Chapter 4 - The Warning Hidden in Plain Sight|
Dominic returned to the hospital that afternoon with a decision already made.
Nobody was going to disappear.
Nobody was going to be beaten for answers.
And nobody was going to turn Fiona's suffering into another excuse for violence.
He knew his men would find the order strange.
For years, the Russo organization had survived by making enemies fear the consequences of crossing it.
But Dominic was beginning to understand that fear had created more problems than it had ever solved.
Graham Pike waited beside the elevators.
At forty-six, Graham had the weathered face of a man who rarely smiled and the disciplined posture of someone who had spent years overseeing Dominic's security.
He had worked for the Russo family long enough to know where nearly every secret was buried.
Dominic had trusted him with his life.
"Give me the phone records," Dominic said.
Graham glanced toward the passing nurses.
"Here?"
"Now."
Graham handed him a tablet displaying a short call history.
A number connected to a Russo-owned transportation subsidiary had placed a forty-three-second call to Fiona's phone shortly before the collision.
"Who had access to it?" Dominic asked.
"Several employees."
"Names."
"I'll get them."
Dominic looked up.
"You said the same thing about the surveillance reports five years ago."
Graham's face remained expressionless.
"That was different."
"Was it?"
"Your instructions were clear back then."
"One month of protection, followed by withdrawal if there were no threats."
Dominic studied him.
"And you followed those instructions exactly?"
"Of course."
Something in the quickness of the answer bothered Dominic.
But before he could press further, his phone rang.
It was Elena.
"Your cousin is awake," she said.
Dominic turned immediately.
"Vincent?"
"The nurse said he's asking for you."
Vincent Russo occupied a private recovery room on the surgical floor.
He was Dominic's younger cousin by three years, though the two had grown up more like brothers.
Vincent had been the only member of the Russo family who sometimes questioned Dominic's decisions without worrying about the consequences.
Now he lay beneath hospital sheets, his skin gray with exhaustion.
A drainage tube disappeared beneath his gown.
The heart monitor beside him produced a steady electronic rhythm.
Dominic approached the bed.
"You're supposed to be sleeping."
Vincent managed a weak smile.
"Never been good at following orders."
"That's why you keep getting into trouble."
Vincent's smile faded.
"Fiona."
Dominic went still.
"What about her?"
"Is she alive?"
"Yes."
Vincent closed his eyes in relief.
"Thank God."
Dominic pulled a chair closer.
"You knew she was in Chicago."
Vincent nodded.
"She called me three weeks ago."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because she asked me not to."
Dominic looked away.
"She had every reason."
Vincent swallowed painfully.
"She was investigating medical supply contracts."
"Clinics getting billed for equipment they never received."
"Grant money disappearing into companies that barely existed."
Dominic listened without interrupting.
"One of those companies used our freight network," Vincent continued.
"And the invoices were approved by people inside our own organization."
"Which people?"
Vincent looked toward the door.
"Check invoice 4118."
Dominic frowned.
"What's special about that one?"
"It's the one they couldn't explain."
Vincent struggled to breathe comfortably and paused until a nurse checked his oxygen reading.
When she stepped away, he continued in a lower voice.
"The paperwork says we transported hospital equipment worth almost two million dollars."
"But there was never a shipment."
Dominic felt a familiar knot forming in his stomach.
"Who approved the invoice?"
"I don't know who entered it."
"Vincent."
His cousin met his eyes.
"Your electronic authorization was attached to it."
For several seconds, Dominic said nothing.
He remembered signing stacks of contracts and compliance certificates presented by his administrative staff.
He remembered ignoring unusual discrepancies because the shipments were supposed to be legitimate.
He remembered telling Vincent that paperwork was less important than keeping the company's larger operations stable.
Now he wondered how much criminal activity had been hidden beneath that convenient excuse.
"Why did you meet the Morettis last night?" he asked.
Vincent's expression darkened.
"I thought Lorenzo would agree to stop the fraud if he knew we had evidence."
"You went without telling me?"
"I told you we needed to look at the accounts."
Dominic remembered the conversation.
He had dismissed Vincent's concerns as ordinary bookkeeping confusion.
"Then Lorenzo invited you to negotiate," Dominic said.
Vincent nodded.
"And somebody knew exactly what you were bringing."
A long silence followed.
"Dom," Vincent whispered.
"What?"
"Stop looking only at Moretti."
Dominic leaned closer.
"Explain."
Vincent caught his sleeve with a trembling hand.
"Someone inside our own company has been helping him."
Before Dominic could ask another question, Vincent's eyes closed.
The nurse returned and told Dominic his cousin had reached his limit for conversation.
Dominic stepped into the hallway.
For years, he had treated betrayal as something that came from rival families.
He had built walls, hired guards, and surrounded himself with men who promised loyalty.
But if Vincent was right, someone had been using those very walls to conceal a criminal operation.
And Fiona had uncovered it.
Dominic called his attorney, Tessa Vale, a former federal prosecutor who now handled his company's legitimate legal affairs.
"I need an independent review of every medical freight contract we've signed in the past six years," he told her.
"What's going on?"
"Something I should have looked at a long time ago."
He explained what Vincent had said.
Tessa listened in silence.
When he finished, she spoke carefully.
"Dominic, don't alter a single document."
"Preserve the records, and don't confront anyone who might destroy evidence."
"Understood."
"And if these transactions involve public money, the federal authorities may already be investigating."
Dominic looked through the observation window into Fiona's room.
"Then they'll get whatever records they're legally entitled to."
Tessa paused.
"Even if those records implicate you?"
Dominic did not hesitate.
"Even then."
That evening, Tessa sent a preliminary report from the company's access logs.
Invoice 4118 had been modified three times after Dominic's authorization was recorded.
Each modification came from an administrative account with unusually broad permissions.
The account belonged to Graham Pike.
But that wasn't the most disturbing discovery.
The same account had accessed Fiona Ellis's Detroit address eighteen times during the previous two years.
Dominic stared at the screen.
Five years ago, he had ordered the surveillance withdrawn because he believed Fiona was finally beyond his enemies' reach.
May you like
Someone had continued tracking her anyway.
And that someone had been sitting beside Dominic's hospital elevator only a few hours earlier, calmly assuring him that every order had been followed.
