Chapter 6 - WHAT CLARA KNEW
Emily had believed there were limits to how strange a Friday morning could become.
At 6:03 a.m., standing in front of an empty coffin belonging to a dead Mafia patriarch, she revised that belief.
Dante did not speak.
The open crypt seemed to pull every bit of oxygen from the mausoleum.
Vincent arrived behind them with Gabriel and six security men.
Vincent stopped dead.
“Jesus.”
Gabriel crossed himself.
Emily stared at the coffin.
“No.”
Everyone looked at her.
“No what?” Vincent asked.
“We are not doing this.”
Dante turned.
Emily pointed at the empty coffin.
“Your father is not alive.”
No one answered.
“He had a stroke.”
“Yes,” Dante said.
“There was a funeral?”
“Yes.”
“Open casket?”
Dante hesitated.
Vincent answered.
“Briefly.”
Emily folded her arms.
“Then this is grave robbery, not resurrection.”
Gabriel looked mildly disappointed.
Emily glared at him.
“That is the only explanation I will accept until scientifically disproven.”
Dante walked toward the coffin.
Something lay inside.
A small black flash drive.
He picked it up.
A handwritten label was attached.
FOR DANTE.
Emily frowned.
“That looks recent.”
“It is.”
Dante turned the drive over.
Another line was written on the back.
ASK WHO CLOSED THE COFFIN.
Everyone looked at Vincent.
He went pale.
Dante’s voice became quiet.
“Who?”
Vincent answered slowly.
“I did.”
The mausoleum became very still.
“Why?”
“Your mother couldn’t.”
“My mother was dead.”
“I mean Clara.”
Dante stared.
Vincent corrected himself.
“Clara couldn’t stay. You had collapsed outside after the service. I handled the burial.”
“Did you verify the body before closing the coffin?”
“Yes.”
“You’re sure?”
Vincent looked toward the crypt.
“I thought I was.”
Emily took the flash drive.
“Let’s inspect this somewhere with Wi-Fi, coffee, and fewer dead people.”
They returned to Marino Tower.
By 7:15, Emily had isolated the flash drive on a disconnected laptop.
One video file.
One text document.
One image.
The video began with Michael Baresi.
He appeared exhausted.
The footage had been recorded inside an office Emily did not recognize.
“If you are seeing this,” Michael said, “then the situation has moved beyond containment.”
Dante stood behind Emily.
Vincent sat nearby.
Michael looked into the camera.
“I ordered the purchase of explosives in 2017.”
Dante’s hand tightened around the chair.
Emily looked back at him.
He did not move.
Michael continued.
“I did not order Clara Marino’s death.”
Dante’s eyes hardened.
“I purchased the explosives under instructions from Giuseppe Marino.”
No one breathed.
Emily paused the video.
Dante whispered, “Impossible.”
Vincent looked stunned.
Gabriel leaned forward.
Emily resumed.
“Giuseppe did not die when the family was told he died.”
Dante stepped backward.
The room tilted.
Emily stopped the video again.
“Sit.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re white.”
“I said I’m fine.”
Emily pointed to a chair.
“Sit down before I add fainting billionaire to my workload.”
Dante stared at her.
Then sat.
The video continued.
Michael explained that Giuseppe Marino’s stroke had been real but not fatal.
For months before it happened, Giuseppe had been planning to disappear.
He believed several federal investigations were closing around the family.
He also knew that his attempt to legitimize the organization had created enemies inside it.
The fake death allowed him to operate unseen.
Vincent stood.
“No.”
Michael continued.
“Only three people knew Giuseppe survived.”
The screen changed.
Names appeared.
Michael Baresi.
Dr. Samuel Levin.
Clara Marino.
Dante closed his eyes.
His wife had known.
Michael said, “Clara helped Giuseppe because she believed removing him from the organization would give Dante a chance to change.”
Dante whispered, “She lied to me.”
Emily heard the pain beneath the anger.
Vincent said, “She protected you.”
Dante looked at him sharply.
“Don’t.”
Michael continued.
“Giuseppe learned that an internal faction planned to kill Dante during a November business dinner. He ordered me to purchase explosive material so we could trace the buyer network.”
Gabriel cursed quietly.
“They were bait.”
“Yes,” Emily whispered.
The transaction had been a trap.
But someone hijacked the explosives.
Michael’s voice became strained.
“Three days before the attack, I discovered the material was missing.”
The room remained silent.
“I warned Clara.”
Dante looked toward the screen.
“She tried to get Dante out of Chicago.”
Emily remembered the bombing location.
A restaurant.
“Why was Clara there?”
Michael seemed to answer her from nine years earlier.
“Because Clara arranged a private meeting with the person she believed responsible.”
Dante stood.
“Who?”
The video continued.
“I never learned the name.”
Dante slammed one hand against the table.
Emily flinched.
He immediately looked at her.
Regret.
The old Dante would not have noticed.
This Dante did.
Michael continued.
“The bomb detonated before Clara entered the restaurant.”
Dante frowned.
“What?”
Emily rewound.
The car bomb had always been described as exploding when Clara left dinner.
Michael said it detonated before she entered.
Emily opened the image file.
A parking-garage photograph.
Timestamp: 7:11 p.m.
Clara stood beside Dante’s vehicle.
Timestamp records from the official investigation listed the explosion at 7:19.
But Clara was supposed to have been inside the restaurant from 6:30.
Emily whispered, “The timeline was altered.”
Vincent looked at her.
“Why?”
“To hide who she met.”
The text document contained traffic-camera logs.
A black sedan entered the area at 7:05.
Registered owner—
Vincent Rizzo.
All eyes turned toward him.
Vincent stood slowly.
“I wasn’t there.”
Dante’s face hardened.
“Your car was.”
“Someone used it.”
“Who had access?”
Vincent thought.
“My driver.”
“Name?”
“Leo March.”
Dante’s expression shifted.
Leo March had disappeared the night after Clara’s death.
Everyone had assumed he fled because of debts.
Emily searched old personnel records.
Leo March.
Driver.
Security clearance.
Emergency contact.
Brother: Anthony March.
Employment sponsor—
Michael Baresi.
Emily leaned back.
“What if Michael didn’t disappear from the garage?”
Dante looked at her.
“What?”
“What if he left with someone he trusted?”
Vincent understood.
“Anthony.”
Emily searched.
Anthony March had worked for Marino Corporation for nineteen years.
Current position—
Director of Facilities and Building Systems.
Emily stared.
The man responsible for badge access.
Cameras.
Service elevators.
Emergency alarms.
The exact systems manipulated the previous night.
“Where is Anthony now?” Dante asked.
Emily searched live security.
His badge had entered the building at 5:41 a.m.
He had not left.
“He’s here.”
Dante’s security chief reached for his radio.
Emily’s monitor went black.
Then every light on the forty-second floor turned off.
Emergency shutters descended over the windows.
The doors locked.
The HVAC system stopped.
A calm male voice came over the intercom.
“Good morning, Mr. Marino.”
Dante looked toward the ceiling.
Emily recognized the voice.
Anthony March.
“I apologize for the inconvenience.”
Dante drew his weapon.
Anthony continued.
“But you have something that belongs to my family.”
Emily whispered, “The ledger.”
“Yes, Ms. Davies.”
She froze.
Anthony could hear them.
Cameras.
Microphones.
He continued.
“My brother died because Clara Marino asked too many questions.”
Dante looked toward the nearest camera.
“Your brother planted the bomb.”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Anthony laughed softly.
“You still think this story has only one traitor.”
The locked conference-room screen flickered to life.
A live camera feed appeared.
Owen.
Again.
Emily’s heart stopped.
He was standing inside Havenbrook.
Safe.
Beside a nurse.
Then the camera changed.
The exterior of Havenbrook appeared.
A dark vehicle was parked across the street.
Anthony spoke.
“Give me Clara’s ledger.”
Dante’s face became lethal.
“Or?”
The camera zoomed toward the residential center.
Emily stepped forward.
“No.”
Anthony continued.
“You have ten minutes.”
“Anthony.”
Emily’s voice was steady.
“You hurt my brother and I will personally reorganize every expense report you have submitted since 2007 until the IRS thinks you’re financing a small nation.”
Silence.
Vincent stared at her.
Dante’s eyes closed briefly.
Anthony said, “Is that supposed to frighten me?”
“No.”
Emily looked toward Dante.
“But he should.”
Dante opened his eyes.
For the first time in nine years, he was not standing in grief alone.
He had Vincent.
Gabriel.
Even Victor Novak downstairs.
And Emily.
The woman who had somehow turned kidnapping, extortion, and death threats into administrative inconveniences.
Dante looked at the locked doors.
“Anthony made one mistake.”
Emily asked, “Which one?”
“He locked himself in the building with us.”
A slow smile appeared on Dante Marino’s face.
Emily stared.
It was not the smile of the empty man everyone feared.
It belonged to someone who had finally remembered he could fight for the living instead of avenging the dead.
May you like
“Let’s go find him.”
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