Chapter 3: What the Car Ride Couldn't Hide
The Maybach pulled away from the Plaza before the north exit doors had fully closed behind them.
Leo sat in the front passenger seat.
The driver — a man named Caruso who had worked for the Costa family for eleven years — did not look in the rearview mirror once.
Mave sat with her hands folded in her lap and watched the city blur past the window.
"Tell me his name," she said.
"Reyes," Vincent said.
"Mateo Reyes."
"And he works for someone inside the Costa organization."
"He used to work for my uncle."
Mave turned from the window.
"Used to."
"My uncle retired eight months ago." Vincent's voice was flat.
"Officially."
"And unofficially?"
He didn't answer immediately.
His eyes went to the rearview mirror.
The gray sedan was still there, two cars back, keeping pace without effort.
"Unofficially," Vincent said, "my uncle believes the organization should have passed to him when my father died.
Not to me."
Mave absorbed this.
"And the $30,000."
"Is his.
Moved through the Belize account.
Slowly.
Carefully.
Over fourteen months."
"He's been skimming from his own family's operation."
"He's been building a fund," Vincent said.
"For something specific."
"What?"
Vincent looked at her directly then.
"We think it's a payment.
To someone who agreed to remove an obstacle."
The car was very quiet.
"What obstacle?" Mave asked, though something cold had already begun moving through her chest.
"You flagged the discrepancy," Vincent said.
"You highlighted it in yellow and saved the file at 9:47 in the morning.
By noon, someone had accessed your personnel file.
By 3 p.m., someone had pulled your home address from the building management records."
Mave's hands tightened in her lap.
"How long have you known?" she said.
"Since yesterday."
"Yesterday." The word came out very carefully.
"You knew yesterday and you brought me to a ballroom full of people connected to your uncle."
"I needed to see who he would send."
"You used me as bait."
Vincent's jaw moved.
"I put Leo on your left and kept you in my sightline every second."
"That is not the same thing as telling me."
He said nothing.
Leo shifted slightly in the front seat but did not turn around.
"I want to know everything," Mave said.
"Not the version you decide is safe for me.
Everything."
Another pause.
Longer this time.
"The account in Belize connects to four other accounts," Vincent said.
"Spread across three countries.
The total isn't $30,000, Mave.
The total is closer to $2.3 million."
She stared at him.
"My uncle has been building this for years," he said.
"Before my father died.
Possibly before my father got sick."
"And the payment.
The one meant to remove an obstacle." Mave kept her voice steady.
"Is the obstacle you or me?"
Vincent looked out the window.
"Both," he said.
"But you first.
Because you found the number."
The sedan behind them changed lanes.
So did Caruso, without being told.
"Where are we going?" Mave asked.
"Somewhere my uncle doesn't know about."
She looked at the back of Caruso's head.
At Leo's stillness.
At the city pulling away behind them.
"Vincent." Her voice was quieter now.
"Who else inside the organization knows about this?"
May you like
He turned back to her.
"That," he said, "is exactly the problem."
