ninety minutes later in an office above an abandoned warehouse.
He ran into me so hard we both fell.
I held him until my arms hurt.
Then I yelled.
“What were you thinking leaving school with a stranger?”
“He said Dad sent him.”
“Dad is dead.”
“I know.”
His face crumpled.
“I thought maybe Dad told him something before.”
I stopped.
He was ten.
Scared.
And adults had been using his father’s name against him.
I pulled him back into my arms.
“I’m sorry.”
Later, in a safe interview room, Sam emptied his backpack.
The compass was there.
Old brass.
Scratched glass.
I had seen it a hundred times.
Dominic did not touch it.
Good.
Sam turned it over.
“Dad said Mom gave him this.”
Our mother had never owned a compass.
I knew that now.
The back plate twisted off.
Inside:
A tiny memory card.
Of course.
My father had hidden evidence inside an object no debt collector would consider valuable.
The data went to my attorney first.
Then authorities.
Then, with proper copies preserved, Dominic’s lawyer reviewed what related to him.
The card contained scans of original gambling ledgers.
Moretti’s communications.
Varga’s collection instructions.
Rossi transaction summaries.
And one audio recording.
My father and Dominic.
I stared at the file name.
T_BENNETT_D_ROSSI.
Dominic looked away.
“You said you never hired him.”
“I didn’t.”
“You met him.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Six months before he died.”
“Why?”
“He came to me.”
I played the recording.
My father’s voice sounded tired.
Dominic’s younger somehow.
Thomas:
Moretti says he’s working for you.
Dominic:
He works for me.
Thomas:
He works for Varga too.
Silence.
Dominic:
Prove it.
My father:
I’m trying.
Then Dominic said:
If you can prove it, I’ll get you and your kids out.
There.
Moretti had told the truth about one thing.
Dominic offered my father protection.
“What happened?”
I asked.
Dominic answered:
“He disappeared before the second meeting.”
“My father lived in the same apartment.”
“From me.”
Why?
The recording continued.
Thomas:
If Varga finds out I came here, Chloe pays.
Dominic:
Then she won’t know.
My chest tightened.
My father had spent his life failing me in obvious ways.
Apparently, near the end, he had tried to protect me in secret.
Then another audio file.
Thomas and Moretti.
Moretti:
Rossi thinks you’re giving him evidence.
Thomas:
I am.
Moretti:
Then your daughter inherits forty grand.
My stomach turned.
There it was.
The debt was created as punishment.
Then Moretti said something worse.
If Thomas talked, Sam would enter foster care.
Chloe would be forced into one of Varga’s clubs.
That had been the plan long before my father died.
I looked at Dominic.
“So when you bought the debt…”
“I thought I was saving you from Varga.”
“You were walking into Moretti’s cleanup.”
“Yes.”
He looked furious at himself.
Then the final document opened.
A beneficiary list.
People Moretti had placed inside both organizations.
Names.
Jobs.
Payments.
One name made Dominic stop breathing.
LAURA BIANCHI.
I frowned.
“Who?”
Dominic whispered:
“My mother.”
May you like
His mother had been dead for twelve years.
Yet Moretti had been using her identity too.
