Chapter 9 - The Last Lie in the Blue Ledger
For several seconds, Dominic could not speak.
Thomas Carter had been dead for fifteen years.
Daniel Price had been working for the Romano family for fifteen years.
And someone had just connected the two men through an attempted murder.
“Where is Daniel?” Dominic demanded.
“At the county courthouse. He surrendered voluntarily after learning we had recovered new evidence.”
“What evidence?”
The caller identified herself as Detective Laura Mitchell, the lead investigator assigned to the financial crimes and medication inquiry.
She explained that a witness had come forward with information about the night Thomas disappeared. The witness claimed Daniel had been seen near Thomas's house shortly before the accountant suffered a serious injury.
The witness also alleged that Daniel had removed documents from the property.
Dominic felt anger rising.
“Daniel was twenty-eight. He was a security officer. Why would he have been involved in Thomas's death?”
“We're investigating that now. We have not established that he caused the injury, and the charge is based on evidence we are still verifying.”
“Then why are you calling me?”
“Because Daniel asked to speak with you. He says he can explain why his name appears on the photograph.”
Dominic looked at Michael.
His attorney shook his head immediately.
“Don't go alone,” Michael said. “And don't discuss evidence outside the interview process.”
Dominic agreed.
Within an hour, he was sitting across from Daniel in a secure interview room, with Detective Mitchell and Michael present.
Daniel looked exhausted.
“You've known Thomas Carter's name for years,” Dominic said. “Why didn't you tell me you were involved in his disappearance?”
“Because I wasn't involved in his disappearance.”
“Your name is on a photograph from the night he was attacked.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“I know.”
“Then explain it.”
Daniel took a long breath.
“Thomas contacted me three days before the accident. He said he had evidence that someone was using the Romano security system to access private records. He wanted me to help him move the evidence somewhere safe.”
“Why didn't he come to my father?”
“Because he believed your father was being watched.”
Dominic leaned forward.
“By whom?”
“Richard Hale.”
Daniel explained that Thomas had discovered a second set of financial records hidden inside a secure storage account. The records linked several payments to companies controlled by Hale, including payments made before Elena's accident.
Thomas believed someone had used the security system to identify when Elena would be traveling alone.
He asked Daniel to help him preserve the evidence.
Daniel agreed.
But on the night they planned to move the documents, Thomas was attacked outside his home.
Daniel arrived after the attack had begun.
He saw a dark vehicle leaving the property, but he couldn't identify the driver.
Thomas was badly injured.
Before losing consciousness, he handed Daniel a small metal case and told him to keep it away from the Romano mansion.
Daniel hid the case in a storage unit under a false name.
Two days later, Hale's men threatened Daniel's daughter.
Daniel was ordered to surrender the case.
He refused.
But he also refused to tell Dominic, believing he could protect his family without exposing the evidence.
“I thought if I kept quiet, Hale would eventually stop looking,” Daniel said. “Instead, he used me to monitor your father. When Vanessa asked me to replace the medication bottle, I should have gone straight to you.”
Dominic stared at him.
“Why didn't you?”
“Because I was afraid.”
“Everyone was afraid. My father was afraid. Emily was afraid. My mother was afraid. You were supposed to be the person who kept fear from running this house.”
Daniel lowered his head.
“I failed.”
Detective Mitchell placed a photograph on the table.
It showed the metal case recovered from Daniel's storage unit.
Inside were several documents, an old key, and a folded note bearing Thomas's handwriting.
Michael examined the note without touching it.
The message read:
The ledger is not where they think it is. The blue box is a decoy. The real record is in the place where the family stores what it cannot bear to remember.
Dominic read the sentence again.
“The family mausoleum,” he said.
Daniel nodded slowly.
“Thomas used to say the dead were the only witnesses nobody thought to question.”
Detective Mitchell immediately arranged for a search under the appropriate legal authorization.
The mausoleum stood on private land outside the city, surrounded by iron fencing and old oak trees. It held the remains of three generations of Romano family members.
Dominic went with the investigators.
Emily insisted on accompanying them.
“You've done enough,” he told her.
“My grandfather died with his name ruined. I'm not staying behind while someone else decides what he meant.”
Dominic looked at her, then nodded.
Inside the mausoleum, the investigators found a small compartment behind a loose stone in the wall. The compartment contained a sealed metal cylinder and a key matching the one recovered from Daniel's case.
Inside the cylinder lay a thin blue ledger.
Its pages contained account numbers, payment dates, and the names of companies that had received money from the Romano shipping business.
The records also included a series of transfers to a private medical transport company.
One transfer had been made two days before Elena's accident.
Another had been made the morning after Thomas was attacked.
The final page contained a handwritten list of names.
Richard Hale.
Vanessa Sterling.
Daniel Price.
Antonio Romano.
And, at the bottom, a fifth name.
Dominic Romano.
Emily stared at it.
“Why is your name there?”
Dominic couldn't answer.
He turned the page.
A note had been written in the margin.
The person who authorized the final transfer was not the person who signed the account.
Beneath it was a date.
The date Dominic's mother had supposedly died.
Michael photographed the page and sealed the ledger as evidence.
Detective Mitchell ordered everyone to leave the mausoleum while the investigators documented the scene.
But as Dominic stepped outside, his phone vibrated.
A message had arrived from an unknown number.
It contained a photograph of the ledger's final page.
The photograph had been taken from inside the mausoleum.
Someone had been there before them.
Someone had known exactly where the evidence was hidden.
And beneath the image was a single sentence:
Ask your father why he signed the order that killed your mother.
Dominic looked back at the mausoleum.
May you like
For the first time in his life, he wondered whether his father had been protecting the family from a monster.
Or protecting the monster from his family.
