Chapter 10 - Carmine's Version of the Truth|
Carmine agreed to speak in the study, but he refused to sit.
He stood near the fireplace with his hands clasped behind his back, looking more like a politician preparing a speech than a man accused of conspiring to murder his own brother.
Salvatore placed the photograph of the device on the desk.
“Tell me why your signature is on the inventory record.”
Carmine glanced at it.
“I signed hundreds of documents that year.”
“Did you alter my medical records?”
“No.”
“Did you arrange for Isabella to disappear?”
Carmine's jaw tightened.
“I helped her escape.”
The answer stunned both of us.
Salvatore stared at him.
“You told me she was dead.”
“I told you what I was told.”
“You were the one who identified the body.”
“I never saw her face. The body was badly damaged.”
“Then why did you let me bury her?”
Carmine's composure cracked.
“Because she asked me to!”
His voice echoed through the room.
“She was terrified. She believed the people behind the ambush would kill you if they knew she was alive. She said the only way to keep you safe was to disappear.”
Salvatore looked as if he'd been struck.
“Who was she afraid of?”
Carmine shook his head.
“She wouldn't tell me.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I expect you to remember what happened after the harbor. You were paranoid. You accused everyone. You threatened men who'd served our family for decades. Isabella thought you would start a war against the wrong people.”
“And you decided to protect me by lying?”
“I decided to protect you by keeping you alive!”
The brothers stared at each other.
I stepped forward.
“Then why did you steal the metal fragment?”
Carmine's expression changed.
“I didn't.”
“Your company owned the vehicle involved in the attack at Dr. Voss's house.”
“Someone used a company vehicle. That doesn't mean I sent them.”
“You knew we went to Voss before Salvatore told you.”
“I have security staff. I receive reports.”
“Then you knew the fragment might connect the attack to the original supplier.”
Carmine's silence was brief, but it was enough to deepen my suspicion.
Salvatore leaned forward.
“Who ordered the ambush?”
“I don't know.”
“Who paid for it?”
“I don't know.”
“Why should I believe anything you say?”
Carmine finally looked wounded.
“Because I'm your brother.”
Salvatore's expression hardened.
“That's the only reason I believed you for eight years.”
Carmine turned toward me.
“Ask her what her father did.”
“I'm asking you,” I replied.
“Your father hid the component that could expose the entire operation. He wasn't an innocent bystander. He knew Isabella. He knew Voss. He knew the supplier.”
“How?”
“Because your father treated the man who built the device. The man came to him after the harbor attack with a badly injured hand. He paid in cash and demanded that the appointment never appear in the clinic records.”
My mouth went dry.
“Who was he?”
Carmine looked at Salvatore.
“Someone you trusted more than me.”
“Name him,” Salvatore said.
Carmine shook his head.
“I can't.”
Salvatore took a step toward him.
“Can't or won't?”
“Both.”
Rocco entered carrying a phone.
“Boss, we received a message from an unknown number. It contains a photograph.”
He showed us the screen.
The image depicted a woman sitting in a small room, older than the Isabella in Salvatore's photographs but unmistakably similar.
A newspaper lay beside her, dated that morning.
On the wall behind her was a clock.
Salvatore stared at the image, his breathing shallow.
“Where was this taken?”
“Unknown.”
A message appeared beneath the photograph.
YOU WANT TO KNOW WHO ORDERED THE HARBOR ATTACK? COME ALONE. BRING THE DENTIST.
May you like
Then another message arrived.
AND DON'T TRUST YOUR BROTHER. HE'S NOT THE ONLY LOMBARDI WHO BETRAYED YOU.
