Chapter 8 - THE RECORDING
The next morning, federal investigators contacted Dante's attorney.
They had intercepted communications between Victor, Voss, and an offshore account holder. The messages suggested that the device in the tie had been intended to capture details of a private agreement between the New York families.
The recording would have given Salvatore leverage over the organization.
But the investigation uncovered something worse.
Victor had arranged a second device inside the restaurant's private meeting room. It had been installed beneath the table several days earlier.
The canceled meeting had not prevented the surveillance.
It had only delayed it.
Dante asked the investigators to secure the room and preserve all evidence. He provided the names of the people involved and agreed to answer questions.
Victor, meanwhile, had stopped cooperating.
He requested legal counsel and refused to explain the messages.
Dante visited him once.
“You worked for my father,” Dante said.
“I worked for the family.”
“You worked for yourself.”
Victor leaned back.
“Your father knew the world was changing. He knew the old arrangements couldn't last. I was trying to keep the family relevant.”
“By selling information to my uncle?”
Victor's expression shifted.
“So you know.”
“I know enough.”
Victor smiled without warmth.
“Salvatore built half of what you inherited. Your father pushed him out. You never asked why.”
“Because he was dead.”
“That's what you were told.”
Dante studied him.
“Why did you target me?”
“Because you were going to make changes. You were going to break agreements that kept everyone paid. Salvatore wanted to stop you before you became too powerful to remove.”
Dante stood.
“You should have chosen a different way.”
Victor looked up.
“You think this ends with me?”
“No. I think it ends with evidence.”
Dante left.
Outside, Marco was waiting.
“There's something else,” he said. “The recording from the room captured a voice before the device was discovered.”
“Whose?”
“Victor's.”
They listened to the recording in the attorney's office.
Victor could be heard speaking to someone on the phone.
“The girl noticed it. The little one. We need to know what she saw.”
A second voice answered.
“Then find out what she remembers.”
Dante's face became cold.
The voice belonged to Salvatore.
But there was another sound beneath the conversation: a familiar chime.
A clock.
Dante recognized it immediately.
It was the grandfather clock in his father's old country house, a property that had been sold years earlier.
He called the property manager.
The house had not been occupied in months.
But someone had recently paid to restore the clock.
May you like
Dante gave the address to the investigators.
This time, he would not go alone.
