Chapter 8 - The Last Shadow
The evidence case had been stored in federal custody.
The ledger was supposed to be untouchable.
Yet somebody had accessed it.
Only three people had authorization.
An investigator.
A federal prosecutor.
And Matteo.
I trusted Matteo.
So did the prosecutor.
Which left someone else.
The investigator was found dead the next morning.
The prosecutor disappeared.
And the ledger vanished.
Fear returned to Providence.
Old names resurfaced.
Former associates of Victor.
People connected to Ricca.
Men who had gone into hiding.
Everyone believed Matteo had the ledger.
He didn't.
He had been framed.
The evidence against him was overwhelming.
A federal warrant was issued.
He looked at me.
“I have to surrender.”
“No.”
“If I run, I'm guilty.”
“If you surrender, they'll bury you.”
He smiled.
“You still don't trust the system.”
“Not when it's wrong.”
He touched my hand.
“Then help me prove it.”
We discovered a hidden connection.
The investigator had a daughter.
Her name was Claire Dawson.
She had worked part-time at Laut.
I remembered her.
Quiet.
Always carrying a notebook.
She had been there the night Rosie and Eleanor first entered.
My blood went cold.
“Claire knew about the ledger.”
Matteo nodded.
“And she knew where it was.”
We found her at a motel outside the city.
She confessed.
But not because she wanted the money.
Her father had been blackmailed.
“He was told if he didn't steal the ledger, they would kill my mother.”
“Who?”
She shook her head.
“I never saw him.”
“Then how did you get inside?”
She looked at me.
“Mr. Ricca had someone inside the federal office.”
“Who?”
She handed us a photograph.
A woman.
The federal prosecutor.
She was working with an underground network that had survived the arrests.
The mastermind wasn't Ricca.
Wasn't Victor.
It was someone who had never appeared on any file.
Matteo's aunt.
His father's sister.
Lucia DeLuca.
She had disappeared fifteen years earlier.
Everyone believed she had left the country.
She hadn't.
She had been quietly building her own operation.
And she had one goal.
Destroy the DeLuca family and take control of the waterfront.
“She knew my father,” Matteo said.
“She knew all of them.”
“And Rosie?”
“Leverage.”
“Why?”
“Because Victor owed her money.”
The ledger contained proof of every payment.
Lucia wanted it destroyed.
She kidnapped Claire's mother.
She threatened investigators.
She framed Matteo.
And now she wanted me.
I received a phone call at midnight.
A woman's voice.
“Bring the ledger.”
“I don't have it.”
“Then bring Matteo.”
“Where?”
“Laut.”
I hung up.
Matteo stared at me.
“We're not going.”
“They have Rosie.”
His face changed.
“What?”
Rosie had disappeared from the safe house.
Eleanor was unconscious.
There was blood on the floor.
Not much.
But enough.
We went to Laut.
The restaurant was dark.
The candles were lit.
Every table was set.
Like a normal night.
At table eleven sat Lucia.
She smiled.
“Family dinner.”
Matteo stepped forward.
“You took the wrong child.”
Lucia laughed.
“She is family now.”
“Where is she?”
“Safe.”
“Where?”
“First give me the ledger.”
“I don't have it.”
Lucia looked at me.
“Yes, you do.”
I frowned.
Then I remembered.
My father had once said the ledger was hidden in plain sight.
Table eleven.
But it wasn't the metal book.
It was the memory.
The code.
The original ledger had been transferred into a handwritten recipe book kept in the kitchen.
Daniel had trusted food because nobody ever searched for evidence among recipes.
I understood.
I turned toward the kitchen.
Lucia smiled.
“You finally remembered.”
Matteo looked at me.
“Don't.”
I whispered:
“She's right.”
We opened the recipe book.
There it was.
Every name.
Every transaction.
Every secret.
Lucia reached for it.
Matteo stopped her.
“You're not getting it.”
She pulled a gun.
A shot rang out.
Matteo fell.
I screamed.
He hit the floor.
Blood spread across his shirt.
Lucia smiled.
“I was hoping he'd make this difficult.”
I ran toward him.
“Mia.”
His voice was faint.
“Don't give her the book.”
Lucia raised the gun toward me.
Then footsteps thundered outside.
Police.
Federal agents.
My father had called them.
Lucia turned.
She tried to escape through the kitchen.
I blocked the door.
She pointed the gun at me.
For one second, everything stopped.
Then Matteo grabbed her ankle.
She fell.
The gun slid away.
Officers rushed in.
Lucia was arrested.
I dropped beside Matteo.
“You're okay.”
He breathed through the pain.
“It's not my blood.”
“What?”
“Bullet hit the vest.”
I started laughing and crying at once.
“You could have told me that.”
“I was busy.”
I hit his shoulder.
“You scared me.”
“I know.”
Then a small voice came from behind the officers.
“Mia?”
I turned.
Rosie.
Safe.
I ran to her.
She hugged me.
“I told them Matteo would come.”
Matteo smiled.
“You did?”
She nodded.
“I knew.”
We survived the last shadow.
The ledger was secured.
The network collapsed.
May you like
And Matteo was finally free.
But there was still one promise he hadn't made.
