Chapter 5 - The Code Renzo Swore He Never Used
Renzo did not run.
That helped.
He also did not look surprised.
That hurt.
Vincent dismissed everyone except Dominic, Alina, Renzo, and the detective.
The boardroom door closed.
Vincent said, “Explain.”
Renzo removed his glasses.
“I can’t.”
Dominic stepped forward.
“Wrong answer.”
“I mean I cannot explain why my code was used.”
“Did you use it?”
“No.”
“Who knows it?”
“No one.”
Vincent’s voice stayed quiet.
“Renzo.”
Renzo looked at him.
Then exhaled.
“My wife did.”
Nobody spoke.
Alina had met Renzo’s wife once at the estate Christmas luncheon.
Marisol.
A school counselor.
Warm.
Funny.
Very pregnant at the time.
Vincent looked stunned.
“Why would Marisol know your security code?”
“She did not know it was security.”
Renzo rubbed his face.
“I used the same six digits for the garage alarm and our home safe.”
Dominic stared at him.
“You reused a security code?”
Renzo looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
“After twenty years around this family?”
“Yes.”
“Unbelievable.”
Alina said, “Why would his wife use it?”
Renzo looked at her.
“She wouldn’t.”
“Then who could learn it from her?”
Silence.
Renzo’s face changed.
His son.
Leo.
Renzo’s twenty-year-old son had worked part-time in vehicle services during college breaks.
Frank supervised him.
Dominic said the name first.
“Leo.”
Renzo went pale.
“No.”
Vincent said nothing.
That was worse.
Leo was called.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Then Marisol called Renzo crying.
Leo had left their apartment the previous night with a backpack.
He said he was going to Indiana to see a friend.
He never arrived.
Renzo sat down.
Alina felt her anger shift.
Not disappear.
Shift.
“This doesn’t make him guilty.”
Dominic nodded.
“No.”
The detective requested phone and toll records through proper channels.
Vincent did not object.
That mattered.
By evening, Leo’s car was found at a train station.
Empty.
His phone lay under the driver’s seat.
Renzo looked broken.
Vincent canceled every meeting.
Adrian sent a message to the board accusing Vincent of manufacturing a family drama to delay the vote.
Vincent deleted it.
Alina watched.
“You’re not answering?”
“No.”
“Growth.”
He looked at her.
“Painful growth.”
Mia wandered into the study with Isabel.
“Mr. Vincent?”
He crouched automatically.
Alina noticed he did that now.
Mia held up a drawing.
Black car.
Rain.
A stick man.
A blue square.
“What’s the square?” Vincent asked.
“Phone.”
Alina frowned.
“The man had a phone?”
Mia nodded.
“Blue.”
“What did he say?”
Mia thought very hard.
“Boss mad.”
Vincent and Dominic exchanged a look.
“Did he say those words?” Alina asked gently.
Mia nodded.
“Boss mad if late.”
Frank had said that morning, almost exactly.
Boss, we’re already twelve minutes behind.
Alina felt cold.
“Anything else?”
Mia shook her head.
Then pointed at the stick man’s shoe.
She had drawn a little circle.
“What is that?”
“Hole.”
Frank’s right shoe had a worn patch near the sole.
Alina had noticed it after Mia said squeaky shoe.
Dominic swore softly.
Vincent said, “So Mia saw Frank.”
That did not explain Renzo’s code.
Unless Frank had gotten it from Leo.
Dominic searched employment records.
Three weeks before the incident, Frank had written Leo up for using the garage computer after hours.
The disciplinary note had never reached Renzo.
Frank kept it in his own file.
Why?
Because he had leverage.
They found Leo before midnight.
He walked into a police station in Milwaukee and asked for an attorney.
Renzo nearly collapsed with relief.
Leo admitted everything.
Not the tracker.
The code.
He had been gambling online.
Small at first.
Then bad.
Frank discovered it.
Frank offered to cover a debt if Leo gave him an after-hours garage code.
Leo refused.
Frank threatened to tell Renzo.
Leo eventually gave him the six digits.
“He said he needed to test an old security system,” Leo told police.
“Did Adrian tell him to?” the detective asked.
Leo shook his head.
“I never talked to Adrian.”
“Did Frank?”
“I don’t know.”
Then Leo said something important.
The night before the rain, he heard Frank arguing on the phone in the garage.
“With who?”
“I don’t know.”
“What did he say?”
Leo swallowed.
“He said, ‘I did my part. You get the photos, and I get the debt cleared.’”
Alina felt the room narrow.
Photos.
The tracker was for photos.
Not necessarily an attack.
The board.
But the threatening photo of Mia still did not fit.
Leo continued.
“Then he said, ‘No, I’m not touching the kid.’”
Renzo closed his eyes.
Vincent’s face went still.
Somebody else had brought Mia into it.
Frank had not wanted to.
That did not make him good.
It made the situation worse.
Before the police left, Renzo asked to see his son privately.
Alina found him ten minutes later in the corridor outside the interview room.
He was leaning against the wall with both hands over his face.
“I taught him every rule in this house except how to tell me he was scared,” he said.
Alina did not offer comfort too quickly.
“Maybe because the rule he learned was that mistakes become weapons.”
Renzo looked at her.
“That is not how I raised him.”
“No. But it is how this place works.”
He glanced toward Vincent’s study.
“Worked.”
Alina followed his eyes.
Inside, Vincent was speaking with the detective instead of calling private security.
Small difference.
Big meaning.
Renzo whispered, “If Leo had come to me when the debt started, I would have helped him.”
“Would you have listened before yelling?”
He opened his mouth.
Then closed it.
Alina nodded.
“Exactly.”
When Leo finally came out, Renzo hugged him without speaking.
The young man stood stiff for a second.
Then folded.
Alina turned away and gave them privacy.
Mia tugged her hand.
“Why Mr. Renzo cry?”
“Because he loves somebody and almost lost him.”
Mia considered that.
“Love makes crying?”
“Sometimes.”
Mia nodded solemnly.
“Okay.”
The detective asked, “Did Frank use a name?”
Leo nodded.
“One.”
Everyone leaned forward.
“Mr. A.”
Adrian.
Renzo whispered, “Jesus.”
Vincent did not move.
Then Leo added:
“But I don’t think he meant Adrian.”
The room went silent.
“Why?” Alina asked.
Leo looked confused.
“Because Frank said, ‘Your brother would be ashamed of what you’re doing.’”
Adrian had no brother except Vincent.
But one person in the Marchetti family did.
Their uncle Alessandro.
A quiet board member nobody had discussed once.
May you like
And Alessandro’s brother had been Lorenzo Marchetti.
Vincent’s father.
