The Man Who Had Been Waiting Seven Years
Chapter 09 - The Man Who Had Been Waiting Seven Years
Jonah answered Marin’s text in less than a minute.
WHERE?
She sent him the address of an all-night diner in Worcester.
Then she and Elias waited in the storage unit across the street.
“He’ll know it’s a trap,” Elias said.
“Yes.”
“He’ll still come?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because people who spend years controlling information start believing information belongs to them.”
Elias looked at her.
“That sounded personal.”
“It was.”
At 8:12, a gray sedan pulled into the diner parking lot.
Jonah got out alone.
He entered.
Ordered coffee.
Sat where he could see both doors.
Marin watched through binoculars.
“He taught us to do that.”
“Do what?”
“Choose a seat with two exits.”
Elias leaned against the wall.
“What else did he teach you?”
“How to stay alive.”
“Did it work?”
She lowered the binoculars.
“For some of us.”
They crossed the street five minutes later.
Jonah did not appear surprised.
Marin placed the photograph on the table.
He stared at it for a long time.
Then he sat back.
“I was wondering when Claire’s box would turn up.”
Marin’s chair scraped the floor.
“You knew my mother?”
“I met her once.”
“When?”
“After your father died.”
Elias’s hand moved beneath the table.
Jonah noticed.
“If I wanted her dead, she’d be dead.”
“People say that in movies,” Marin said. “In real life it just sounds stupid.”
A small smile touched Jonah’s face.
“There she is.”
“Who?”
“The medic I remember.”
“Answer the question.”
Jonah looked down at the photograph.
“I founded Meridian with three partners. Carlo financed it.”
“Why?”
“Because legitimate relief shipments cross borders faster than suspicious freight.”
Marin felt sick.
“So we were cover.”
“At first, yes.”
“You used medical teams.”
“I didn’t recruit them. That part was real.”
“Eight people died.”
“I know.”
“You knew the convoy was going to be attacked.”
“No.”
She watched his face.
For once, she believed him.
Jonah continued.
“Dominic learned what his father had been doing. He wanted out. Carlo was dead by then, but Vince had taken over the dirty contracts.”
“Dominic was paid for the cleanup,” Elias said.
“No.”
Jonah tapped the ledger entry.
“That two hundred thousand came from Dominic, not to him.”
Elias frowned.
“Carlo’s notation puts names beside the source when money came in and beside the recipient when money went out. It’s inconsistent unless you know his shorthand.”
“How do you?”
“I kept duplicate books.”
Marin stared.
“You could have said this yesterday.”
“I wanted to see who else knew.”
She stood.
“You put me on a board and watched who moved.”
“Yes.”
“You used me.”
“Yes.”
At least the men in this story were becoming honest at the worst possible time.
Marin grabbed her coat.
Jonah spoke before she could leave.
“The convoy was attacked because Vince believed Dominic had hidden the red ledger in one of the medical trucks.”
She stopped.
“What?”
“He was wrong.”
“Then why were we targeted?”
“Because Vince wanted no witnesses to the search.”
Marin’s hand tightened around the chair.
“You knew?”
“Not until afterward.”
“And you disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“You left us.”
“Yes.”
There was no defense.
Marin hated how often truth sounded like surrender.
Elias remained seated.
“What does Vince want now?”
“The ledger.”
“He’s tried to kill my mother twice for a book he does not know she still has?”
“No.”
Jonah’s expression changed.
“He wants the last page.”
Marin looked at the ledger.
“There is no last page.”
“There was.”
He turned it over and pressed a thumb along the rear binding.
A thin strip of torn paper remained beneath the leather.
Someone had removed a page.
“When?”
“I don’t know.”
“What was on it?”
Jonah looked at Elias.
“Names Carlo never trusted enough to put anywhere else.”
“Police?”
“Judges. Businessmen. A senator once, maybe. And one family member.”
Elias’s eyes narrowed.
“Which?”
“I never saw the page.”
Marin felt a sudden cold certainty.
“Adelaide did.”
Jonah nodded.
They returned to St. Agnes immediately.
The chapel was empty.
Rafe was gone.
Adelaide was gone.
On the cot lay a folded blanket and the portable oxygen tubing.
Elias’s face turned white.
Then a voice came from the rear pew.
“Stop looking as if I died.”
Adelaide sat in the shadows wearing a wool coat over her hospital gown.
Rafe stood beside her.
Elias closed his eyes briefly.
“You left the cot.”
“I wanted air.”
“You are in an abandoned school.”
“It has windows.”
Marin nearly laughed.
Then she noticed Adelaide holding something.
A torn page.
The final page of Carlo’s ledger.
“I took it years ago,” Adelaide said.
“Why?” Elias asked.
“Because there was one name I could not allow you to see.”
Elias did not move.
“Mine?”
“No.”
“Dominic’s?”
“No.”
She looked toward Rafe.
His face was unreadable.
Then toward Marin.
“No.”
Adelaide unfolded the page.
At the bottom was a name written in full.
ELIAS FERRANTE.
Marin’s heart stopped.
Beside it, Carlo had written:
IF THE BOY EVER TURNS, USE HOLLIS.
Elias stared.
“What does that mean?”
Adelaide’s eyes filled.
“I don’t know.”
Jonah stepped closer.
“I do.”
Everyone turned.
He looked at Marin.
“Thomas Hollis was never investigating Carlo because of Meridian.”
His gaze shifted to Elias.
“He was investigating Carlo because your father ordered a hit on you.”
Elias laughed once, as if the sentence were too absurd to enter the world.
“My father tried to kill me?”
Jonah nodded.
“When you were nineteen.”
Rafe went pale.
The alley.
Club Aurora.
The two men.
Rafe appearing.
The night Elias thought his father had saved him by sending help.
Adelaide covered her mouth.
Jonah’s voice remained quiet.
“Thomas found out. He tried to warn you.”
Elias stared at the torn page.
All his life, he had believed the first betrayal came after Carlo died.
Now it seemed betrayal had been the inheritance itself.
Then Rafe whispered, “I was there.”
Elias looked at him.
Rafe’s eyes filled with something close to shame.
“I wasn’t sent to save you.”
May you like
He swallowed.
“I was sent to make sure it looked accidental.”
