Chapter 6 - THE MAN I CALLED UNCLE
I listened to Carlo's voice four times.
Each time, the sentence sounded worse.
Serena is the reason Paolo is already dead.
I wanted to confront him.
To drive to his villa.
To demand answers.
Lucia stopped me.
“Not yet.”
“He talked about my father's death.”
“Yes.”
“And I’m supposed to sit quietly?”
“No. You're supposed to avoid warning him about evidence investigators may need.”
I hated that she was right.
So I waited.
Meanwhile, forensic accountants reviewed Bellini Maritime.
The hidden trust.
The Moretti payments.
The missing profits.
The picture became uglier every day.
Carlo had used my shares as collateral for private transactions.
He'd diverted dividends into companies controlled by himself and Vittorio Moretti.
And for years, he'd told me the Bellini company barely survived because Alessandro's organization pressured our ports.
It was a lie.
The company was profitable.
My money had simply been disappearing.
Then another secret surfaced.
The antique watch I'd bought for Alessandro had once belonged to his grandfather.
That was why he'd searched for it for nearly ten years.
But the dealer who sold it to me had received it from an anonymous Italian estate.
Lucia traced the estate.
Carlo Bellini.
My uncle had owned the watch.
I stared at the purchase records.
“Why would Carlo have Alessandro's family watch?”
Lucia shook her head.
Then we inspected photographs of the watch.
On the inside of the back plate was an engraving I'd never noticed.
Three initials.
A.V.
P.B.
V.M.
Alessandro Vitale.
Paolo Bellini.
Vittorio Moretti.
Not people.
Families.
The watch had been used as a symbol of an old partnership between their fathers.
Alessandro joined us by video when Lucia explained it.
His expression changed.
“My father told me the watch disappeared after Paolo died.”
I stared.
“So my uncle took it.”
“Possibly.”
Then Lucia found a hidden compartment inside the watch case.
A microfilm strip had been sealed beneath the mechanism.
My heart stopped.
The dealer hadn't known.
Neither had I.
The strip contained photographs of old shipping ledgers.
Names.
Accounts.
Payments.
And one handwritten agreement.
Paolo Bellini and Alessandro's father had been building a case against Vittorio Moretti and Carlo Bellini together.
The watch wasn't merely sentimental.
It was evidence.
My father had hidden proof inside the very gift I unknowingly brought to Venice.
And Carlo may have spent thirteen years searching for it.
Then Lucia found the final entry.
A payment made the night my father died.
Recipient:
DR. ENZO RICCI.
Authorization:
CARLO BELLINI.
May you like
And beside it were two words.
FINAL TREATMENT.
