Chapter 5 - THE GRAVE THAT WASN’T EMPTY
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
Then Dante said, “That’s impossible.”
His mother wouldn’t look at him.
Emma saw it immediately.
“Ask her.”
Dante turned.
“Ma.”
Mrs. Moretti kept her eyes down.
Dante signed clumsily.
“Is it true?”
She answered.
“Yes.”
Dante stepped back.
“You put it in Dad’s coffin?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“The night before the funeral.”
Sal crossed himself.
Victor whispered, “Jesus Christ.”
Dante looked at his mother like he was seeing a stranger.
“Why?”
Emma interpreted.
Mrs. Moretti’s reply came slowly.
“Because men searched the house.”
“What men?”
“I didn’t know all of them.”
“Who did you know?”
She hesitated.
Then signed.
“Michael Santoro.”
Dante’s jaw tightened.
Again that name.
The dead lawyer.
The family friend.
The man who had supposedly helped Dante after Carlo died.
Emma watched Dante’s face harden.
“What else?”
Mrs. Moretti signed.
“He told me Carlo had left dangerous things behind. He said he would protect you.”
Dante laughed without humor.
“And you believed him?”
His mother’s hands stopped.
Then she signed one sharp sentence.
Emma’s voice dropped.
“She says she didn’t believe anybody.”
Dante went quiet.
“She hid the book because she thought the grave was the only place nobody would search.”
Sal looked toward the dark warehouse windows.
“Well, somebody figured it out.”
Dante nodded.
“We leave now.”
Emma helped Lily walk.
Her wrists were bruised.
Emma’s anger returned in a wave.
“Who took you?”
Lily signed as they moved.
“Two men. I didn’t know them.”
“Did they say names?”
“One called the other Frankie.”
Sal heard Emma translate.
“Frankie what?”
Lily shrugged.
Dante stopped.
“What did he look like?”
Emma signed.
Lily described him.
Late forties.
Scar on the neck.
Heavy.
Blue eyes.
Sal went pale.
Dante noticed.
“You know him.”
Sal didn’t answer fast enough.
“Sal.”
“Frankie DeLuca.”
Dante’s face became stone.
Emma looked between them.
“Who is that?”
Sal answered.
“Used to work for Dante’s uncle.”
Dante snapped, “Used to?”
Sal looked uncomfortable.
“Still might.”
Dante stared at him.
“My uncle is eighty years old.”
“Your uncle also has twenty men who’d set fire to their own house if he asked.”
Emma sighed.
“Your family sounds exhausting.”
Dante almost smiled.
Almost.
Then he looked at Lily.
“Can she identify Frankie?”
Emma signed the question.
Lily nodded.
“Good.”
Emma immediately said, “No.”
Dante looked at her.
“No what?”
“She is not becoming a witness in whatever mob family disaster this is.”
“He kidnapped her.”
“Exactly.”
“She already is a witness.”
“Then un-witness her.”
“That’s not how reality works.”
“You seem pretty comfortable making reality do whatever you want.”
Dante stared at her.
Then Mrs. Moretti started laughing.
Emma looked over.
“What?”
The older woman signed.
“He likes you.”
Emma choked.
Dante frowned.
“What did she say?”
“Nothing.”
Mrs. Moretti signed again.
“Tell him.”
Emma shook her head.
Dante looked suspicious.
“Emma.”
“She said you’re annoying.”
His mother slapped Emma lightly on the arm.
Dante narrowed his eyes.
“You’re lying.”
“I am keeping the peace.”
For the first time that night, Lily smiled.
Then headlights swept across the warehouse doors.
Everyone turned.
Sal checked his weapon.
Dante raised a hand.
“Not ours.”
The first bullet shattered a window.
Then another.
Dante grabbed Emma.
“Back!”
Glass rained down.
His men returned fire.
The warehouse became chaos again.
Emma pulled Lily behind a steel column.
Mrs. Moretti ducked beside them.
Lily signed.
“Does this happen every time you go to work?”
Emma almost laughed.
“No.”
Then a man rushed through the side door.
Dante hit him hard enough to send him into a crate.
Another man shouted from outside.
“MORETTI!”
Dante went still.
The voice continued.
“You want your mother alive tomorrow?”
Mrs. Moretti stared toward the door.
Emma’s heart stopped.
The man shouted again.
“Dig up Carlo tonight.”
Dante fired toward the voice.
No answer.
Then tires screamed.
The attackers vanished.
Sal ran outside.
Thirty seconds later, he returned.
“Gone.”
Dante looked at his mother.
Then at Emma.
Then at the dark screen of Emma’s phone.
“Midnight,” he said.
“What?”
“They gave us until midnight.”
Emma looked at the clock.
10:41 p.m.
Dante’s voice turned cold.
“We’re going to the cemetery.”
Lily stared at Emma.
Emma signed.
“What?”
Lily pointed toward Dante.
Then signed slowly.
“What happens if the book is gone?”
Emma looked at him.
Dante answered before she could translate.
May you like
Even without knowing the sign, he understood the question from their faces.
“If the book is gone,” he said, “then somebody has been planning this war for seventeen years.”
