Chapter 18 - THE SISTER WHO LIED
Z
Sofia Moretti arrived from Boston before sunset.
She did not come through the front door.
She entered the Lake Forest house through the kitchen because Rosa had apparently decided federal murder investigations did not cancel dinner.
Eleanor was standing at the island reading Paul Renner’s autopsy report for the third time when Sofia appeared.
Forty-one.
Elegant.
Dark hair cut at her shoulders.
Gabriel’s eyes without Gabriel’s ability to make a room feel threatened.
Usually.
Tonight she looked dangerous.
“You should have called me before the agents reached him.”
That was her greeting.
Eleanor set down the report.
“Hello, Sofia.”
“Where is my brother?”
“Federal detention.”
“You let them arrest him?”
Eleanor stared.
“I’m sorry. Was I supposed to tackle Rebecca Cole on the driveway?”
Sofia removed her coat.
“You know what I mean.”
“No. I don’t.”
Rosa quietly carried a pot toward the dining room.
“Do not fight in my kitchen.”
Sofia turned.
“Rosa.”
“Especially you.”
The authority structure of the Moretti family remained confusing.
Eleanor waited until they were alone.
“Paul Renner.”
Sofia’s face closed.
“That name has been dead for ten years.”
“Apparently not.”
Sofia looked away.
Eleanor opened the photograph on her phone.
Blue coat.
Warehouse.
Renner.
Sofia.
“You were there.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Where did you get that?”
“Someone sent it.”
“Who?”
“If I knew, we’d be having a different conversation.”
Sofia stared at the screen.
For several seconds Eleanor saw something unexpected.
Not guilt.
Fear.
“What happened that night?”
Sofia sat.
That scared Eleanor.
Morettis sat before confessions.
Apparently it was genetic.
“Paul called me.”
“Why you?”
“He didn’t trust Gabriel.”
“Why?”
“Because Gabriel had just taken control of several companies Julian was using.”
“That sounds like a reason to trust him.”
“It also made Gabriel the most watched man in Chicago.”
Eleanor understood.
“So Renner wanted someone invisible.”
Sofia smiled bitterly.
“That family specialty again.”
“What did he tell you?”
“That he found payments.”
“To trafficking accounts?”
“I didn’t know that part then.”
Sofia rubbed her hands together.
“He said Julian was moving money through legitimate companies. He said judges were involved. Police. Contractors. He wanted out.”
“And you agreed to help.”
“I agreed to take documents to our mother.”
Lucia.
Of course.
Eleanor sat opposite her.
“Why Lucia?”
“Because she had already started investigating Julian.”
That fit.
Pieces of Lucia’s hidden life had never stopped appearing.
“What happened at the warehouse?”
“When I arrived, Paul was terrified. He kept checking windows.”
“Was he hurt?”
“Not yet.”
“Did he give you the documents?”
“A flash drive.”
“Where is it?”
“I gave it to Lucia.”
Eleanor leaned forward.
“And then?”
“A car came into the lot.”
“Whose?”
“I didn’t see.”
“Paul did?”
“Yes.”
“What did he do?”
“He told me to leave.”
“So you left him.”
Sofia flinched.
“I was twenty-nine and had spent my entire life learning what it meant when a frightened man told a Moretti woman to run.”
Fair.
“Where was Gabriel?”
“I called him from the car.”
“Why?”
“Because I was scared.”
“And he went to the warehouse.”
“Yes.”
Eleanor felt anger rising.
Not because Sofia had called Gabriel.
Because everybody in this family seemed to have spent decades using Gabriel as both weapon and shield, then acting surprised when he believed he had to solve everything alone.
“What did Gabriel find?”
Sofia looked away.
“Ask him.”
“He’s in jail.”
Silence.
Eleanor stood.
“No.”
Sofia looked up.
“You don’t get to do that.”
“Eleanor—”
“No more family tradition where everyone hides one piece because they think protecting Gabriel means keeping him ignorant.”
Sofia’s face tightened.
“You think I wanted this?”
“I think your brother moved a dead man and spent ten years believing that secret protected you.”
“That wasn’t his decision.”
“Then whose was it?”
“Mine.”
The answer stopped Eleanor.
Sofia’s eyes filled.
“I went back.”
Eleanor stared.
“What?”
“After I called Gabriel, I drove three blocks. Then I thought about Paul standing there alone.”
Her voice trembled.
“So I turned around.”
“What did you see?”
“A man leaving through the side entrance.”
“Who?”
“I couldn’t see his face.”
“Then?”
“I went inside.”
Sofia swallowed.
“Paul was on the floor.”
“Stabbed.”
“Yes.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Gabriel was there?”
“Not yet.”
Eleanor’s breathing changed.
Sofia continued.
“Paul grabbed me. He was saying something about a ledger. About Julian. I tried to stop the bleeding.”
“And the gun?”
Sofia closed her eyes.
“Paul had one.”
Eleanor froze.
“He pulled it from his jacket.”
“Why?”
“He heard someone.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did he fire?”
“No.”
Sofia opened her eyes.
“I took it from him.”
“The Moretti Security pistol.”
“Yes.”
“How did Paul have it?”
“I don’t know.”
“What happened next?”
Sofia’s voice became barely audible.
“Someone came through the loading door.”
“Who?”
“I couldn’t see.”
The warehouse lights had gone out.
Paul panicked.
Sofia panicked.
The gun went off.
Eleanor stopped breathing.
“You shot Paul.”
“No.”
Sofia shook her head immediately.
“I fired at the doorway.”
“Did you hit him?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Paul was behind me.”
That mattered.
A lot.
“Then how did Paul get shot?”
“I left.”
Eleanor stared.
“You left again?”
“He begged me to.”
“Gabriel arrived after?”
“Yes.”
“And found Paul alive.”
“Yes.”
“With the gun?”
“I dropped it.”
“So Gabriel touched it.”
Sofia nodded.
“He picked it up.”
Fingerprints.
Eleanor saw the entire trap forming.
“What happened after Gabriel arrived?”
“I don’t know.”
“You never asked?”
Sofia laughed bitterly.
“I asked every day for a month.”
“And?”
“Gabriel said Paul was gone.”
Eleanor went still.
“Gone meaning?”
“I thought he helped him disappear.”
“But Gabriel knew he was dead.”
Sofia stared at the floor.
“Yes.”
The front door opened.
Nathan entered with Marco.
“Gabriel made bail.”
Eleanor turned so quickly the chair scraped.
“What?”
“Rebecca agreed to release pending indictment. Passport surrendered. Electronic monitoring.”
Ten minutes later, Gabriel walked into his own house wearing the same suit from breakfast.
No tie.
No handcuffs.
Eleanor stood in the foyer.
For one second she wanted only to touch him.
Then she remembered the body.
Gabriel saw the conflict in her face.
“You know.”
“Yes.”
He looked past her.
Saw Sofia.
His expression changed.
“You came.”
Sofia stood.
“You should have told me.”
Gabriel almost laughed.
“About which part?”
“The body.”
Eleanor stepped between them.
“No.”
Both siblings looked at her.
“We are not doing the Moretti version of communication where everyone says half a sentence and then stares dramatically at furniture.”
Nathan nodded.
“Strong rule.”
Gabriel removed his coat.
Eleanor faced him.
“Paul Renner was alive when Marco saw him.”
“Yes.”
“Sofia had already left.”
“Yes.”
“You touched the gun.”
“Yes.”
“You did not shoot him.”
“No.”
“Then who did?”
Gabriel looked at Marco.
Marco looked at Gabriel.
Eleanor’s patience snapped.
“Gabriel.”
“I don’t know.”
She studied him.
This time she believed the words were complete.
“Then why move the body?”
Gabriel’s face hardened.
“Because when I came back, Paul was dead.”
“Came back?”
Sofia whispered.
“You left him too?”
Gabriel looked at her.
“He told me where the documents were hidden. Then he told me the man who stabbed him might be coming back.”
“So you went after him.”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
“Seven minutes.”
“When you returned?”
“Paul had been shot.”
Silence.
Eleanor asked, “And instead of calling police?”
Gabriel looked at Sofia.
There.
The reason.
“I found your scarf.”
Sofia’s face drained.
“What?”
“The blue one Mother gave you.”
Sofia touched her throat instinctively.
Gabriel continued.
“Your scarf was beside Paul. The gun had been fired. I knew you had been there.”
“So you assumed I killed him.”
“I didn’t know what to assume.”
“And you moved a body for me.”
“Yes.”
Sofia looked devastated.
“You idiot.”
Gabriel’s mouth twitched.
“You’re welcome.”
She struck him.
Hard.
The sound cracked through the foyer.
Nathan took one step backward.
Marco studied the ceiling.
Gabriel slowly turned his face back.
Sofia was crying.
“You let me believe he escaped.”
“I needed you away from it.”
“You covered up murder because you thought I might have done it.”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t.”
“I know that now.”
Eleanor spoke quietly.
“No. You don’t.”
Everyone looked at her.
She walked to the desk where Rebecca had sent them the forensic photographs.
Paul Renner’s shirt.
The wound.
The bullet trajectory.
Something had bothered Eleanor for hours.
Now she understood.
“Sofia said she fired toward the loading door.”
“Yes,” Gabriel said.
“Paul was behind her.”
“Yes.”
“The fatal bullet entered Paul’s back.”
Gabriel went still.
Eleanor turned the photograph.
“Whoever killed him was inside the warehouse.”
Marco frowned.
“With Gabriel?”
“No.”
Eleanor pointed at the timestamp from a damaged interior camera.
Gabriel left through the side door at 10:41.
Paul died between 10:42 and 10:46.
Eleanor opened another recovered image.
A man entering at 10:43.
His face blurred.
But his right hand was visible.
On the smallest finger was a heavy silver ring.
Gabriel recognized it immediately.
“So do I,” Marco whispered.
Sofia looked between them.
“Who?”
Gabriel’s face became cold.
“Julian.”
But Eleanor shook her head.
“No.”
She enlarged the hand.
The ring carried an engraved letter.
Not J.
D.
Marco whispered the name first.
“Derek Vance.”
The same man who had helped force Eleanor down the cathedral aisle.
The same man who had survived Saint Michael’s.
May you like
The same man who had negotiated with federal prosecutors.
And according to the government, the same man who had disappeared from witness protection six months ago.
