Chapter 9 - The Woman In The Photograph
Elena had left more than financial records.
Buried inside the memory card was a photograph of a woman Leo recognized.
“Aunt Nora.”
Salvatore frowned.
“Who?”
“She lived with us in Philadelphia.”
“When?”
“Two years ago.”
Carmine enlarged the photograph.
Nora Bennett.
Former federal intelligence analyst.
Official records listed her as dead.
Again.
Too many dead people were walking around.
Leo pointed.
“She told Mama if anything happened, we should go north.”
“Where north?”
“I don’t know.”
Salvatore searched Elena’s letter.
One line suddenly stood out.
When winter comes, remember where we first saw snow.
Salvatore knew.
Lake George.
He and Elena had spent one weekend there seventeen years earlier.
By midnight, a convoy headed north.
Leo sat beside Salvatore.
Titan occupied most of the rear seat.
“You brought the dog?”
Leo scratched Titan’s head.
“He brought himself.”
For the first time, Salvatore smiled openly.
They reached the abandoned lake house before sunrise.
The door was unlocked.
A fire burned inside.
Nora Bennett sat at the kitchen table holding a pistol.
She looked at Leo.
Then lowered the weapon.
“You made it.”
Leo ran to her.
For the first time since arriving at the mansion, he hugged someone without hesitation.
Salvatore felt something twist inside him.
Nora looked over Leo’s shoulder.
“So you finally met your father.”
Salvatore’s eyes narrowed.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Since the day he was born.”
Salvatore restrained himself.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because Elena believed your brother had access to your entire security network.”
“She was right.”
Nora nodded.
“Marco was planning against you before Leo was born.”
She pulled a file from beneath the table.
“Your father created the Crown.”
Salvatore froze.
“My father?”
“He wanted a political-criminal network that could survive any administration, any arrest, any family war.”
“My father died twenty years ago.”
“The Crown didn’t.”
Nora pushed photographs toward him.
Marco had inherited it.
Barrett financed it.
Commissioner Lowe protected it.
Senator Wynn legalized its money.
Victor Bellini supplied killers.
“What was Elena’s role?”
“She discovered it accidentally.”
Nora looked toward Leo.
“And she discovered something else.”
“What?”
“The Crown had infiltrated child charities and orphanages.”
Leo went still.
“They used children with no families to move money, identities, sometimes packages.”
Salvatore’s face hardened.
“Miller Street.”
“One of several.”
Leo whispered, “Tommy.”
“Yes,” Nora said. “Children who heard too much disappeared.”
Salvatore stood.
This was beyond family betrayal.
Beyond mafia politics.
“What does Marco want?”
“Control.”
“He already has money.”
“Not enough.”
Nora looked at Salvatore.
“He wants the Moretti legitimate empire too.”
“And Leo blocks inheritance transfer.”
“Exactly.”
The lights suddenly died.
Titan stood.
A second later, windows exploded inward.
Gunfire tore through the cabin.
Salvatore dragged Leo behind a stone fireplace.
Carmine returned fire.
Nora fired through a broken window.
Men surrounded the house.
Marco had found them.
Smoke grenades crashed through the glass.
Titan barked viciously.
Then Leo saw something nobody else did.
A red laser dot moved across Salvatore’s back.
“Dad!”
He tackled Salvatore.
The bullet struck the wall.
Salvatore stared at him.
It was the first time Leo had called him Dad.
Neither had time to react.
The front door exploded.
Men entered.
And through the smoke came a familiar voice.
May you like
“Brother.”
Marco stepped into the burning room.
