Chapter 4 - The Woman He Was Supposed to Fear
Renata did not sleep.
She sat in the guest room at Cesare’s house with her father’s photograph on the table beside her and watched dawn arrive over the river.
At six-thirty, someone knocked.
“Come in.”
Cesare entered carrying coffee.
She looked at the cup.
“If you spill that on me, I’m leaving the state.”
“It’s black.”
“I meant the sweater.”
He glanced at the oversized charcoal sweater she had changed back into.
“The emergency one.”
“Yes.”
“I like it.”
Renata looked up.
Cesare seemed almost surprised by his own words.
She turned back to the window before he could see the warmth rising in her face.
He set the coffee down.
“I had Gio verify the notebook paper and ink age. It’s at least ten years old.”
“So it wasn’t planted yesterday.”
“No.”
“And my father?”
“I found employment records showing Miklos Sabo consulted for a specialty metals company that subcontracted for one of our import partners.”
Renata squeezed the mug.
“He told us it was temporary quality-control work.”
“That may have been true.”
“But he knew your father.”
“Yes.”
“Maybe he knew why Gabriel died.”
Cesare leaned against the wall.
“Maybe Gabriel knew why Miklos died.”
She finally looked at him.
“What happens now?”
“I find Luca.”
“And then?”
His expression closed.
That was answer enough.
Renata set down the coffee.
“No.”
“No what?”
“You do not get to solve this by putting a bullet in your uncle and calling it justice.”
His eyes cooled.
“You are in my house because someone tried to kill you.”
“I am in your house because your world crashed into mine.”
“My world?”
“Yes. Guns. secrets. men disappearing. That world.”
Cesare’s voice became quieter.
“You think yours is cleaner?”
Renata recoiled slightly.
He continued.
“Your father worked near mine. Someone may have killed him. The people behind this use banks, refineries, shipping companies, inspectors. They wear suits. They sign contracts. They donate to hospitals.”
He stepped closer.
“Violence does not become respectable because it is hidden in paperwork.”
Renata hated how much that sentence stayed with her.
But she did not move.
“Then prove you are different.”
Cesare looked at her for a long time.
“How?”
“Do not become the easiest version of what everyone says you are.”
His jaw tightened.
“You met me yesterday.”
“And in one day I have learned you ask good questions, you listen when people talk about things you do not understand, you protect people under gunfire, and you are terrible at introductions.”
A reluctant breath of laughter escaped him.
Renata pointed at him.
“That. That is the person I am talking to.”
The laughter disappeared, but something warmer remained.
Cesare stepped even closer.
“You are either very brave or very reckless.”
“People confuse those all the time.”
“I’m not.”
His gaze dropped to her mouth.
Renata stopped breathing.
For one suspended second, the room narrowed around them.
Then Gio opened the door without knocking.
“Luca called.”
Cesare stepped back instantly.
Renata hated Gio a little.
“What did he say?” Cesare asked.
“He wants to meet. Noon. St. Michael’s Church.”
“Alone?”
“He said family only.”
Renata lifted one hand.
“Definitely a trap.”
Gio nodded. “Definitely.”
Cesare looked at her.
“You’re staying here.”
Renata smiled without humor.
“We already did this chapter.”
“No.”
“Cesare.”
“No.”
“Fine.”
He narrowed his eyes.
“You agreed too quickly.”
“I’m conserving energy.”
At eleven-fifty, Renata was in the back of Sofia’s car two blocks from St. Michael’s.
Sofia drove.
“You realize he is going to be furious,” she said.
“I’m counting on it.”
“Why?”
“Because angry men are easier to read than silent ones.”
Sofia smiled.
“I definitely like you.”
Inside the old stone church, Cesare stood alone near the front pews.
Luca Bellucci waited by the altar.
He was in his late sixties, silver-haired, elegantly dressed, with the tired dignity of someone who had spent decades being obeyed.
He looked at Cesare almost tenderly.
“You look like Gabriel when you’re angry.”
“Do not use his name.”
Luca sighed.
“You found the bars.”
“I found more than the bars.”
“Then you know this did not begin with me.”
Cesare’s eyes hardened.
“Who killed my father?”
Luca looked toward the stained-glass windows.
“The same people who killed Miklos Sabo.”
A floorboard creaked behind Cesare.
He turned.
Renata stood in the aisle.
His expression went murderous.
Luca stared at her.
And then his face changed.
“You are Miklos’s daughter.”
Renata walked forward.
“You knew my father.”
“Yes.”
“Did you kill him?”
“No.”
“Did you help the people who did?”
Luca closed his eyes.
“That answer is more complicated.”
Renata felt Cesare move beside her.
“Make it simple,” he said.
Luca reached slowly into his coat.
Cesare’s hand moved toward his weapon.
“Careful.”
Luca pulled out an envelope.
Inside was a small brass key.
Sofia’s safe-deposit key.
Cesare stared.
Luca said, “Gabriel gave it to me the night he died.”
Sofia stepped from the shadows near the rear pews.
“You had it all these years?”
Luca looked at her.
“I was waiting for the right time.”
Sofia’s voice sharpened.
“Twelve years?”
“I was waiting for Cesare to become strong enough to survive the truth.”
Renata almost laughed from disbelief.
“Everyone in this family is obsessed with deciding when other adults are ready for facts.”
Luca looked at her and, unexpectedly, smiled.
“Miklos used to say things like that.”
Renata’s throat tightened.
“Then tell me what happened to him.”
Luca’s smile vanished.
“He and Gabriel discovered the Bell Tower Consortium.”
Cesare frowned.
“What is that?”
“A network. Shipping, precious metals, banking, construction. Legitimate businesses tied together by private contracts and blackmail.”
“Who runs it?”
Luca looked directly at Cesare.
“Someone you trust.”
Before Cesare could speak, red light flashed across the church windows.
Then came the sound of tires outside.
Gio’s voice exploded through Cesare’s earpiece.
“Police. Federal task force. Multiple vehicles.”
Luca’s face went pale.
“They found us.”
Renata looked toward the doors.
Cesare said, “Who?”
Luca stepped closer and whispered one name.
“Gio.”
Cesare froze.
Then the church doors burst open.
The meeting at St. Michael's became even stranger before the federal raid.
Luca looked at Renata as though seeing a ghost.
“Your father saved my life once,” he said.
Renata's anger faltered. “How?”
“A pressure vessel failed at the refinery. Miklos saw the gauge jump before anyone else did. He dragged me behind a barrier seconds before the lid blew.”
She had never heard the story.
Luca's expression softened. “He laughed afterward because I had ruined a new suit.”
“That sounds like him.”
“He was not afraid of powerful men.”
Renata swallowed. “He was afraid of disappointing my mother.”
Luca gave a quiet laugh. “That too.”
Cesare watched them, and Renata saw something difficult in his eyes. Envy, perhaps, that Luca possessed memories of both fathers that their children had never been given.
“Why did you keep silent?” Cesare asked.
Luca's face closed again.
“Because after Gabriel died, I had a wife and two sons. Bell Tower sent me photographs of them leaving school.”
Cesare's anger shifted.
“You never told me.”
“If I had told you, you would have attacked them.”
“I might have protected you.”
“You were twenty-three and furious at the world.” Luca shook his head. “You would have died.”
Cesare stepped closer. “You do not get to decide that for me.”
Renata almost laughed at the symmetry.
She looked between them. “Do any of you hear yourselves?”
Both men turned toward her.
“You all keep hiding the truth to protect one another, then acting shocked when the lies become more dangerous than the truth.”
Luca looked chastened.
Cesare looked irritated because she was correct.
Renata pointed at the brass key in Luca's hand.
“No more delayed truth. No more deciding who is ready. We open whatever this opens, and everybody gets the same facts.”
Sofia's voice came from behind them.
May you like
“Finally. A sensible person.”
That was when the first red flash from the police vehicles lit the stained glass.
