Chapter 5 - The Lawyer at the Door
“Where are you?” Dante asked.
“In my car.”
“Who told Vincent?”
Arthur said nothing.
Dante’s voice dropped.
“Answer me.”
“I sent a request to the family partnership office.
Asset verification.
Standard procedure before moving that amount.”
“Whose office?”
“The joint redevelopment fund.”
Patricia sat down.
Serena noticed.
Dante did too.
Arthur continued.
“Your father and Vincent created it before the wedding.
I thought the balances were current.”
“You thought?”
“I signed off on quarterly summaries.
I should have demanded the underlying records.”
Dante stared at the garage wall.
Arthur had served his family for decades.
He had taught Dante how to knot a tie before his father’s funeral.
Now every familiar thing seemed to have a rotten place beneath it.
“Come alone,” Dante said.
“Elias will give you an address.”
Forty minutes later, Arthur arrived carrying a leather case and wearing no coat.
Elias searched him at the door.
The lawyer accepted it without protest.
He placed several documents on a workbench.
“The seventy-five million wasn’t coming out of one account.
Part of the settlement required liquidating your interest in the redevelopment fund.”
“And?”
“And there’s money missing.”
“How much?”
“I can’t establish the total yet.”
Patricia answered.
“Forty-eight million.”
Nobody moved.
Serena slowly turned toward her mother.
“How do you know that?”
“Because your father made me sign statements saying I had reviewed the transfers.”
Arthur removed his glasses.
“Patricia.”
“Don’t say my name like you weren’t there.”
The lawyer went still.
Dante looked between them.
“What does that mean?”
Arthur’s face seemed to age ten years.
“I witnessed signatures.
I didn’t verify the transactions.”
“You put your name on them.”
“Yes.”
“Then stop describing it like you watched the weather.”
Arthur lowered his eyes.
Patricia began twisting her wedding ring.
“Carlo loaned Vincent money through several companies.
When the loans came due, Vincent used the fund.
Then he kept using it.”
“And killing me fixes that?” Dante asked.
“It lets him put loyal managers in control before anyone forces an accounting,” Arthur said.
“Your death would create confusion.
He was counting on that.”
Serena looked at the documents.
“The marriage was supposed to give him access.”
Patricia nodded.
“When you failed to give him that, he found another way.”
Dante took out his phone.
Arthur caught his wrist.
“There’s something else.”
He opened the last folder.
“The statements don’t just carry Patricia’s signature.”
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At the bottom of the page was another name.
Serena Romano Cavali.
