Chapter 8 - The Buyer in Palermo
The empty case contained a train ticket and a photograph.
The photograph showed Vittorio’s five expected hosts in Palermo seated around a private table.
Behind them stood Domenico Serra.
The man Isabella claimed was dead.
The train ticket was for Naples to Rome, departing in two hours.
Matteo examined the watermark on the photograph.
“It was printed this morning.”
“Domenico is not in Palermo.”
“He may be in Naples.”
Renzo was freed from the chair after the bomb specialist removed the remaining device.
Sophia refused to leave his side.
Vittorio ordered them taken to the villa’s secure underground apartment.
Renzo protested.
“They know every gate.”
“Then I will place men at the walls and women at the doors.”
Sophia looked toward Alessio.
“Not him.”
Vittorio agreed.
Alessio was locked inside the wine cellar under guard.
Before the door closed, he spoke quietly.
“If Isabella sold the ledger, Palermo will turn against you before sunset.”
“Then I will survive sunset.”
“You do not know who purchased it.”
“Tell me.”
Alessio leaned closer.
“The Minister of Justice.”
Minister Paolo De Luca had built his career promising to dismantle organized crime.
He also owed his rise to secret Morelli support arranged by Salvatore years earlier.
If De Luca obtained the ledger, he could erase his own name and destroy every rival connected to it.
He could present Vittorio as the source of every corrupt agreement.
By midnight, the government would seize Morelli properties.
By morning, Vittorio’s captains would be hunted.
Matteo interrupted.
A surveillance camera had captured Isabella entering Naples Central Station wearing a black coat and blond wig.
Carlo walked beside her.
They carried a silver case.
Vittorio prepared three vehicles.
Sophia appeared at the garage entrance.
“My papa says the case is wrong.”
Vittorio crouched.
“What does he mean?”
“The ledger does not fit inside silver.”
Renzo explained that the real Morelli ledger was bound in thick black leather.
It was wider than the case Isabella carried.
She was transporting a decoy.
The real ledger remained somewhere inside the estate.
Vittorio remembered the cracked phone.
The first recording.
The second trigger.
The trapdoor.
Every clue had pulled him away from the villa.
Someone wanted the house empty.
He called Matteo.
May you like
“Turn the cars around.”
They reached the villa as smoke began rising from the chapel.
