Chapter 12 - The Night The House Went Quiet.
Dante answered Rosa on the first ring.
"Where are you?"
Claire could hear Rosa's voice faintly through the phone.
"In the garage."
"Matteo?"
"With me."
Dante closed his eyes for half a second.
Claire had never seen relief look painful before.
"Do not go back upstairs."
"I wasn't planning to."
Rosa sounded offended by the suggestion.
Even then, Claire almost smiled.
Dante turned toward Ruiz.
"Carlo knows the River North apartment."
"Then we assume he knows the backup routes too," Ruiz said.
"My sister's house."
"No."
Claire spoke before Dante could.
"Too obvious."
Dante looked at her.
"Where?"
Claire thought of the one place in her life nobody connected to Dante Moretti.
"Sophie's."
Dante's expression sharpened.
"Your coworker?"
"No."
Claire corrected herself.
"Not her apartment."
She remembered Sophie's mother owned a small two-flat in Oak Park and was currently visiting family in Florida.
Sophie had complained that she had to water the plants twice a week.
"An empty family property."
"Does anyone know you have access?"
"Sophie."
"Anyone else?"
"Nobody involved in this."
Dante hesitated.
Ruiz nodded.
"Civilian location is unconventional, but unpredictability helps."
Dante called Rosa.
Within minutes, they rerouted Matteo through two vehicle changes.
Claire traveled separately with Ruiz.
Dante rode with Matteo.
That was not negotiable.
The Oak Park house was ordinary in the most beautiful way.
Brown brick.
Small porch.
Wind chimes beside the door.
A ceramic frog in the garden.
Claire had never been so relieved to see cheap patio furniture.
Sophie arrived ten minutes later carrying grocery bags and panic.
"Explain."
Claire hugged her carefully.
"Short version?"
"Yes."
"The restaurant accident wasn't an accident."
Sophie's face went blank.
"That's the short version?"
"The long version is worse."
Sophie looked at Dante getting out of the black SUV.
"Is that Dante Moretti?"
"Unfortunately, yes."
Dante heard her.
"I am standing right here."
Sophie stared at him.
"You really are."
Matteo climbed out behind him.
Sophie immediately stopped caring about Dante.
"Hi."
Matteo gave a shy wave.
"Hi."
"I have pizza."
Matteo looked at his father.
Dante nodded.
Sophie whispered to Claire, "He asks permission before pizza?"
"Different household."
For two hours, the small house held something almost normal.
Matteo ate pepperoni pizza at the kitchen table.
Sophie found an old board game in the closet.
Rosa inspected every window lock herself.
Ruiz coordinated officers from an unmarked car two streets away.
Dante stood near the back window and checked his phone every thirty seconds.
Claire eventually walked over.
"You're making everyone nervous."
"Good."
"That's not always a goal."
"Tonight it is."
"Matteo is watching you."
Dante's eyes moved toward his son.
The boy was pretending to focus on the board game.
He was absolutely watching his father.
Dante put the phone away.
"Better?"
"A little."
"You enjoy managing me."
"Someone has to."
Rosa called from the kitchen.
"I tried for years."
Claire smiled.
Dante looked betrayed.
The moment did not last.
Ruiz entered through the back door.
"We have movement."
Dante's face changed instantly.
"Where?"
"Carlo's residence is empty."
"Vehicles?"
"Gone."
"Phones?"
"Burners went dark."
Claire looked at Matteo.
He was no longer pretending not to listen.
Ruiz lowered her voice.
"Michael gave us a statement."
Dante's eyes hardened.
"Useful?"
"Very."
"Can it put Cross away?"
"It connects her to the fraudulent loans and the Aurelio's plan."
"Lucia?"
Ruiz hesitated.
"Not directly."
Dante looked away.
Claire saw disappointment turn into anger before he controlled it.
"What about Carlo?"
"Michael says Carlo funded Lakeshore through Moretti companies."
Dante went still.
"Which companies?"
Ruiz handed him a list.
He scanned it.
"These are legitimate businesses."
"Were."
Ruiz pointed at several transfers.
"Someone used internal authorization codes."
Dante read them again.
"Carlo had access."
"Anyone else?"
Dante thought.
"Lucia did."
Ruiz's eyebrows lifted.
"Could someone have been using her credentials after she died?"
Dante's face changed.
"Carlo handled the estate systems."
Claire understood.
"He kept using Lucia's identity."
Dante looked sick.
The same violation Michael had committed against Claire had been done to Lucia after her death.
Her name had become a tool.
Claire reached for Dante's hand without thinking.
He looked down at their fingers.
She almost pulled away.
He closed his hand around hers gently.
No one commented.
A sound came from the front porch.
One soft scrape.
Dante released Claire immediately.
Ruiz lifted a hand.
Everyone went silent.
Another scrape.
Then the porch light went out.
Sophie whispered, "That bulb is new."
Ruiz drew her radio closer.
"Unit three, front approach."
Static answered.
"Unit three?"
Nothing.
Dante moved toward Matteo.
"Rosa, basement."
Rosa grabbed Matteo's hand.
Claire remembered the basement layout.
Laundry room.
Old furnace.
A side cellar door leading into the backyard.
"Not the basement," Claire said.
Dante looked at her.
"Why?"
"Only one normal exit."
"Cellar door."
"Visible from the alley."
Claire pointed upstairs.
"Second-floor bathroom window opens onto the porch roof."
Sophie stared.
"How do you know that?"
"You locked yourself out at Christmas."
"Right."
Dante looked toward the stairs.
"Go."
This time nobody argued.
Rosa took Matteo upstairs with Sophie.
Claire followed.
Dante caught her wrist.
"You stay with them."
"Where are you going?"
"Downstairs."
"Dante."
"Claire."
His eyes held hers.
"This time, do what I ask."
She wanted to refuse on principle.
Then she looked at Matteo on the stairs.
"Fine."
Dante turned away.
Claire caught his sleeve.
"Don't be stupid either."
His mouth moved faintly.
"Carefully worded."
Then he was gone.
Upstairs, Sophie opened the bathroom window.
Cold night air swept inside.
The porch roof sat four feet below.
Rosa went first.
Then Matteo.
Claire helped him down carefully.
Her shoulder protested.
She ignored it.
Sophie climbed out after him.
Claire was halfway through the window when the entire house went dark.
Matteo froze on the roof.
"Claire."
"I'm here."
She lowered herself beside him.
Below, the street was quiet.
Too quiet.
A dark sedan rolled slowly around the corner with its headlights off.
Claire's stomach dropped.
"Back," she whispered.
Rosa saw it too.
They moved toward the far edge of the roof.
There was a narrow gap to the neighboring garage.
Too far for Matteo to jump safely.
Claire looked down.
A tree grew beside the porch.
One thick branch reached nearly level with the roof.
"Can you climb?" she whispered.
Matteo nodded.
"Soccer, not trees."
"Tonight you do trees."
A door opened below.
Claire guided Matteo onto the branch.
Rosa went behind him.
Sophie followed.
Claire stayed last.
A man stepped onto the porch beneath them.
Not Carlo.
One of the men from the printing plant.
He looked up.
Claire and the man saw each other at the same moment.
"There," he shouted.
Claire pushed Matteo forward.
"Go."
They moved through the tree into the neighboring yard.
Police lights appeared at the end of the block.
The man ran.
Claire dropped from the lowest branch, landing hard on the grass.
Pain flashed through her shoulder.
Matteo grabbed her hand.
"Are you okay?"
"Mostly."
He looked skeptical.
"You always say that."
Claire laughed despite herself.
Then Dante appeared through the side gate.
He saw Matteo first.
Then Claire.
Then the police running down the alley.
He crossed the yard and pulled his son against him.
Matteo held on tightly.
Dante looked over Matteo's head at Claire.
The expression in his eyes was not anger.
It was terror arriving late.
"You got him out."
Claire nodded.
"We all did."
Ruiz came through the gate seconds later.
"We caught one."
"Who?" Dante asked.
"Driver."
"Carlo?"
"No."
Ruiz looked at Claire.
"But he had this."
She held up a phone inside an evidence bag.
On the screen was a map.
A red dot marked their current location.
A second red dot moved east across Chicago.
Label: C.M.
Ruiz stared at the moving dot.
"This could be another decoy."
Claire nodded.
"Probably."
Dante looked at her.
"You used it voluntarily."
"I'm adapting."
Matteo, still holding Dante's hand, looked between them.
"What does probably mean?"
Dante answered without looking away from the map.
"It means we don't know yet."
Matteo frowned.
"Then why do adults say it like they do know?"
Claire laughed softly.
Ruiz shook her head.
"Smart kid."
Dante sighed.
"He has had a difficult week of influences."
The humor faded when the second dot stopped.
Aurelio's.
Claire stared at the map.
"If it's a decoy, why send us back to the beginning?"
Ruiz answered.
"Because beginnings contain evidence people forget to revisit."
Claire thought of the empty frame in the private dining room.
Marcus had hidden the drive there.
Carlo had helped create the financial system behind it.
Evelyn had used the restaurant as neutral ground.
Aurelio's was not simply where everything started.
It was where their secrets had physically crossed paths.
Dante handed Matteo to Rosa.
"You stay with Ruiz's officers."
Matteo looked at him.
"Are you coming back?"
Dante crouched until they were eye level.
"Yes."
No hesitation.
No protective lie.
Claire noticed.
Matteo did too.
"Okay."
Dante stood.
Claire looked at him.
"Now we go back to table seven."
May you like
Carlo's tracker was still active.
And he was heading directly toward Aurelio's.
