Chapter 7 - Luca's Ledger
The ledger had been hidden inside the base of a wooden statue of Saint Michael for almost three years.
Teresa was furious.
"Inside a saint?"
Rocco looked embarrassed.
"Luca chose it."
"My son drilled into Saint Michael?"
"He said nobody in this family would dare search a church."
Teresa crossed herself.
"He was right."
Jonathan opened the small black ledger.
His brother's handwriting covered page after page.
Dates.
Container numbers.
Companies.
Names.
Luca had worked the same way Jonathan did.
Paper remembered.
The final entries were different.
Less organized.
More urgent.
Atlantic Meridian is not one company.
It is a clearinghouse.
Someone from Moretti.
Someone from Bianke.
Someone from customs.
Someone from city government.
Jonathan turned pages.
Names were represented by initials.
M.V.
L.V.
S.B.
R.D.
V.B.
Rocco pointed.
"Those don't necessarily mean guilty."
Jonathan looked at him.
"Your initials are here."
"I know."
"Vivien's too."
"I know."
"And Salvatore."
"Yes."
Jonathan continued reading.
The final page contained one sentence.
If I die, the mistake will be assuming the obvious people did it.
Then three numbers.
Meline stared.
"What do they mean?"
Nobody knew.
Vivien took photographs.
Rebecca copied each page.
Then the call came.
Instructions for Andrew's exchange.
Abandoned ferry terminal.
Midnight.
Vivien was to bring the original ledger.
Alone.
Jonathan laughed when he heard that.
"No."
"It's my brother."
"You won't go alone."
"They'll kill him if they see anyone."
"Then they don't see anyone."
Rebecca objected.
"This is now a federal kidnapping."
Jonathan looked at her.
"Then arrest whoever takes the ledger after Andrew is safe."
"You don't run federal operations."
"No."
He closed Luca's ledger.
"But I know Providence better than your tactical team."
Vivien interrupted.
"Stop."
Everyone looked.
"This is my brother."
Her voice shook.
"My decision."
Jonathan nodded.
"What do you want?"
Vivien looked at Rocco.
"Can we make a copy that looks original?"
"Yes."
"Good."
She turned to Rebecca.
"You control perimeter."
Then Jonathan.
"You stay out of sight."
He frowned.
"Vivien."
"If they see you, Andrew dies."
She looked at Meline.
"And you stay here."
Meline lifted both hands.
"I wasn't volunteering."
For the first time in two days, everyone laughed.
The sound felt strange.
Necessary.
At eleven thirty that night, Vivien walked into the abandoned terminal carrying a leather bag.
Rain blew in through broken windows.
Andrew sat tied to a chair beneath one hanging light.
A man stood behind him.
Leonard Voss.
Vivien recognized him from Rebecca's photographs.
"Let him go."
Voss smiled.
"The ledger."
"Brother first."
"You're negotiating badly."
"I'm a Bianke."
"So I've heard."
Vivien set the bag on the floor.
"Open it yourself."
Voss's eyes narrowed.
A second man stepped from the shadows.
Marco Vitali.
Vivien stopped breathing.
Marco looked exhausted.
Unshaven.
Older.
"Marco."
He gave a small nod.
"Miss Bianke."
Andrew looked at his sister.
"Don't give them anything."
Voss struck the back of his chair.
Vivien's face hardened.
"Touch him again and there is no ledger."
Voss smiled.
"Your father raised you well."
"My father knows you're here."
Marco looked sharply at Voss.
That was a lie.
But useful.
Voss gestured.
Marco approached the bag.
He picked it up.
Opened the ledger.
Flipped pages.
"Looks right."
Voss reached for it.
Marco did not hand it over.
Instead he asked, "Where's my money?"
Vivien stared.
Voss's smile vanished.
"After."
"No."
Marco stepped back.
"I did everything."
"What exactly?" Vivien asked.
Neither man answered.
She pressed.
"You framed Meline."
Marco looked at her.
Something resembling shame crossed his face.
"Yes."
"You killed Peter Lang?"
"No."
Voss's face changed.
Marco continued.
"I didn't kill Luca either."
Vivien's pulse accelerated.
"Who did?"
Voss drew a gun.
Marco froze.
Vivien did too.
"You talk too much," Voss said.
A red laser appeared on Voss's chest.
Rebecca's sniper.
Vivien saw it.
Voss did not.
Marco smiled faintly.
"You're not leaving here."
Voss looked down.
Too late.
Federal agents flooded the terminal.
"Gun down!"
Andrew screamed.
Voss dragged him upright.
Gun against his neck.
Vivien stopped moving.
"Let him go."
Voss backed toward an exit.
"Nobody follows."
Jonathan heard everything through Vivien's hidden microphone.
He was in a maintenance corridor twenty yards away.
Rebecca had ordered him not to move.
Then he saw the service door.
Voss was backing directly toward it.
Jonathan waited.
The door opened.
Voss stepped through with Andrew.
Jonathan hit him from the side.
The gun fired into the ceiling.
Andrew fell.
Federal agents rushed in.
Voss was pinned to the floor.
Marco dropped to his knees with his hands raised.
Vivien reached Andrew and wrapped him in her arms.
Jonathan stood over Voss.
Every instinct he had wanted violence.
One kick.
One blow.
One second of satisfaction.
Meline's voice came into his mind.
You're very good at continuing things.
Jonathan stepped away.
Rebecca handcuffed Voss.
Marco looked at Jonathan.
"I can explain."
Jonathan stared at him.
"Good."
Marco swallowed.
"Because you're going to."
Hours later, in an interrogation room, Marco began talking.
Yes, he had fabricated evidence against Meline.
Yes, he had kept Jonathan's money.
No, he had not spent it.
The forty thousand dollars remained untouched in a safe.
"Why?" Rebecca asked.
Marco looked through the glass toward Jonathan.
"Because Voss told me Meline was working with federal agents."
"She was."
"Not against Jonathan."
"You learned that when?"
"Later."
"How much later?"
"Two weeks."
Jonathan's hand tightened.
Two weeks.
Marco had known the truth for nearly eight months.
"Why not tell me?" Jonathan asked through the speaker.
Marco looked at the mirror.
"Because by then I'd already betrayed you."
Jonathan closed his eyes.
Marco continued.
"And Voss had proof I helped falsify documents."
"Blackmail."
"Yes."
"Atlantic Meridian?"
"I helped route contracts."
"For money?"
"At first."
"And later?"
"Fear."
Rebecca asked, "Who controls Atlantic Meridian?"
Marco looked terrified.
"Voss handled operations."
"Who owned it?"
"I never knew all of them."
"Luca?"
Marco's face collapsed.
"I followed him the night he died."
Jonathan stopped breathing.
"Did you kill him?"
"No."
"Who did?"
Marco looked into the mirror.
"Your brother wasn't killed by the Biankes."
Jonathan's heart pounded.
Marco said the next words slowly.
"He was killed by someone he trusted enough to get into a car with."
Jonathan waited.
Marco whispered the name.
"Your uncle Dominic."
Jonathan's father's younger brother.
The man who had helped raise him after his father died.
The man currently controlling half the Moretti businesses while Jonathan handled the ports.
The man who was supposed to be waiting at Teresa's house.
May you like
With Meline.
Jonathan was already running before Marco finished the sentence.
