Chapter 26
Chapter 26: The New York Ledger
The peace was broken on a humid evening in August. Marco entered the library without warning, his face set in a hard, grim expression that instantly caused Enzo to lower the children's book he was reading to little Lillian.
"We found the trust, Enzo," Marco said, sliding a thick, black leather ledger onto the desk. "The one that funded Preston’s prison break. It took our hackers three months to penetrate the offshore shell layers, but we finally got a name."
Enzo stood up, gently placing his sleeping daughter into her bassinet before stepping over to the desk. "Talk to me."
"The trust belongs to the Moretti Syndicate out of New York," Marco said, his voice dropping into a tense register. "Specifically, Vincent Moretti. He’s been quietly buying up the broken pieces of the Whitcomb financial empire for the last year. He didn't break Preston out to save him; he broke him out to find the location of a secondary ledger—a physical book containing the blackmail material Preston held over every federal judge on the Eastern seaboard."
Enzo’s eyes narrowed as he opened the ledger, his fingers tracing the complex financial transfers. "Vincent Moretti is old school. He doesn't move across state lines without a green light from the Commission. Why Chicago? Why now?"
May you like
"Because Preston died in his cell three days ago, Enzo," Marco whispered. "A stroke. But before he passed, he sent a final, encrypted message to New York. He didn't send it to Vincent. He sent it to his oldest associate. A man who has been deep-cover in the Chicago legal system for fifteen years."
The library door clicked open. Harper stood there, her face completely pale, a single piece of paper in her hand. "Enzo... the federal prosecutor who handled my father's case... he was just found dead in his home in Gold Coast. And my father's old personal safe in the downtown office? It's been completely cleaned out."
