Chapter 9 - THE THIRTIETH NAME
Vincent fired first.
Daniel ducked behind the doorframe as the bullet struck the wall. Evelyn pulled Norah toward the floor while the gunfire echoed through the basement.
"Run!" Vincent shouted.
Norah clutched the ledger against her chest.
They escaped through the examination room's rear door and emerged into a narrow service corridor. Vincent's men were fighting their way downstairs, shouting commands over the radio.
Evelyn stumbled.
Norah caught her.
"Are you hurt?"
"Not badly."
But blood was spreading across Evelyn's sleeve.
Vincent saw it and swore.
"We need a doctor."
"Not until you hear the rest," Evelyn said.
She gripped his arm.
"The ledger isn't complete."
Norah stared at her.
"What do you mean?"
"The thirty names are there, but the person who ordered the fire is listed separately. Your grandfather hid that name in the final verse of the melody."
Vincent looked at Norah.
"The final verse."
Norah remembered Carmine's words.
Find the missing ledger. Then play the final verse.
She examined the musical score again.
Thirty names appeared in the margins, each linked to a phrase. But one measure had been torn away.
"The missing page," she whispered.
Evelyn nodded.
"Your grandfather gave it to someone he believed would protect it."
"Who?"
"Your father's mother."
Vincent stared at her.
"My grandmother died twenty years ago."
"That's what Carmine told everyone."
Evelyn's voice grew weaker.
"She didn't die in Italy. She was moved to a convent outside Boston. She spent the rest of her life hiding from her own son."
Vincent looked as though he had been struck.
"My father hid his own mother?"
"He was afraid she'd reveal the truth."
Norah thought of the locket, the photographs, the secret messages hidden in music.
Everything had been passed from one frightened person to another, each believing silence was the only way to survive.
A burst of shouting came from the corridor.
Daniel's men had found them.
Vincent handed Norah his spare pistol.
"Can you use this?"
"No."
"Then don't touch the trigger unless someone is about to kill you."
He turned to his men.
"Get Evelyn out. Take Norah to the cars."
"What about you?" Norah demanded.
"I'm going to finish this."
She grabbed his sleeve.
"Don't become him."
Vincent looked at her.
For a moment, the hard mask fell away.
"I'm trying not to."
Then he disappeared into the corridor.
Norah and Evelyn reached the parking lot with two guards. Rain fell in thin, cold sheets.
A black SUV waited beside the gate.
Before they could reach it, a man stepped from behind the vehicle.
Daniel.
He had circled around the building.
The guard raised his weapon.
Daniel fired first.
The guard fell.
Norah pulled Evelyn behind the SUV as bullets shattered the windows.
Daniel advanced slowly.
"Give me the ledger."
"No."
"Your mother made the same mistake."
Norah stood.
"She wasn't afraid of you."
"She should have been."
He pointed his gun at Evelyn.
"Last chance."
Evelyn shook her head.
"You're not getting it."
Daniel's finger tightened around the trigger.
A shot rang out from behind him.
Vincent stood at the gate, his weapon raised.
Daniel staggered.
His gun slipped from his hand.
Vincent approached, breathing hard.
"Put your hands behind your back."
Daniel laughed through clenched teeth.
"You think killing me will fix anything?"
"No."
Vincent kicked the gun away.
"But it will stop you from hurting anyone else."
Daniel was taken into custody by officers who had arrived after Vincent's attorney contacted federal investigators. The ledger, photographs, and recorded confession were secured as evidence.
For the first time in twenty years, the Marino empire had begun to crack.
But the victory was not clean.
Carmine died shortly before dawn.
Vincent reached the estate too late to say goodbye.
Norah stood beside him in the silent living room, where the Steinway remained untouched.
"He confessed everything," she said.
"He still died a rich man."
"Money can't make him innocent."
Vincent looked toward the ocean.
"No. But the truth might keep his victims from being forgotten."
Evelyn survived surgery and was moved to a private hospital under federal protection.
Norah visited her every day.
Their reunion was awkward, painful, and full of questions that had no easy answers. But for the first time in eight years, Norah could hear her mother's voice without wondering whether it was a memory.
Three weeks later, the convent outside Boston was located.
The nuns confirmed that Carmine's mother had lived there under an assumed name.
She had died peacefully twelve years earlier.
Her room contained a single wooden piano.
Inside its bench was a sealed envelope.
The letter was addressed to Vincent.
He opened it in the estate's living room, with Norah standing beside him.
The first line made his hands tremble.
My son, if you are reading this, then the man who raised you has finally told the truth—or has died before he could.
Beneath it was a confession.
Carmine had not ordered the warehouse fire alone.
Someone else had given him the information that led him to believe the thirty men were preparing to betray him.
Someone had manipulated both Carmine and Daniel.
Someone who had benefited from the deaths, the missing money, and the destruction of Evelyn's family.
The letter ended with a name.
Vincent read it once.
Then again.
Norah watched the color drain from his face.
"Who is it?"
Vincent folded the letter.
"I need to check something."
"What?"
He looked at her.
May you like
"The thirty-first name."
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