Chapter 14 - THE WOMAN BEHIND THE SERPENT
Z
Elena Vescari called again at midnight.
This time Claire was ready.
Three recording systems captured every word.
Vincent sat beside her.
Daniel tracked the signal.
Alessandro remained across the room, looking like a man awaiting judgment.
Claire answered.
“Elena.”
Silence.
Then a woman laughed softly.
“So he told you.”
“Yes.”
“Did he also tell you how your mother saved me?”
“No.”
Alessandro closed his eyes.
Claire continued.
“Tell me.”
Elena’s voice was calm.
“When we were young, my father’s enemies wanted to use me against him.”
Claire looked at Alessandro.
He did not move.
“Marino’s people kidnapped me.”
“How old were you?”
“Twenty.”
“What did my mother do?”
“She found where I was being held.”
“How?”
“Patrick knew.”
Claire went cold.
Elena continued.
“Your father—”
“Patrick isn’t my father.”
A pause.
Then Elena laughed.
“So you opened the box.”
Claire said nothing.
“Good. Margaret wanted you to know eventually.”
“You knew?”
“I knew everything about Margaret.”
Claire’s jaw tightened.
“Then why take my sister?”
“Because Abigail interfered with my routes.”
Abigail stood.
Claire raised a hand.
“Your trafficking routes.”
Elena’s voice sharpened.
“Careful with simple words for complicated systems.”
“People were moved against their will.”
“Some.”
“That isn’t complicated.”
Vincent looked at Claire with quiet approval.
Elena sighed.
“You sound like your mother.”
“I hope so.”
Another pause.
“Margaret would be disappointed in me.”
“Then let Lauren go.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because Abigail stole from me.”
Abigail stepped toward the phone.
Claire stopped her.
“What did she steal?”
“People.”
Claire almost laughed.
“You mean she helped them escape.”
“I mean she interfered with assets.”
There it was.
The same language.
Merchandise.
Assets.
Things instead of people.
Claire’s face changed.
Vincent saw it.
“Where is Lauren?”
“Safe.”
“I want proof.”
A message arrived.
Video.
Lauren sat inside a room, frightened but unharmed.
Claire’s knees weakened.
Lauren looked directly at the camera.
“Claire, don’t give them anything.”
Someone ended the recording.
Claire closed her eyes briefly.
“What do you want?”
“The medical records Margaret left.”
“Why?”
Elena’s voice became quiet.
“Because they contain information about my family.”
Alessandro suddenly stood.
“Elena!”
Claire had the phone on speaker.
Silence.
Then the woman spoke in Italian.
Claire did not understand.
Alessandro did.
His face drained of color.
Vincent looked at him.
“What did she say?”
Alessandro whispered, “She said I should have buried the truth with Margaret.”
Claire gripped the phone.
“What truth?”
Elena answered in English.
“My father killed the man who ordered your mother poisoned.”
Everyone froze.
Claire stared at Alessandro.
Patrick was alive in prison.
So Elena did not mean Patrick.
“Who?”
Elena laughed softly.
“Find the red ledger.”
The line disconnected.
Daniel looked at the tracker.
“Nothing. Bounced through six countries.”
Claire turned toward Alessandro.
“What red ledger?”
He did not answer.
Vincent moved forward.
“Alessandro.”
The old man sat again.
“There was a book.”
“What book?”
“Accounts.”
Claire’s stomach tightened.
“Of what?”
“Payments between Marino, Callahan, Salvatore and others.”
“Others who?”
Alessandro looked at Matteo.
Matteo went pale.
Claire noticed.
“What?”
Matteo stared at the floor.
“Matteo.”
He swallowed.
“My father.”
Claire felt exhausted by betrayal.
“Of course.”
Matteo looked up.
“My father treated criminals. Sometimes he moved money for them.”
“Did he know my mother was being poisoned before she came to him?”
Silence.
Claire stared.
“Did he?”
“Yes.”
Vincent cursed under his breath.
Matteo rushed on.
“He did not participate.”
“No. He just waited.”
“Yes.”
Claire laughed bitterly.
“So every man in my mother’s life knew something and decided somebody else should act.”
Nobody answered.
Abigail sat beside Claire.
“We get Lauren first.”
Claire nodded.
Vincent looked at Alessandro.
“Where is the red ledger?”
“Margaret had it last.”
Claire turned.
“My mother?”
“Yes.”
“She stole it.”
Alessandro almost smiled.
“Margaret was more dangerous than Patrick ever understood.”
Claire thought of the woman Patrick had called sick and emotional.
“She copied records, recorded conversations and stole the ledger?”
“Yes.”
“Where is it?”
“We believed she sent it to America.”
Claire remembered the box.
The photographs.
The letters.
The necklace.
No red ledger.
Abigail suddenly looked up.
“The necklace.”
Claire turned.
“What?”
“Mom’s necklace.”
They returned to the chapel.
The necklace lay inside the wooden box.
An old gold pendant.
Claire opened it.
Inside was a tiny photograph of three girls.
Claire.
Abigail.
Lauren.
Nothing else.
Abigail examined the chain.
“This clasp isn’t original.”
Vincent called Daniel over.
Daniel turned it.
A tiny metal cylinder was hidden inside the clasp.
Inside was a rolled strip of paper.
A series of numbers.
Claire recognized them immediately.
“Coordinates.”
Daniel entered them.
Nova Scotia.
The harbor.
Claire laughed softly.
“Mom hid the ledger on land in my name.”
Vincent’s expression hardened.
“And Elena knows it.”
“She knows there is a ledger. Maybe not where.”
Claire looked at Abigail.
“Lauren is leverage to make us find it for her.”
“Yes.”
Vincent stood.
“We go to Nova Scotia.”
Alessandro rose.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
Vincent’s answer was immediate.
Alessandro’s eyes flashed.
“My daughter—”
“Is the reason we’re walking into another trap.”
“That makes me useful.”
Claire interrupted.
“He comes.”
Vincent looked at her.
Claire continued.
“Elena may talk to him.”
“Or kill him.”
“That too.”
Alessandro smiled grimly.
“Mrs. Caruso is practical.”
Vincent sighed.
“She’s becoming terrifying.”
Claire looked at him.
“You like it.”
“More than I should.”
Fourteen hours later, they landed in Halifax.
The harbor property sat three hours north, isolated among cliffs and pine forest.
Snow remained in shaded areas despite spring.
Claire stood beside the water.
The property belonged to her.
Her mother had hidden something here.
Her father had trafficked people through here.
Her sister was somewhere unknown.
Daniel studied the coordinates.
“They point inland.”
They walked toward an abandoned customs building.
Inside, Claire found old desks and rusted cabinets.
The coordinates led to the foundation.
Marcus pried up a metal plate.
Beneath it sat a sealed container.
Red leather.
Claire’s heart pounded.
The ledger.
Vincent opened it.
Names.
Dates.
Payments.
Judges.
Police.
Businessmen.
Politicians.
Criminal families.
Then one name stopped Claire.
Margaret Bellandi.
Not Callahan.
Bellandi.
Beside it:
$500,000 – AGREEMENT.
Claire stared.
“What agreement?”
Matteo took the book.
His face went white.
“No.”
“What?”
He turned several pages.
Then closed his eyes.
Claire’s voice sharpened.
“Matteo.”
He looked at her.
“Your mother was not simply gathering evidence.”
Claire felt dread.
“What did she do?”
“She made a deal with Elena.”
Alessandro went still.
Claire looked at him.
“What kind of deal?”
Matteo read from the coded notes.
Margaret would provide financial evidence.
Elena would eliminate Patrick Callahan.
Claire stopped breathing.
“My mother ordered Patrick killed?”
Matteo shook his head.
“No.”
Claire looked at the next line.
TARGET CHANGED.
M.C. REFUSED.
VESCARI PROCEEDED.
Claire frowned.
“Changed to who?”
A gunshot shattered the window.
Everyone dropped.
Outside, black vehicles poured through the gates.
Daniel shouted.
“Contact!”
Vincent pulled Claire behind the concrete wall.
Alessandro stared through the broken glass.
“Elena.”
Claire saw a woman step from the lead SUV.
Tall.
Silver-black hair.
Long black coat.
She raised a phone.
Claire’s rang.
Claire answered.
Elena’s voice came through.
“You found the ledger.”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
“Where is Lauren?”
Elena smiled across the distance.
“Closer than you think.”
A second vehicle opened.
Lauren was pulled out.
Claire stood before Vincent could stop her.
“Claire!”
Elena watched.
Claire looked directly at her.
“You want the ledger?”
“Yes.”
May you like
Claire held it up.
“Then come get it yourself.”
