The Box Miguel Reyes Left Behind

Chapter 04 - The Box Miguel Reyes Left Behind

Elena and Sofia went through the kitchen.

No coats.

No purses.

Sofia still wore one gardening glove because she had dropped the other somewhere between the table and the back door.

Elena would remember that stupid detail later.

Fear often preserved the wrong things.

They crossed the small yard toward the alley.

A black sedan waited with the rear door open.

Dante stood beside it.

Elena stopped.

“You said you turned your people away.”

“I did.”

“Then why are you here?”

“Because I changed my mind.”

“You cannot keep—”

The front window of Sofia’s house shattered.

Dante moved before she finished speaking.

He pulled both women behind the brick garage.

A second crack sounded.

Not a gunshot.

Something thrown through glass.

Smoke began to curl from the house.

Sofia screamed.

“My photographs.”

Dante caught her arm.

“You cannot go back.”

“My husband’s photographs are in there.”

“I’ll get them.”

“You just said we cannot go back.”

“I said you cannot.”

He handed Elena his car keys.

“Get in.”

“No.”

“Elena.”

“No. If you go inside, I’m not driving away.”

Dante looked at her.

The argument lasted only a second.

Then two of his security men came from the alley.

“Fire department is three minutes out,” one said.

Dante pointed toward the house.

“Photos. Hall cabinet. Anything personal you can reach safely.”

The man nodded and ran.

Sofia stared at Dante.

“You look like your father.”

His face changed.

“So I’ve been told.”

“It was not a compliment.”

“I assumed.”

Sirens sounded in the distance.

No attackers appeared.

Whoever had thrown the incendiary device had already left.

Thirty minutes later, the fire was contained mostly to the living room.

Sofia sat in the back of an ambulance wrapped in a blanket.

One of Dante’s men brought out a wet cardboard box filled with photographs.

Sofia began to cry.

Dante looked uncomfortable.

Elena noticed.

“You’re not good with crying.”

“No.”

“Children?”

“Worse.”

“Animals?”

“Depends on the animal.”

She almost laughed.

It felt disloyal to the burning smell around them.

Dante saw the safety deposit key in her hand.

He did not ask for it.

Another point in his favor.

Elena disliked keeping score.

By noon they were at First Chicago Federal.

The branch manager took one look at Dante, then at the federal investigator Dante had called to meet them, and stopped asking unnecessary questions.

The box had been untouched for fourteen years.

Inside were four things.

A leather-bound notebook.

A cassette tape.

A sealed envelope addressed to Sofia.

And a photograph.

Elena picked up the photograph first.

Miguel Reyes stood outside Salvatore Logistics beside three younger men.

Dante.

Arthur Vale.

And a man Elena did not recognize.

On the back Miguel had written:

Dante doesn’t know Arthur is with Enzo.

Elena stared.

“Arthur Vale worked with your uncle.”

Dante took the photograph.

His face hardened.

“I thought Arthur worked for my father.”

“What difference does that make?”

“A large one.”

Sofia opened her envelope with shaking hands.

Inside was one page.

She read silently.

Then sat down.

“Mom?”

Sofia handed the letter to Elena.

Mi amor,

If you are reading this, I failed to come home.

Do not blame Dante.

He is not his father.

Arthur is frightened, which makes him dangerous. Enzo knows I copied the accounts. If anything happens to me, the proof is on the tape.

Do not give it to police unless you know which police.

Keep Elena away from all of them.

I am sorry for the life I brought into our house.

Miguel.

Elena read it twice.

“Arthur was involved.”

Dante’s jaw tightened.

“And Marcus’s father knew it.”

They found an old cassette player in a bank archive room.

Miguel’s voice came through static.

Elena had forgotten its exact shape.

She covered her mouth.

The recording was not Miguel alone.

Arthur Vale spoke first.

“You said Dante would be dead by Friday.”

Another voice.

Enzo.

“He would be if Miguel had kept his mouth shut.”

Arthur sounded frightened.

“This wasn’t the agreement.”

“The agreement was you move the money. We handle family matters.”

“And Miguel?”

A pause.

Then Enzo laughed.

“Miguel will have a heart attack.”

Sofia broke down.

Elena reached for her.

The tape continued.

Arthur: “You can’t do that.”

Enzo: “I can do anything your loans require me to do.”

Then Miguel’s whisper, very close to the recorder.

“If somebody hears this, Arthur Vale knew before I died.”

The tape clicked off.

Nobody spoke.

Dante stared at the machine.

“My uncle killed him.”

Sofia shook her head.

“No.”

They turned toward her.

She was crying, but her voice was steady.

“Enzo ordered it.”

“What does that mean?” Elena asked.

Sofia closed her eyes.

“Arthur did it.”

The room went silent.

“How do you know?”

“Because he came to me after the funeral.”

Elena felt sick.

“What?”

“He said Miguel had collapsed in his office. He said he tried to help.”

“Mom.”

“I believed him.”

“But?”

“Years later, he was drunk at a foundation gala. He apologized.”

“For what?”

Sofia looked at her daughter.

“He said he switched Miguel’s heart medication.”

Elena stood so quickly the chair struck the wall.

“No.”

“Elena—”

“He hugged me at Dad’s funeral.”

“I know.”

“He paid for the flowers.”

“I know.”

“He employed me.”

Sofia’s face broke.

“I know.”

Elena turned toward Dante.

“Marcus knew his father killed mine.”

Dante said nothing.

The silence was confirmation enough.

She called Marcus.

He answered immediately.

“Elena.”

“You knew.”

A long breath.

“Yes.”

“How long?”

“Since I was nineteen.”

She closed her eyes.

They had met when she was twenty-two.

He had known the entire time.

“You dated me.”

“Elena—”

“You asked me to marry you.”

“I loved you.”

“Do not use that word.”

“I was trying to make up for what he did.”

“You thought marrying the daughter of the man your father murdered would fix it?”

“No.”

“Then what?”

Marcus’s voice cracked.

“My father made me promise never to tell you.”

“And you obeyed.”

“Yes.”

“For eight years.”

“Yes.”

Elena looked at the tape recorder.

“Did Vivien know?”

Marcus hesitated.

“No.”

Too slow.

Dante heard it too.

Elena lowered her voice.

“Marcus.”

“She found out before our wedding.”

“Which wedding?”

He did not answer.

Her engagement.

Their wedding that never happened.

Vivien had learned Arthur killed Miguel before Elena and Marcus broke up.

“What did she do with it?”

Marcus began to cry.

Elena had not heard him cry since his mother’s diagnosis.

“She used it.”

“For what?”

“To make me frame you.”

Elena stared at the wall.

“Why?”

“Because Daniel Mercer didn’t just need your audit gone.”

“What else did he need?”

Marcus whispered, “He needed access to your mother.”

Elena turned toward Sofia.

Her mother went pale.

“Why?”

Marcus breathed once.

“Because Sofia Reyes is the legal owner of forty percent of Salvatore Logistics.”

Dante’s head snapped up.

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Elena stared at her mother.

And Sofia looked as though the secret she had carried for fourteen years had finally become too heavy to hold.