Chapter 4 - THE LAST SEVENTEEN MINUTES
Marcus DeLuca asked to speak to me.
Not Dominic.
Me.
His lawyer sent the request through Detective Serrano.
My first answer was no.
Then I changed it.
Not because Marcus deserved to explain.
Because I deserved to hear what he had not said when my husband was alive.
The meeting happened in a prosecutor’s conference room.
Glass walls.
Cheap chairs.
No Valenti guards.
Good.
Serrano sat beside me.
My own attorney sat on the other side.
Dominic had offered to pay.
I refused.
Victim services found me counsel through a homicide-family program.
Her name was Janet Cole.
She did not care who Dominic was.
Excellent.
Marcus entered with his lawyer.
He looked older than he had three days earlier.
Not enough.
He sat.
“Anna.”
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
Good.
I placed Leo’s call log on the table.
11:07.
Marcus.
11:14.
Costa.
“Tell me the seventeen minutes.”
Marcus looked at Serrano.
She said:
“This is a voluntary proffer continuation. Your lawyer knows the terms.”
His lawyer nodded.
Marcus looked at me again.
“Leo called me first.”
“I know.”
“He said he had copied the original gift-chain database.”
“What was in it?”
“Code seventeen deliveries going back twenty years.”
“Adrian?”
“Not directly.”
“Costa?”
“Yes.”
“Your name?”
Marcus swallowed.
“Yes.”
There.
“What did Leo want?”
“He wanted me to meet him.”
“Where?”
“Parking lot behind St. Bartholomew’s.”
“Why there?”
“He thought Valenti properties were monitored.”
Smart.
“Did you go?”
“No.”
My hands curled.
“Why?”
Marcus looked down.
“Costa was with me.”
Silence.
“Where?”
“Club office in Midtown.”
“You were sitting beside Raymond Costa when my husband called you?”
“Yes.”
“Did Costa hear?”
“Not at first.”
“Then?”
“He knew something was wrong.”
“How?”
“Leo said code seventeen.”
There.
Marcus continued.
“I told Leo to go home.”
“Why?”
“Because Costa was already suspicious.”
“You told him to go home where my daughter was.”
His face changed.
“Yes.”
“You knew Costa had access to employee addresses.”
“Yes.”
“And you still told Leo to go home.”
“Yes.”
Good.
No excuse.
“Then what?”
“Costa asked who called.”
“What did you say?”
“Security vendor.”
“Lie?”
“Yes.”
“Did he believe you?”
“No.”
Of course.
Marcus rubbed his hands together.
“He took my phone.”
My stomach tightened.
“Unlocked?”
“Yes.”
“Did he see Leo?”
“Yes.”
“So you gave him my husband.”
Marcus closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
There.
Not murder order.
But betrayal.
I wanted to hit him.
I did not.
Janet put one hand near mine on table.
Not touching.
Just there.
Marcus continued.
“Costa called Leo from his own phone.”
“What did he say?”
“I heard only his side.”
“Tell me.”
“He said Dominic wanted to see him immediately.”
My skin went cold.
Costa used Dominic’s name.
Again.
“What else?”
“‘Bring the physical copy.’”
Leo’s database.
“Did Leo agree?”
“I don’t know.”
“Forty-three seconds.”
“Yes.”
“What did you do?”
Marcus looked at me.
“Nothing.”
Silence.
That word hurt more than any excuse.
Nothing.
“What happened next?”
“Costa left.”
“Alone?”
“Yes.”
“Did you call Leo back?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“I was afraid Costa had my calls monitored.”
“So you let him go.”
“Yes.”
“What did you do instead?”
“I drove to Dominic’s house.”
I looked at Serrano.
New.
“What time?”
“About eleven twenty.”
“Dominic was home?”
“No.”
“Where was he?”
Marcus looked at me.
“Hospital.”
“For what?”
“His mother’s final admission.”
Dominic’s mother died that night?
I did not know.
Marcus continued.
“I tried to reach him through private line.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Then?”
“I went back to car.”
“And?”
“At 11:46 I heard from security channel that Leo Bennett had crashed.”
My mouth went dry.
Marcus looked away.
“I knew.”
“Knew what?”
“That Costa had done something.”
“Did you call police?”
“No.”
“Dominic?”
“No.”
“Me?”
His voice broke.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because Costa had Adrian.”
I stared.
“He had been blackmailing me for years with proof I helped move Adrian’s body and destroy footage.”
There.
Again Marcus made his fear the center.
I said:
“So you protected yourself.”
“Yes.”
Good.
“Not Dominic.”
“No.”
“Not Leo.”
“No.”
“Not Sophie.”
His face crumpled.
“No.”
There.
I sat back.
This was what truth looked like when nobody polished it.
Not one evil choice.
A line of cowardly ones.
Marcus said:
“I went to the funeral.”
“I know now.”
“I wanted to tell you.”
“You didn’t.”
“No.”
“Did you leave the ribbon in Leo’s coat?”
His head lifted.
“What?”
The strip I found after death.
“I thought maybe you warned him.”
“No.”
Interesting.
“Who knew green ribbon?”
“Costa. Me. Vittorio. Raymond’s old assistants. A few old captains.”
“Leo.”
“Because he figured it out.”
“Anyone else?”
Marcus hesitated.
“Dominic’s sister.”
I stopped.
Dominic had a sister?
I knew of no one living in estate family except him.
“What sister?”
Marcus looked at Serrano.
Then me.
“Elena Valenti.”
Dominic’s older half-sister.
Alive.
In Switzerland.
Estranged for twenty-six years.
I had never heard her name.
“Why does she know code seventeen?”
“She helped design the legitimate gift-tracking system before it was corrupted.”
There.
Not criminal necessarily.
“Does Dominic know?”
“That she worked on gift system? Yes.”
“That she knows code?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because code seventeen was Vittorio’s private layer.”
I felt dizzy.
Another Valenti.
Another secret.
“Did Elena know Adrian was murdered?”
Marcus took time.
“I think she suspected.”
“Did she know you helped cover it?”
“Yes.”
There.
“Why is she in Switzerland?”
“She left after Adrian died.”
Of course.
“Did she ever tell Dominic?”
“Not that I know.”
“Why?”
Marcus almost laughed.
“Because the Valenti family solves grief with silence.”
That sentence could have come from anyone in that house.
Then Serrano asked:
“Did Elena contact you recently?”
Marcus looked at his lawyer.
Lawyer nodded.
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Three weeks ago.”
My stomach tightened.
Before box.
“Why?”
“She said Costa was moving money again.”
“What money?”
“Code seventeen reserve accounts.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did she mention Leo Bennett?”
Marcus’s face changed.
“Yes.”
I stopped breathing.
“What?”
“She asked if Leo had left copies.”
“When?”
“Three weeks ago.”
“Why would she ask eleven months after his death?”
“She said someone in Zurich had contacted her with one of Leo’s encrypted file hashes.”
I did not know what that meant.
Serrano did.
“Proof he had copied specific files?”
“Yes.”
“Who contacted her?”
Marcus said:
“She would not tell me.”
“Did Costa know Elena was asking?”
“I don’t know.”
Then Serrano asked:
“Why didn’t you tell us this yesterday?”
Marcus stared.
“Because I was still deciding how much I could survive.”
There.
Honest.
Disgusting.
I stood.
“I’m done.”
Marcus rose too.
“Anna.”
I looked at him.
“My husband called you because he thought you might help.”
Marcus’s eyes filled.
“I know.”
“You didn’t.”
“No.”
“Whatever deal you get, whatever sentence, whatever you tell Dominic—you do not get to make Leo choosing you mean you were secretly good.”
His face broke.
“I know.”
Good.
I left.
Outside, Dominic was waiting in hallway.
Not because I asked.
That made me angry.
Then I saw Serrano had called him for his own interview about Elena.
Fine.
He looked at me.
“Are you okay?”
“No.”
“Do you need—”
“No.”
He stopped.
Good.
I walked past.
Then stopped myself.
“Did you have a sister?”
Dominic went still.
“Have.”
“Where?”
“Zurich.”
“Why have I never heard anyone say her name?”
His face closed.
“Family matter.”
I laughed.
Loud.
In prosecutor hallway.
“Your family matters keep killing people who work for you.”
That landed.
He looked down.
“You’re right.”
“Marcus says Elena contacted him three weeks ago about Leo.”
All color left Dominic’s face.
“What?”
“You heard me.”
He turned to Serrano.
She nodded.
“We need to talk about her.”
Dominic took out phone.
Serrano raised hand.
“Don’t call.”
“Why?”
“Because if Costa is watching family communications, you may alert him.”
Dominic put phone away.
Good.
Then I asked:
“When did you last speak to your sister?”
He answered:
“Twenty-six years ago.”
Silence.
“Why?”
His eyes moved to window.
“Because she told me our father had Adrian killed.”
There.
Marcus had called it accident.
Dominic’s sister had called it murder.
And Dominic, twenty-six years younger and still loyal to his father, had chosen not to believe her.
The same way eleven months ago he chose not to believe Leo without proof.
Marcus also admitted one more thing before I left the prosecutor’s office.
After Leo’s funeral, he had paid an investigator to watch our apartment for two weeks.
“Why?” I asked.
“To see whether Costa approached you.”
“You could have warned me.”
“Yes.”
“You watched instead.”
“Yes.”
There it was again.
Protection without consent.
The Valenti house seemed to produce that mistake in every man who thought fear gave him permission to decide for someone else.
Before leaving, Janet asked Marcus one final question for me.
“Did Leo know you were afraid?”
Marcus looked at the table.
“Yes.”
“How?”
“He told me fear was making me stupid.”
That sounded exactly like Leo.
Marcus almost smiled.
“He said, ‘You keep calling delay caution because cowardice sounds ugly.’”
My throat tightened.
“Did that make you angry?”
“Yes.”
“Was he right?”
Marcus looked at me.
“Yes.”
There.
Leo had seen Marcus clearly.
May you like
Seeing clearly had not saved him.
That mattered too.
