Chapter 18 - The Vault Beneath St. Vincent's
The old church had been closed to the public for nine years.
The Moretti family still paid for its roof, its caretaker, and the crypt beneath it.
What almost nobody knew was that the crypt had a second level.
The vault.
We arrived to find the caretaker tied to a radiator but alive.
The steel door below the altar stood open.
Bennett had escaped police custody during transport with help from a bribed deputy. By the time the alert went out, he already had a twenty-minute lead.
"Inside," Marco whispered.
We descended.
Rows of metal boxes lined the concrete room.
One safe door hung open.
The trust archive was empty.
Then a voice came through the dark.
"You were always too slow to understand paperwork, Adrien."
Bennett stepped from behind a pillar holding a pistol and a leather document case.
I stopped.
Marco moved left.
Bennett aimed at him. "Don't."
"You killed Bianca," I said.
"I made a decision."
"You paid a man to run her off the road."
"I told him to scare her."
"You keep using softer words for the same evil thing."
His face tightened.
"Your father built an empire with blood and then expected lawyers like me to make it look clean. Do you think men like him ever asked how? They wanted results. I gave them results."
"And my children?"
"Leverage."
The word nearly made me move.
Marco shook his head once.
Wait.
Bennett lifted the document case. "These amendments remove Celeste, remove Luca, and appoint a corporate trustee if you are indicted for organized crime. Which you will be."
"You forged them?"
He smiled. "Your grandfather signed more blank schedules than he could remember."
A tiny sound came through my earpiece.
Three taps.
Marco's team was behind Bennett.
I kept him talking.
"Bianca found you because you got greedy."
His smile vanished.
"Bianca was naive."
"She was smarter than you."
"She's dead."
The words hit hard.
But I did not move.
Instead I said, "And a four-year-old recorded you admitting the plan."
For the first time, fear touched his face.
"You're lying."
"You were so busy watching the powerful people in the room that you forgot children listen."
Marco's team moved.
Bennett fired once.
The shot hit concrete.
Marco tackled him before the second shot.
The document case slid across the floor and stopped at my feet.
Bennett screamed as his wrist was pinned behind his back.
"You think this ends with me?"
I picked up the case.
"No."
I looked at the forged trust amendments.
"It ends with the truth getting daylight."
Then a second gunshot echoed from the stairwell.
Marco spun.
One of his men fell.
At the top of the stairs stood Celeste Moretti.
Luca's mother.
Gun shaking in her hands.
May you like
Tears running down her face.
"Give me the documents," she said.
