Chapter 6 - Four People in a Locked Room)
Vincent drew his gun first.
He pointed it at Maria.
Maria shoved Sofia behind Daniel and raised her own weapon. Mrs. Bell screamed from the doorway. Daniel stepped between both guns, his voice low enough to command the room.
"Put them down."
"The message appeared after she opened the drive," Vincent said.
"And the camera was installed before she entered this house," Daniel replied.
"You do not know that."
"I know you are aiming a loaded gun past my niece. Lower it."
Vincent obeyed slowly. Maria did not.
Daniel looked at her. "If you intend to prove you are different from my family, begin now."
She lowered the pistol.
Daniel carried Sofia into the corridor and placed her in Mrs. Bell's arms. "Take her to the east nursery. Stay there until I come."
"The bad computer said someone will hurt you," Sofia whispered.
"Computers lie."
"People lie more."
It sounded like something Maria had taught her. Daniel touched the pink bow at the top of her head. "Then I will be careful with both."
When the child was gone, he fired one round into the hidden camera. Sparks rained down. The live image disappeared, but the message remained.
Vincent searched the ceiling cavity. The transmitter had no serial number and used a private frequency routed through seventeen servers. It could have been planted years earlier or that morning.
"The warning says one of four people," Maria said. "Mrs. Bell was in the doorway. Why wasn't she counted?"
"Because whoever wrote it wanted us looking at one another," Daniel replied.
"Or because whoever wrote it does not consider Sofia a person," Vincent said. "To them, she is an asset."
Daniel opened the files on the drive. Most were encrypted, but the accessible folders contained shipping manifests linked to Crowne Meridian, an import company with offices in Cyprus and Delaware. Moretti trucks had transported the containers. Moretti officials had signed the customs exemptions. The profits had moved through charities, hospitals, and construction projects before returning to accounts labeled with birds.
Daniel had permitted gambling, extortion, stolen goods, and weapons. He had drawn a hard line against narcotics and human trafficking because his mother had once told him that power revealed itself most honestly in what a man refused to sell.
Someone had crossed that line using his name.
"How much did you know?" Maria asked.
"Nothing."
"That is impossible."
"Careful," Vincent warned.
She faced Daniel. "These are your routes. Your guards. Your signatures. If you knew, then you are a monster. If you did not, then you are not the boss everyone thinks you are. Which truth do you prefer?"
Daniel's anger rose, hot and familiar. He let it pass without speaking.
"The second," he said at last. "Because the second can be corrected."
Vincent stared at him, perhaps more startled by the answer than Maria was.
They worked until morning. The ledger identified three active shipments by code, each leaving from a different location within forty-eight hours. Daniel decided to turn the leak into a test.
He told Vincent the drive named Pier Eight.
He told council captain Leo Mancini it named a warehouse in Red Hook.
He told his attorney, Julian Cross, it named a rail yard in New Jersey.
To Maria, he said nothing.
"You still suspect me," she said when they were alone.
"I suspect everyone. It is how I reached forty."
"It is also how you reached forty alone."
He glanced toward the nursery door. "Not entirely alone, apparently."
Sofia spent that afternoon in his study while Maria slept. She built a fortress out of Daniel's law books, placed Mr. Buttons on the highest tower, and declared the wooden rabbit king.
"A king needs guards," Daniel said.
"No. He needs friends. Guards leave when the money is gone."
Daniel stared at her. "Who told you that?"
"Mommy."
"Your mother has an opinion on everything."
"She says that's because men make too many rules."
Daniel laughed. The sound surprised both of them.
Sofia climbed into the chair opposite his desk and drew a family with purple crayon. There were three people: Maria in gray, Sofia in pink, and Daniel much larger than both, with green arms because she could not find black.
"Why am I in the picture?"
"Because you're at the table now."
He looked at the drawing longer than he intended.
At dusk, the first report arrived. Armed men had raided Pier Eight. They found an empty container and two undercover Moretti guards waiting for them. One attacker escaped. The others carried Crow's Crown tattoos burned into the skin beneath their wrists.
Vincent's false location had leaked.
Daniel called him to the study.
Vincent listened without interruption. "You told me Pier Eight because you wanted to test me."
"Yes."
"And now you think I sent them."
"Did you?"
"No."
"Who heard you repeat the location?"
Vincent's jaw tightened. "No one."
Sofia entered before Mrs. Bell could stop her. She carried a cup of coffee in both hands, moving carefully.
"For Mr. Vincent," she said. "You look tired."
Vincent accepted it. His severe face softened. "Thank you, little one."
Sofia sniffed, then looked confused.
May you like
"You smell like the sleepy man."
The coffee slipped from Vincent's hand and shattered across the floor.
