Chapter 2 - THE MAN WITH THE BLUE WATCH
Giuseppe Falcone arrived at the mansion shortly after nine the next morning.
He looked older than Dante remembered. His shoulders were hunched, and his hands trembled as he removed his gloves.
“I was told you wanted to see me,” he said.
Dante sat behind his desk. Marco stood near the door. Elena and Lily were in the adjoining sitting room, where the child was drawing quietly under her mother's supervision.
Dante placed the copper device on the desk.
“Do you recognize this?”
Giuseppe's face changed.
For several seconds, he stared at it without speaking.
Then he sat down.
“I didn't want to do it.”
Dante's jaw tightened. “Who asked you?”
Giuseppe rubbed his forehead.
“Victor came to my shop two weeks ago. He said it was a security precaution. He told me the device would protect you.”
“Did you believe him?”
“I wanted to. Your family has trusted mine for generations.”
“Who supplied it?”
“I never met the person. Victor brought it in a small envelope. He told me exactly where it should go.”
Dante leaned forward.
“Did you install it in all three ties?”
Giuseppe looked up sharply.
“No. Only one. He told me to use the second tie, the one you would wear Thursday.”
Dante felt his suspicion harden into something close to certainty.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
Giuseppe's eyes filled.
“Because he threatened my grandson. He knows where the boy goes to school. He said if I spoke, the child would be taken somewhere his parents couldn't find him.”
Marco shifted beside the door.
Dante raised one hand, stopping him.
“Did Victor come to the shop alone?”
“No. There was another man. I saw him outside. Tall, dark coat, blue stone on his watch.”
Lily's drawing.
Dante took a photograph of the watch from his desk and turned it toward Giuseppe.
“Was it this one?”
Giuseppe nodded.
“That's the man.”
“Do you know his name?”
“No.”
Dante closed the folder.
“Mr. Falcone, you're going to give a complete statement. My people will make sure your grandson is safe. But you will not leave this city until I know who arranged this.”
Giuseppe nodded, visibly relieved.
After he was escorted out, Marco closed the office door.
“You think Victor is behind it.”
“I think Victor is involved.”
“Then let me bring him here.”
“No.”
Marco looked surprised.
Dante stood and walked to the window.
“If Victor knows I suspect him, he'll disappear. I want him to believe everything is normal.”
“Thursday's meeting?”
“Let it proceed.”
Marco's expression tightened. “That could be dangerous.”
“Only if we walk into the room the way he expects.”
In the sitting room, Lily had finished another drawing. This one showed a man standing beside a car. She had drawn the man's watch again, a small blue circle on his wrist.
Elena noticed Dante watching.
“She has been drawing the same man all morning,” she said.
Dante approached.
“Lily, is this the man from the shop?”
She nodded.
“Did you see him somewhere else?”
Lily pointed to the car.
“He was outside the house too. Yesterday. He stood by the black car and talked to the man with the hat.”
Dante went still.
“The man with the hat?”
“The one who came to see you.”
Victor.
Dante looked toward Marco.
“Get the outside camera footage from yesterday.”
Within twenty minutes, Marco returned with a tablet. The recording showed Victor standing near the side gate, speaking to a man in a dark coat. The man's face was partly hidden by the angle, but his wrist was visible.
A blue stone flashed beneath the security light.
Dante watched the footage twice.
Then he looked at Lily.
“You did very well.”
Lily smiled. “Can I have a cookie?”
For the first time that morning, Dante laughed.
“Yes. You can have two.”
Elena gave him a cautious look, as if she still couldn't understand how the most feared man in the city had ended up negotiating cookie privileges with her daughter.
Dante did not mind.
May you like
He had spent years surrounded by men who saw only power and money. Lily saw details because she was curious. She had no idea how important those details were.
And that, he realized, was precisely why he needed to protect her.
