Chapter 5 - The Grave That Was Empty
The Moretti family cemetery stood under a moonless sky.
Snow covered the marble statues.
The trees bent under the weight of ice.
Vincent stood before Michael's grave.
He had stood there hundreds of times.
Tonight, he ordered the stone removed.
Clara watched.
Daniel stood beside her.
The coffin was opened.
Empty.
Exactly as Michael had warned.
Clara cried quietly.
Vincent did not.
He was beyond tears.
He looked beneath the coffin.
A metal hatch.
Daniel nodded.
“Kane built the bunker during your father's final years.”
Vincent opened it.
A ladder descended into darkness.
They went below.
The underground chamber was larger than expected.
Stone walls.
Steel doors.
Security monitors.
And one small room at the center.
Maisie was inside.
She sat on a chair eating crackers.
Beside her stood Edward Kane.
He turned.
“Vincent.”
Vincent raised his weapon.
“You have ten seconds.”
Kane smiled.
“Or what?”
“You already know.”
Clara stepped forward.
“Maisie!”
The little girl ran to her.
Kane did not stop her.
That frightened Vincent more than anything.
Kane had never intended to harm her.
He wanted something else.
“You can leave with the child,” Kane said.
Vincent frowned.
“What do you want?”
“The ledger.”
Michael stepped forward.
“Why?”
“Because you never understood what that ledger contains.”
Kane gestured toward the monitors.
“Northstar wasn't mine.”
Vincent's eyes narrowed.
“Whose was it?”
Kane smiled.
“Your father's.”
Vincent shook his head.
“My father died before this operation peaked.”
“He built it.”
Michael's face tightened.
“No.”
Kane opened a file.
Photographs.
Bank transfers.
Signatures.
Vincent's father's handwriting.
Clara stared.
Daniel looked shocked.
“You didn't know,” Kane said.
Vincent's hands tightened.
“Why would you build something illegal?”
Kane laughed.
“Because your father believed the city belonged to men willing to take it.”
Vincent looked away.
He remembered his father's cold lessons.
Never trust.
Never apologize.
Power first.
Family second.
For years, Vincent had believed he had become different.
Now the truth was worse.
He had inherited more than money.
He had inherited secrets.
Michael spoke.
“Our father started it.”
“Yes.”
“And you expanded it.”
“Yes.”
“And you killed me to protect it.”
Kane shook his head.
“No.”
Vincent stared.
Kane's eyes became cold.
“I didn't kill Michael.”
“Then who did?”
Kane looked toward Frank.
Everyone turned.
Frank stood in the doorway.
Blood stained his shirt.
He looked exhausted.
“The man who pulled the trigger,” Kane said, “was me.”
Clara gasped.
Vincent's face became empty.
Frank lowered his gun.
“Michael was dying. I was ordered to finish it.”
Vincent could barely speak.
“You shot him?”
“Yes.”
Michael stepped forward.
“He shot me once.”
Vincent looked at him.
“And you survived.”
Michael nodded.
Frank continued.
“I couldn't kill my own godson.”
He had deliberately missed the heart.
Michael was moved to a hidden location.
Then Frank told Vincent a fabricated story.
He believed he was saving Michael.
But four years later, he admitted he had been wrong.
“I thought I could control Kane.”
Frank's voice broke.
“I couldn't.”
Kane laughed.
“You all thought you were clever.”
Vincent finally understood the entire trap.
Frank had acted as a double agent.
Daniel had acted as a double agent.
Michael had vanished.
Clara had been watched.
Every person had been hiding something.
And Kane had been collecting their secrets.
Kane pressed a button.
A timer appeared on the monitor.
Thirty seconds.
“Thirty seconds until the bunker doors lock.”
Vincent raised his weapon.
Kane smiled.
“Shoot me and you may never leave.”
The timer dropped.
Twenty.
Nineteen.
Michael noticed a second control panel.
He ran.
Kane fired.
Michael ducked.
Clara pulled Maisie behind cover.
Vincent fired at Kane.
Missed.
Frank tackled Kane.
The timer hit five.
Michael hit the control panel.
The steel doors opened.
Police sirens echoed above.
Kane stared.
“You called the police?”
Vincent smiled.
“No.”
He held up his phone.
“Michael did.”
The bunker filled with officers.
Kane was arrested.
But before being taken away, he looked at Vincent.
“You think this ends with me?”
Vincent stepped closer.
“It ends with you.”
Kane smiled.
“Your father's secrets will destroy you.”
Vincent looked at Michael.
Then Clara.
Then Maisie.
“No.”
He turned away.
May you like
“They won't.”
For the first time, Kane looked uncertain.
