Chapter 10 - LUIS WAS THERE
Luis Mendez had worked for my family for eleven years.
Kitchen porter now.
Driver then.
The missing man from the birthday party had also been the last person alive with my wife.
Nobody had ever told me.
Torres found him before dawn.
Not dead.
Hiding in a church basement in Queens.
He surrendered when he saw me.
"I'm sorry."
I wanted to hate him.
Instead I asked, "Why did the report say Elena was alone?"
"Mr. Vittorio."
Of course.
Luis explained.
Elena asked him to drive because she believed she was being followed.
On the highway, the brakes failed.
Luis managed to steer onto the shoulder.
Then another car clipped them.
The Mercedes rolled.
Luis crawled out.
Elena did not.
Vittorio arrived at the hospital before police interviewed him.
"He told me if I said I was driving, I'd go to prison."
"For what?"
"He said the car had stolen documents inside. Federal files."
My father paid Luis to disappear for a year.
Later, he gave him a job under a different department.
"Why stay?"
"Money. Fear."
Torres asked why he vanished after calling Luca.
Luis said a man wearing a catering coat attacked him behind the loading dock.
"He took my uniform."
"Did you see his face?"
"No."
"Anything?"
"A tattoo."
Lily had not mentioned a tattoo.
"Where?"
"Inside the wrist. A crown."
Martin Vale had no visible tattoos.
Neither did Luca.
Cole Mercer had military ink, but no crown.
Torres searched private-security databases.
One former Mercer Strategic employee had a crown tattoo.
Evan Rusk.
Discharged after assault charges.
Current employer:
Vale Risk Management.
Martin's private security subsidiary.
I called Martin.
No answer.
His penthouse was empty.
His office safe had been cleared.
Hannah checked company accounts.
Thirty-two million dollars had been moved offshore that morning.
Martin was running.
Then Ethan came into my office carrying Elena's old birthday scrapbook.
"Dad?"
"Not now, buddy."
"I think you need this."
In the picture, Elena stood beside Martin at a company picnic.
Behind them was Evan Rusk.
His sleeve had ridden up.
A crown tattoo showed on his wrist.
But Ethan pointed somewhere else.
May you like
At Martin's hand.
He was wearing a black onyx Moretti ring.
