Chapter 4 - THE DEAD MAN’S SIGNATURE
Arthur Costello had taught Luca how power worked.
Never threaten when patience could accomplish more.
Never trust a man simply because he shared your blood.
And never assume a problem was gone just because someone stopped talking about it.
The irony was difficult to ignore.
Arthur had disappeared from public life after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Six months later, the family received notice that he had died at a private clinic in Switzerland.
There had been no funeral.
Arthur had supposedly requested cremation.
Luca had accepted it because, at the time, grief was just another weight in a life already defined by paralysis.
Now Vincent found something impossible.
No Swiss death certificate had ever been formally registered with the American consulate.
No verified cremation record existed.
Arthur’s death had been announced through his own law firm.
Nothing more.
“He could be alive.”
Elena spoke quietly.
Luca looked through the window toward the baseball field.
“If he is, he spent six years making sure no one looked for him.”
“But why poison you?”
“Control.”
Luca’s answer came quickly.
After Luca’s collapse, Arthur had taken temporary authority over several family companies.
When Luca eventually returned to work, Arthur remained the legal architect behind nearly every trust and holding company.
He knew where the money moved.
He knew which signatures mattered.
He knew exactly how Luca’s disability changed the balance of power.
Maya entered carrying two baseball gloves.
“Tommy’s here.”
Luca turned.
“Tell him I’ll come outside.”
Maya frowned.
“You always say come outside, but technically we come to you.”
Elena covered a smile.
Luca raised an eyebrow.
“I’m beginning to understand why your mother looks tired.”
Outside, Tommy was waiting beside the porch.
He held something behind his back.
“I found this by the hedge.”
He handed Luca a small black device.
Vincent immediately took it.
A wireless microphone.
Someone had planted it near the porch.
The place where Luca and Elena had discussed the poisoning.
Vincent’s men searched the garden.
They found another device beneath the porch railing.
Then a third near the library window.
Someone had been listening.
That night Luca intentionally announced false information within range of one remaining microphone.
He said the toxicology evidence had been transferred to a downtown attorney.
No such transfer had occurred.
Three hours later, Vincent received an alert.
Two men had broken into the attorney’s office.
Police detained one.
The other escaped.
The arrested man carried no identification.
But inside his phone were six photographs.
Five showed Luca.
The sixth showed Maya leaving school.
Luca stared at the photograph until his hands began to shake.
May you like
The conspiracy was no longer only about him.
Someone had started watching his daughter.
