Chapter 8 - THE MAN WHO SHOULD HAVE BEEN DEAD
The man in the photograph was Gabriel Moretti.
Lorenzo’s father’s younger brother.
According to the Moretti family, Gabriel had died twelve years earlier in a boating accident near Sicily.
No body had ever been recovered.
Lorenzo stared at the photograph for a long time.
“My father always believed he was alive.”
Sophia looked at him.
“Why would everyone say he was dead?”
“Because Gabriel stole from the company.”
Lorenzo sat inside the terminal office while police questioned Mrs. Carter.
“He ran unauthorized shipments through our European subsidiaries.”
“My grandfather discovered it.”
“Gabriel disappeared before federal investigators could arrest him.”
Sophia looked again at the photograph.
Valentina’s arm was linked through Gabriel’s.
“They’re working together.”
Lorenzo nodded.
“Probably for years.”
He called his company attorney.
Then his chief financial officer.
By sunrise, they had discovered transfers totaling nearly eighty million dollars.
Money had moved through shell corporations registered in Panama, Malta, and the Cayman Islands.
Many approvals carried Lorenzo’s forged digital signature.
Valentina had not simply been preparing to steal the estate.
She was positioning Lorenzo to take responsibility for an international smuggling network.
If the plan succeeded, Lorenzo would go to prison.
Valentina would control his assets through marriage and emergency power documents.
Sophia remembered something.
“The hidden room had passports.”
Lorenzo looked at her.
“They could be trafficking people.”
His expression became grim.
“That would explain why they need private shipping routes.”
A detective entered.
“We found something on Victor Kane’s terminal access records.”
He placed a printout on the desk.
Victor had entered Pier Nine nineteen times in six months.
Most visits occurred on nights when humanitarian shipments were scheduled to leave for Europe.
Lorenzo leaned back.
“My company sends medical supplies overseas.”
The detective nodded.
“Someone may have been using those shipments as cover.”
Sophia thought about Lily.
Valentina had said the girl saw something.
“What could my daughter have seen?”
Then she remembered.
Two weeks earlier, Lily had drawn a picture at school.
A black truck.
Three people near the greenhouse.
And boxes being moved through a gate at night.
Sophia had thought it was imagination.
Now she understood.
Lily had seen a transfer.
Maybe she had seen Victor.
Maybe she had seen Gabriel.
Lorenzo looked at Sophia.
“We need that drawing.”
They returned to the estate.
But Lily’s school bag had been emptied onto the floor.
The drawing was gone.
In its place was a white envelope.
May you like
Inside was a single handwritten sentence.
YOU HAVE UNTIL MIDNIGHT TO RETURN THE BRONZE KEY.
