Chapter 6: The Witness in the Dark
Emergency lights washed the study in red.
Vincent gripped Serena’s arm.
“Carlo, get us downstairs.”
“No one is going anywhere,” Dante said.
Carlo aimed the p*stol.
“You are in no position to decide.”
Arthur reached beneath Dante’s desk and pressed a hidden switch.
Steel shutters dropped over the study doors.
Vincent spun toward him.
“What did you do?”
“What your men failed to do,” Arthur said.
“I secured the room.”
“You signed a statement against Dante.”
“I signed exactly what you dictated.”
Arthur lifted his glasses.
A tiny light blinked in the frame.
“And recorded every word you said while dictating it.”
Carlo lunged for him.
Dante caught Carlo’s wrist, drove it against the desk, and sent the p*stol sliding across the floor.
Patricia kicked it beneath a cabinet.
Vincent pulled Serena backward.
“Stop, or she pays.”
Dante froze.
Arthur kept his gaze on Vincent.
“The recording uploaded the moment the building network returned.”
“You’re bluffing.”
A speaker on Dante’s desk crackled.
A woman’s voice filled the room.
“Mr.
Pendleton, this is Special Agent Mara Ellis.
We received the file.”
Vincent’s face changed.
Arthur answered, “Then you also heard Vincent order the South Docks attack.”
“We heard enough to obtain emergency warrants.
Officers are entering the building now.”
Vincent dragged Serena closer.
“Cancel them.”
Mara’s answer came through the speaker.
“Release Mrs.
Cavali.”
“You think one recording ends this?” Vincent shouted.
“Half this city owes me.”
Arthur put his glasses back on.
“That is why Serena copied the financial records.”
Carlo looked at the broken drive.
“I erased them.”
Serena wiped her tears with the back of her hand.
“You erased the decoy.”
Vincent’s grip loosened.
“The drive in the clock contained six files,” she continued.
“Just enough to make you believe you had found everything.”
“Where is the real evidence?”
“You taught me never to keep power where someone could take it.”
Vincent raised his hand toward her.
Dante’s voice dropped.
“Touch her, and every man in this room will testify to it.”
Patricia stepped beside her daughter.
“Including me.”
Vincent stared at his wife.
“After everything I gave you?”
“You gave me expensive rooms and locked every door.”
Sirens sounded far below.
Carlo pulled a phone from his pocket.
“Marcus can get us through the freight elevator.”
Vincent shoved Serena aside.
Dante caught her before she fell.
“Move,” Vincent ordered.
Carlo tapped the phone, but the screen displayed ACCESS DENIED.
A woman’s voice came through Dante’s earpiece.
“Dante, it’s Lena Ortiz.
I have control of the elevators again.”
“Where is Marcus?”
“Trying to reach the garage.”
“Stop him.”
“Already done.”
Vincent backed toward the windows.
“You still do not have the real files.”
Serena reached beneath her robe and drew out a gold locket.
“My grandmother gave me this before she passed,” she said.
“Dad never once asked why I wore it every day.”
She opened it.
A memory card rested behind the faded photograph.
Carlo’s face went gray.
Vincent stared at the card.
“What else is on it?”
Serena looked directly at Dante.
“The recording from the night his father died.”
Dante’s hand fell from her shoulder.
“What recording?”
May you like
Serena’s voice trembled.
“The one where my father gave Carlo the order.”
