Chapter 7 - A Dead Man's Confession
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Dario Bellini had been dead for less than two hours when Lorenzo reached the storage facility.
The locker stood in a row of rusted steel doors behind a shuttered commercial building. Police lights flashed across the wet pavement, reflecting red and blue against the metal walls.
Matteo met Lorenzo near the entrance.
“The body was arranged to look like a suicide,” he said. “One gunshot wound. Weapon beside him. No obvious signs of a struggle.”
“Did he leave a note?”
“A phone.”
Matteo held up an evidence bag.
Inside was Dario's personal phone, its screen cracked.
“We recovered several messages. Most were deleted.”
“Can you restore them?”
“Our people are trying.”
Lorenzo looked through the open locker door.
Dario lay on the floor beside a metal cabinet. His expensive suit was soaked with blood. A small paper envelope rested on his chest.
Elara stood behind Lorenzo, pale but determined.
“Why would they kill him?”
“Because he knew too much,” Lorenzo said.
“Or because someone wants us to believe he knew too much.”
He turned toward her.
“You're learning.”
“I'm learning that everyone in your world seems to have a reason to lie.”
“That's not exclusive to my world.”
“No. But yours comes with guns.”
A forensic technician approached with the envelope.
“Found this on the victim.”
Lorenzo opened it carefully.
Inside was a handwritten statement.
I arranged the restaurant meeting. I gave Elias Vale the service entrance code. I was instructed to ensure Lorenzo Moretti missed the succession signing. I believed the plan was to force him into hiding, not kill him.
Below the statement was Dario's signature.
Elara read it twice.
“He's admitting everything.”
“Too neatly,” Lorenzo replied.
He examined the paper.
“The ink is fresh. The signature may be genuine, but the statement could have been written under pressure.”
“Then someone killed him after forcing him to confess.”
“Possibly.”
A police detective approached, her coat collar turned up against the rain.
“Mr. Moretti, I'm Detective Mara Collins. I need to ask you some questions about your relationship with the deceased.”
Lorenzo nodded.
“Of course.”
Her gaze shifted to Elara.
“And you are?”
“Elara Vance. I was at the restaurant.”
“Were you involved in the argument?”
“There wasn't an argument.”
“Did Mr. Bellini threaten you?”
“No.”
“Did Mr. Moretti?”
Elara glanced at Lorenzo.
“Not in the way you mean.”
Detective Collins studied her.
“I'm going to need a formal statement from you.”
“I'll give one.”
Lorenzo's security chief stepped forward.
“Detective, we'll coordinate through our attorney.”
Collins did not look impressed.
“Your attorney doesn't get to decide whether I interview a witness.”
Lorenzo raised one hand.
“Miss Vance will cooperate.”
The detective nodded once.
“Good. Because whoever killed Bellini may be trying to erase evidence, and I don't intend to let a private security team interfere with my investigation.”
After she left, Elara turned to Lorenzo.
“She's right.”
“About what?”
“Your security team can't investigate everything.”
“They can investigate what the police won't.”
“And how do you know what the police won't?”
He gave her a hard look.
“Because I have spent my life watching people fail to protect what matters.”
Elara thought of her mother.
Her father.
Toby.
She understood the fear beneath his anger, but she did not accept what he had built from it.
“Maybe they fail because men like you decide the rules don't apply to them.”
Lorenzo looked away.
For a moment, she thought he would snap at her.
Instead, he said, “Perhaps.”
The admission was quieter than any apology could have been.
Matteo approached with a tablet.
“We recovered one message from Dario's phone. It was sent two hours before his death.”
He turned the screen toward Lorenzo.
THE LEDGER MUST NEVER REACH THE FBI. THE GIRL IS THE ONLY REMAINING LINK.
Beneath it was a reply.
Understood. I will handle the girl.
The sender's number was blocked, but the message contained a location tag.
A private office in the Moretti Maritime headquarters.
Elara felt the air leave her lungs.
“Someone inside your company sent that.”
“Yes.”
“Someone with access to the security system.”
“Yes.”
“Someone who knew where Toby was.”
Lorenzo's expression hardened.
“Yes.”
He looked at Matteo.
“Lock down the headquarters. Preserve every access log, every email, every internal message. Nobody deletes anything.”
Matteo nodded.
Then Elara noticed something on the tablet.
A second message had appeared beneath the first, timestamped only minutes before Dario died.
It was addressed to a contact saved as MOTHER.
I did what you asked. Please tell me the girl is safe.
Elara looked at Lorenzo.
“Dario had a mother?”
“Everyone has a mother.”
“Not everyone calls her before they die.”
Lorenzo studied the message.
“Find the contact.”
Matteo worked quickly.
A name appeared.
Marianne Bellini.
Then another detail loaded beneath it.
Her registered address was a private care facility in Westchester.
And the person listed as her financial sponsor was not Dario.
May you like
It was Vittorio Moretti.
Lorenzo's father.
