Chapter 5 - The Apartment With Two Locked Doors
Rebecca’s building sat in Queens between a laundromat and a bakery that had already closed for the night.
Francesco arrived with Arthur and one other man.
Faith stayed in the SUV.
For forty-three seconds.
Then Rebecca screamed upstairs.
Faith opened the door.
Arthur caught her arm.
“You were told to stay.”
“She’s screaming.”
“Francesco will handle it.”
“No.”
Arthur looked at her.
Faith said, “You protect people by controlling every door. I protect people by going through them.”
Something like reluctant respect crossed his face.
He went with her.
On the fourth floor, Rebecca’s apartment door stood open.
Vincent was inside.
So was a man Faith recognized from photographs.
Luca Bellini.
Silver hair.
Camel overcoat.
Calm eyes.
Rebecca was backed against the kitchen counter.
Vincent held her wrist.
Francesco stood between them and the exit.
“Let her go,” he said.
Bellini smiled.
“Francesco. Always rescuing broken things.”
Faith saw Francesco’s shoulders tighten.
Bellini noticed her.
“And there she is.”
Vincent turned.
His face twisted.
“Faith, stay out of this.”
She almost laughed.
“My name is on your fake company.”
“You don’t understand what you’re involved in.”
“I understand enough.”
Rebecca pulled against his grip.
“Let me go.”
Vincent tightened his hand.
Francesco moved.
Fast.
He caught Vincent’s wrist, twisted it away from Rebecca, and struck him once in the ribs when Vincent swung.
Vincent crashed into the counter.
Francesco did not hit him again.
That mattered to Faith.
Bellini clapped slowly.
“Still pretending to be civilized.”
Francesco faced him.
“Leave.”
Bellini’s smile faded.
“You don’t own this city anymore.”
“I never did.”
“No. Your father did.”
The room changed.
Faith watched the words land.
Francesco’s father had been dead six years.
Bellini continued. “And when he died, you tried to turn a wolf pack into a family business.”
Faith looked at Francesco.
He said nothing.
Bellini’s eyes moved to her.
“You think he is different from Vincent?”
Faith answered before Francesco could.
“Yes.”
Bellini laughed.
“You barely know him.”
“That’s why I said yes.”
Francesco looked at her.
Faith continued. “Vincent lies because the truth makes him smaller. Francesco tells me things that make him look worse.”
Bellini’s amusement disappeared.
Sirens sounded below.
Rebecca exhaled.
“I called them before you came,” she said.
Bellini looked toward the window.
Then at Vincent.
Something passed between them.
Vincent panicked.
“You said this was handled.”
Bellini’s face went cold.
“You were the one who brought your fiancée into it.”
“Ex-fiancée,” Faith said.
Vincent glared at her.
The police arrived before anyone could move again.
Bellini’s lawyer met him downstairs within fifteen minutes.
Vincent was detained for assaulting Rebecca and questioned about the counterfeit medication investigation.
But Bellini walked.
Not because he was innocent.
Because men like him survived by standing one layer away from every crime.
In the ambulance bay outside the building, Rebecca sat wrapped in a blanket.
Faith stood beside her.
“I don’t expect forgiveness,” Rebecca said.
“Good.”
“I did love him.”
Faith looked at her.
Rebecca’s face crumpled.
“That’s the worst part.”
“No,” Faith said quietly. “The worst part is what he taught you to accept because you loved him.”
Rebecca started crying.
Faith did not hug her.
Not yet.
Francesco approached.
He had blood on one knuckle.
Faith looked at it.
“You hit him.”
“He swung first.”
“Convenient.”
A corner of his mouth moved.
“Do you disapprove?”
“I approve of him not touching Rebecca.”
“And the method?”
“I’m still deciding.”
He nodded.
Fair.
Then Agent Park arrived.
Her expression told Faith the night was not over.
“We found something in Vincent’s car,” Park said.
“What?”
“A laptop.”
Faith waited.
Park looked directly at Francesco.
“It contains files on the Moretti family.”
Francesco’s face hardened.
Park continued.
“And one folder is labeled SOFIA.”
Police separated everyone before taking statements.
Faith sat in the back of an ambulance with a blanket around her shoulders even though she was not cold. Rebecca had a bruise forming around her wrist. Vincent sat in a patrol car across the street, staring through the glass with a fury that looked almost childish.
Agent Park arrived just after midnight.
She listened without interruption, then asked Faith why she had gone upstairs after agreeing to stay in the vehicle.
“Because Rebecca screamed.”
“That answer will not make your security detail happy.”
“I don’t have a security detail.”
Park glanced toward Arthur.
“You have something.”
Faith followed her gaze.
Francesco stood under the building awning speaking quietly with a detective. He looked composed, but one hand kept opening and closing at his side.
Park noticed that too.
“Moretti scares people,” she said.
“I know.”
“Does he scare you?”
Faith considered lying.
“Sometimes.”
“Good.”
Faith frowned.
Park continued. “Fear is information. So is trust. Neither should make decisions by itself.”
It was the most useful thing anyone had said to her in weeks.
Before leaving, Rebecca caught Faith’s hand.
“Thank you for coming.”
Faith looked at her bruised wrist.
“Don’t thank me yet.”
“For what?”
“For making you testify against him.”
Rebecca gave a shaky smile.
“I think I’m finally ready.”
Faith squeezed once and let go.
Across the street, Vincent watched them.
For the first time, the two women he had lied to were standing on the same side of the road.
Before Faith left the apartment building, she found a second locked door at the end of Rebecca’s hallway.
A storage room.
Police opened it after obtaining consent from the building manager.
Inside were three Meridian cartons with their labels peeled away and a stack of insulated shipping sleeves.
Rebecca stared at them.
“I never put those there.”
Agent Park photographed everything.
Faith recognized one manufacturer code from the compromised cardiac lot.
That discovery changed Rebecca from a frightened witness into someone investigators believed had unknowingly been used as a storage point.
It also meant Vincent had expected access to her apartment long after the affair ended.
Faith looked at Rebecca and saw the shape of control repeating itself in a different woman’s life.
May you like
Vincent had not loved either of them well.
He had simply found different ways to make each of them useful.
