The Missing Folio Was Found in Dominic’s Car
Chapter 08 - The Missing Folio Was Found in Dominic’s Car
The folio turned up because a valet remembered blood.
Not metaphorically.
Actual blood.
After the shooting, Dominic carried Mara through the service entrance.
Someone grabbed her abandoned items from the floor and put them into the rear compartment of the armored SUV.
Purse.
One shoe.
Black catering folio.
At the hospital, Dominic’s driver removed everything except the folio.
It had slid beneath a seat.
Then the SUV went into a secured garage as evidence related to the shooting.
Weeks passed.
Nobody asked about catering paperwork.
Until now.
Police recovered it under warrant.
Inside:
Guest seating sheet.
Banquet order.
One black envelope.
No name.
No fingerprints useful beyond staff transfer.
Inside that envelope:
A flash drive.
Mara stared at the evidence photograph.
Victor’s message made sense.
BENNETT ONLY IF SHE HAS THE FILE.
The second operative had planted the drive on her.
Why?
Federal computer forensics answered carefully.
The drive contained financial records.
Not Victor’s.
Dominic Rossi’s.
Illegal sports-betting ledgers.
Cash lending.
Payments to city intermediaries.
Records current through the previous month.
Enough to damage Dominic badly.
Mara looked at Rachel.
“Victor wanted this found on me.”
“Probably.”
“To make me look like what?”
“Courier. Informant. Thief. Depends who found it.”
The plan sharpened.
Victor intended to kill Isabella.
Plant Dominic’s incriminating records on Mara.
If Mara died in the crossfire, she could be blamed afterward as a Costa-linked infiltrator or disloyal staffer.
If she survived and the file surfaced, Dominic might suspect her.
Either way:
Chaos.
Then Mara asked:
“How did Victor get Dominic’s ledgers?”
That question widened the investigation.
The seven-year-old sync breach explained administrative files.
Not these.
These records came from a finance system with different controls.
Current.
Internal.
Someone had exported them.
There might actually be a traitor after all.
Dominic’s lawyers advised him not to investigate privately.
He listened.
Federal agents and independent forensics traced access.
Three senior people had credentials.
Dominic.
Enzo.
Chief financial officer Anthony Rizzo.
Rizzo had served ten years.
No family connection.
Quiet.
Liked golf.
Hated cameras.
The export occurred while Dominic was at a charity dinner.
Enzo in Boston.
Rizzo in the office.
Too easy.
Then logs showed Rizzo’s credential had been used from a remote device.
Device belonged to Dominic.
His personal tablet.
Mara almost laughed when Rachel told her.
“So Dominic leaked his own crimes?”
“Unlikely.”
“Nothing would surprise me now.”
The tablet had been left in Dominic’s private office during a gym session.
Security footage showed Isabella entering.
Mara went still.
“No.”
Not again.
Isabella had access to her son’s office.
She used the tablet?
Why?
Then Isabella admitted it before anyone accused her.
She had used Dominic’s tablet that day.
To print photographs for a charity luncheon because her own device would not connect.
Not the export.
Forensics supported her activity.
But while she was there, another person entered.
Leo Rossi.
Dominic’s cousin.
Chief operating officer of Rossi Hospitality.
Thirty-six.
Son of Antonio’s younger brother.
Had access to the office.
Entered for nine minutes.
Leo denied touching the tablet.
Video showed nothing more because the desk angle was blocked.
Device records showed a USB authentication key inserted during that window.
Registered to Leo.
Dominic’s cousin had accessed the illegal ledgers.
Why give them to Victor?
Leo did not admit that.
He asked for counsel.
No interrogation.
Then financial records surfaced.
Leo owed Victor Costa $1.3 million from private gambling debts.
Not through Dominic’s operation.
Victor’s offshore games.
Leverage.
Leo had been feeding Victor information for eighteen months.
Schedules.
Vendor issues.
Security weaknesses.
Then the ledgers.
Victor promised to erase the debt.
He did not.
Of course.
Leo’s cooperation agreement later described the plan.
Victor wanted Dominic criminally exposed while Isabella died.
A leadership vacuum.
Rossi businesses under federal pressure.
Costa crews move in.
Mara was collateral until her name appeared in Dominic’s file.
Then Victor recognized David Bennett’s daughter.
The old housing evidence might resurface.
She became useful twice.
Plant evidence.
Then kill her if possible.
Mara sat with that.
Her father had once been framed with financial records.
Victor tried to frame his daughter the same way.
Not destiny.
Method.
Criminals repeat what works.
Then came Dominic’s part.
The flash drive was genuine.
He could not say Victor fabricated everything.
The illegal ledgers reflected real conduct.
Mara asked him directly when he came to her apartment at her invitation.
“Your records?”
“Yes.”
“Your operation?”
“Yes.”
“People hurt?”
Dominic took time.
“No killings ordered.”
“That was not my question.”
His jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
Debt pressure.
Threats.
Businesses forced into settlements.
One man’s nightclub seized after default.
Another threatened with exposure of an affair.
No gun to the head.
Still coercion.
Mara stared.
“You put a ring on me and said anyone who came for me came through you.”
“Yes.”
“You were one of the people others needed protection from.”
Silence.
“Yes.”
That answer emptied the room.
Mara looked at the ring sitting in a drawer nearby.
She had not returned it because police photographed it as part of the hospital record.
Now evidence custody was over.
She took it out.
Placed it on the table.
“Take it.”
Dominic did.
No argument.
Then Mara said:
“I don’t want your protection anymore.”
His face changed.
“Victor is still—”
“My lawyer can arrange security.”
“He cannot arrange what I can.”
The old Dominic.
Power as logic.
Mara looked at him.
“That sentence is the problem.”
He stopped.
Then nodded.
“I’ll have my people transfer everything to whoever you choose.”
“No strings.”
“No strings.”
“Nothing hidden.”
“Nothing.”
She believed he meant it.
For now.
Before leaving, Dominic said:
“The federal government is going to charge me.”
Mara looked at him.
“For the flash drive?”
“For what’s on it.”
Not for being framed.
For what he had actually done.
He continued.
“I’m negotiating surrender terms.”
Mara felt something she did not want to feel.
Fear.
For him.
She hated it.
“When?”
“I don’t know.”
“Are you telling me because you want sympathy?”
“No.”
“Why then?”
Dominic looked at her.
May you like
“Because you asked for nothing hidden.”
That was the first promise he kept before she had time to test it.
