Chapter 3 - The Funeral Without a Body
They escaped through an underground parking tunnel.
Lucas used a vehicle none of his employees knew existed.
Marco drove.
Gabriel sat restrained in the rear compartment, his wounded shoulder wrapped with a torn piece of his shirt.
Hannah sat beside Lucas.
The locket remained in his hand.
“Was Michael’s body identified?” she asked.
Lucas looked toward the dark street.
“Dental records.”
“Who controlled them?”
“My family doctor.”
“Who paid him?”
Lucas did not answer.
The implication was enough.
The funeral photograph showed a closed casket.
No one had seen Michael’s face.
Lucas had accepted the doctor’s report because the body recovered from the warehouse had been burned.
He had buried an identity.
Not necessarily his brother.
Marco drove them to an abandoned church once owned by the Valentasi family.
The basement had been converted into a safe room.
Lucas locked Gabriel inside a storage cell.
Then he connected Michael’s drive to an offline computer.
The files contained shipping records, photographs, and recorded calls.
Several documents linked Salvatore to Kodra.
Others showed payments to police officers, port inspectors, and local judges.
The oldest file concerned Antonio Valentasi’s death.
Lucas and Michael’s father had supposedly died from a heart attack twelve years earlier.
The report was signed by Dr. Renzo Vale.
The same doctor who identified Michael’s body.
A laboratory result showed poison in Antonio’s blood.
The official report omitted it.
Lucas sat in front of the screen.
“My mother believed his heart failed.”
“Did Salvatore know about the poison?” Hannah asked.
“He arranged the funeral.”
“He controlled the doctor.”
Marco stood near the door.
“He also took control of the ports three days later.”
Lucas looked toward him.
“You suspected him?”
“I suspected everyone after Michael died.”
“That is not an answer.”
Marco lowered his eyes.
“I saw Salvatore meet Kodra twice.”
“I reported it to Michael.”
“Not to you.”
Lucas stood.
“You worked for me.”
“I worked for the family.”
“And Michael asked me to wait until he had proof.”
“You chose him.”
“I chose evidence.”
Lucas hit Marco across the face.
Marco stumbled but did not retaliate.
Hannah stepped between them.
“Stop.”
Lucas looked at her.
“You do not understand what he concealed.”
“I understand that everyone in this room keeps calling secrecy protection.”
“Michael did it.”
“Marco did it.”
“You did it when you forced me into your car.”
“No one seems to notice that the person being protected never gets a choice.”
Silence followed.
Lucas’s anger did not disappear.
It changed direction.
He returned to the computer.
A map appeared among Michael’s files.
A red mark covered an abandoned rail yard outside the city.
Beneath it was a sentence.
THE GRAVE IS EMPTY.
THE VAULT IS NOT.
Marco recognized the property.
“Antonio owned that rail yard.”
“Salvatore sealed it after his death.”
Lucas looked at the time.
“We leave before sunrise.”
A phone rang inside Gabriel’s cell.
They had taken his personal phone before locking him inside.
Lucas answered.
Salvatore’s voice came through.
“Nephew.”
“You survived the fire.”
“You sound disappointed.”
“I am disappointed in Gabriel.”
Lucas looked through the glass at the wounded man.
“What do you want?”
“The waitress.”
Hannah’s stomach tightened.
“Why?”
“Michael placed something in her care that never belonged to her.”
“You mean evidence.”
“I mean our family’s future.”
Lucas’s voice became quiet.
“You killed my brother.”
Salvatore laughed softly.
May you like
“You still believe Michael is dead?”
Then the call ended.
