Chapter 4 - THE SISTER NO ONE SPOKE ABOUT
Vincent did not sleep that night.
Alina knew because neither did she.
At 2:13 a.m., she found him in the estate library staring at a photograph of Sofia Marchetti.
She had been beautiful.
Dark curls.
Sharp smile.
One hand resting on Vincent’s shoulder while he looked ten years younger and far less guarded.
“She was thirty-four,” he said without being asked.
Alina stood near the doorway.
“You don’t have to tell me.”
“Yes.”
He looked at the photograph.
“I do.”
Sofia had managed the family’s legitimate commercial real-estate division.
She hated the older businesses.
Argued with Vittorio constantly.
Wanted Vincent out too.
“She was the only person who could tell my father he was wrong and make him consider it.”
“What happened?”
“She drove home from Milwaukee.”
“Alone?”
“Yes.”
“Car fire?”
Vincent looked at her.
“No.”
“Brake failure.”
Alina’s stomach tightened.
“Frank supervised vehicles then?”
“Yes.”
There it was.
“Did anyone investigate him?”
“My father did.”
“And?”
“Cleared him.”
“By who?”
Vincent was silent.
“Your father’s people.”
“Yes.”
“Not police.”
“Police called it mechanical failure.”
“But your father handled the deeper investigation.”
“Yes.”
Alina leaned against a shelf.
“Maybe Vittorio trusted the wrong person.”
Vincent’s face hardened.
“He trusted Frank for thirty years.”
“So?”
“He saved my father’s life twice.”
“That doesn’t make him honest forever.”
Vincent looked at her.
Most employees would never have said that.
Most people in Chicago probably would not.
Alina was too tired to fear him correctly.
“What was Sofia investigating before she died?”
His eyes sharpened.
“How did you know she was investigating something?”
“Because nobody in this story dies while peacefully minding their own business.”
That almost made him smile.
Then he opened a locked desk drawer.
Sofia’s old files.
Vendor lists.
Construction contracts.
Vehicle purchases.
Security invoices.
One company appeared repeatedly.
Caruso Fleet Management.
Frank’s family business before he joined Marchetti full-time.
Sofia had highlighted several invoices.
Prices inflated.
Vehicles billed twice.
Maintenance charges for cars not owned by the company.
“How much?”
Vincent calculated.
“Maybe three million.”
“That’s enough to kill someone?”
“In my father’s world, people killed for less.”
“Your world too?”
His gaze met hers.
“Yes.”
No lie.
She appreciated it more than she wanted to.
Then Dominic entered.
“We opened Gabriel’s flash drive.”
“What’s on it?”
“Audio.”
They played a recording.
Sofia’s voice.
Alina recognized her from old family videos Dominic had located.
“Gabriel, if something happens to me, Vincent needs to know Frank isn’t working alone.”
Gabriel:
“Who?”
Sofia:
“I don’t have enough proof.”
Then another male voice entered the room in the recording.
Older.
Vittorio.
Vincent’s father.
“You’re digging into things that keep this family alive.”
Sofia responded:
“Then maybe this family deserves to die.”
Vincent closed his eyes.
The recording continued.
Vittorio:
“Walk away.”
Sofia:
“No.”
Then a sound.
Door closing.
Recording ended.
Alina looked at Vincent.
“Your father knew.”
“Yes.”
“He told her to stop.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Dominic opened another file from the drive.
A photograph.
Sofia meeting someone at a coffee shop.
The man’s face was partially turned.
But Vincent recognized him.
“Gabriel.”
Alina stared.
Her dead-not-dead partner had worked with Vincent’s sister.
Then Dominic enlarged the image.
A third person sat at the table.
Frank Caruso.
Alina froze.
“Why would Sofia meet the man she was investigating?”
Vincent’s voice turned cold.
“Maybe Frank wasn’t the target.”
Then a second photo loaded.
Sofia passing Frank an envelope.
And written on the back in Sofia’s handwriting:
FRANK AGREED TO HELP. IF HE DIES, THE TRAITOR IS CLOSER THAN WE THINK.
The entire theory collapsed.
Frank might not have killed Sofia.
He might have been helping her.
Then Vincent’s phone rang.
Security gate.
Frank Caruso had returned to the estate.
He had been missing for six hours.
May you like
His clothes were bloody.
And in his hands he carried a gun belonging to Dominic Russo.
