Chapter 5 - What Happened on Route 19
Morgana wanted Jason found immediately.
Roman wanted the same thing.
For different reasons.
“Alive,” Morgana told him.
They stood in Roman’s library.
Roman looked at her.
“I heard you.”
“I mean it.”
“So do I.”
“No revenge.”
Roman gave a humorless smile.
“You’ve known me three days and already issue orders.”
“I’m your sister.”
That stopped him.
Neither had used the word aloud before.
Morgana swallowed.
“I guess that gives me privileges.”
Something softened in Roman’s face.
“Apparently.”
Detective Walker traced Jason’s phone to a motel outside Joliet.
By the time police arrived, he was gone.
But security footage showed him meeting Caruso.
Roman pulled a photograph from an old case file.
Vincent Caruso was seventy now.
White hair.
Expensive coats.
The face of a grandfather.
The history of a snake.
“He worked for your father?” Morgana asked.
“Our father.”
The correction felt strange.
“Salvatore trusted him.”
“And Mom discovered he was stealing?”
“Partly.”
Roman spread old accounting sheets across the desk.
“Caruso and Jason created fake trucking vendors. Dad paid invoices. They split the money.”
“Mom caught them.”
“Yes.”
“So Caruso bought Jason’s silence?”
“More than that.”
Roman pointed to transfers.
“When Salvatore created your trust, Caruso became temporary administrator because Dad was trying to keep your existence private until he could resolve things with Evelyn.”
“He never did.”
“He died when I was twenty-eight.”
“How?”
“Heart attack.”
Morgana watched him.
“You believe that?”
Roman met her eyes.
“Today? I’m questioning several funerals.”
By evening, Walker obtained a warrant for one of Caruso’s storage units.
Inside were twenty years of financial records.
And photographs.
Morgana found one showing Evelyn outside a diner.
Another outside Morgana’s elementary school.
Another of Morgana at age sixteen.
“They watched me.”
Roman looked furious.
“For years.”
“Why?”
“To make sure you never discovered the trust.”
Morgana studied the photographs.
Jason had always told her they were poor because life had dealt them bad cards.
In reality, someone had been paying him to keep her poor.
The cruelty was almost elegant.
Then Walker found an accident report.
Route 19.
November 11, 2006.
Evelyn Hale killed after her car crossed the center line.
Jason had told Morgana her mother fell asleep.
The police file said differently.
Brake line failure.
Morgana stared.
“Why was nobody charged?”
Roman read the next page.
Evidence disappeared before mechanical inspection.
The officer who signed the release?
Retired Lieutenant Vincent Caruso Jr.
Caruso’s son.
Morgana sat down.
Roman knelt beside her chair.
“Morgana.”
She looked at him.
“Did he kill her?”
“We don't know yet.”
“You know.”
“No. We suspect.”
“My mother tried to save me.”
Roman’s voice softened.
“Yes.”
“And they killed her.”
“We prove it.”
“I want Jason.”
“We'll find him.”
“I want him to look at me and tell me what he did.”
Roman hesitated.
“Okay.”
The opportunity came sooner than expected.
At 1:17 a.m., security alarms triggered at the Costa estate.
A vehicle had struck the outer gate.
Guards surrounded it.
Jason stumbled from the driver’s seat.
Blood ran from his forehead.
He raised both hands.
“Don't shoot!”
Morgana watched from the mansion window.
Roman ordered everyone to stand down.
Jason was brought into the kitchen.
The same kind of setting where he had sold her days earlier.
But this time the table was clean.
The lights warm.
Morgana sat opposite him.
Jason could barely meet her eyes.
“Vincent tried to kill me.”
Morgana said nothing.
Jason began talking anyway.
“He knows you found the records.”
“You gave him the records.”
“I had to.”
“No.”
Morgana leaned forward.
“You keep using those three words.”
Jason looked confused.
“I had to.”
“You didn't have to gamble.”
Silence.
“You didn't have to take money from Caruso.”
Silence.
“You didn't have to hit Mom.”
Jason looked away.
“You didn't have to lie about my father.”
His face crumpled.
“And you did not have to sell me.”
Jason whispered, “I was afraid.”
“So was I.”
Morgana’s voice shook.
“I was afraid every night for twenty-two years.”
Jason began crying.
“I'm sorry.”
Morgana stared at him.
She had imagined hearing those words a thousand times.
They felt smaller than she expected.
“What happened to Mom?”
Jason sobbed.
“I didn't kill her.”
“What happened?”
“Vincent told me to stop her from meeting Salvatore.”
“How?”
“He wanted the evidence she had.”
Jason wiped his face.
“I followed her. We argued at a gas station. I called Vincent and told him she wouldn’t give it up.”
Roman stood very still.
“And then?”
“Vincent said he'd handle it.”
Morgana’s skin turned cold.
“You knew what that meant.”
“I didn't!”
“Did you know before she died?”
Jason could not answer.
That was answer enough.
Morgana pushed back from the table.
Jason reached for her.
“Morgana.”
Roman caught his wrist.
Not violently.
Firmly.
“Don’t touch her.”
Jason looked at Roman.
Then down at Roman’s hand.
Fear entered his face.
Roman released him.
Morgana turned toward the door.
Jason called after her.
“There’s more!”
She stopped.
“What?”
Jason swallowed.
“Vincent still has the original ledger.”
Roman turned.
“What ledger?”
“The one Evelyn stole copies from.”
Jason looked at Morgana.
“It proves everything.”
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
Roman approached.
Jason shrank back.
“But I know who does.”
“Who?”
Jason glanced toward Morgana.
“Your mother left it with someone before she died.”
Morgana's heart skipped.
“Who?”
May you like
Jason whispered one name.
“Mrs. Alvarez.”
