Chapter 13 - The Cathedral
Samuel Reeves died at 4:19 in the afternoon.
The explosion destroyed three floors of his office building.
Caldwell called it a gas leak before the fire department completed its first inspection.
Enzo called it a message.
Adeline called it what it was.
“Murder.”
They had less than twenty-four hours before the Drake dinner.
For the first time since the ordeal began, Enzo considered sending Adeline away.
He approached her in the library that evening.
“There is a safe house in Wisconsin.”
“No.”
“You didn’t let me finish.”
“I know what a safe house is.”
“Then you understand.”
“I also understand Caldwell murdered my father.”
“He murdered my parents.”
“And?”
“And I can’t guarantee your safety.”
Adeline looked at him for a long moment.
“Could you guarantee Camilla’s?”
“No.”
“Charles’s?”
“No.”
“Samuel’s?”
Enzo’s jaw tightened.
“No.”
“Then stop pretending distance is safety.”
She stepped closer.
“He found me after eighteen years.”
“He found Samuel.”
“He found your mother.”
“If I run, I become easier to isolate.”
Enzo knew she was right.
He hated it.
“Then you stay beside me.”
Adeline almost smiled.
“That sounded like an order.”
“It was.”
“I don’t work for you anymore.”
“You still haven’t been fired.”
“I lied on my application.”
“I have had worse employees.”
The tension broke for half a second.
Then Camilla entered.
She looked different.
No silk.
No diamonds.
No perfect hair.
She wore borrowed black pants and a plain sweater.
“Charles is awake.”
Enzo turned.
“What did he say?”
“He wants to help.”
Adeline’s face hardened.
Camilla noticed.
“He knows he doesn’t deserve forgiveness.”
“That is not the same as helping.”
“No.”
Camilla nodded.
“But he has access codes.”
“To what?”
“The Drake private security system.”
Enzo stared at her.
Camilla continued.
“Judge Pierce uses my father’s political security contractor.”
“Charles can disable the fourteenth-floor cameras for seven minutes.”
Marco entered behind her.
“Seven minutes is enough to get inside.”
“Not enough to search a suite.”
Adeline spoke.
“We don’t search.”
They looked at her.
“We make Caldwell move the ledger.”
Enzo understood.
“We frighten him.”
“Yes.”
“Make him believe the dinner is compromised.”
“He takes the Cathedral somewhere safer.”
“And we follow it.”
Marco nodded.
“That could work.”
Camilla asked, “How do we frighten him?”
Adeline looked at the old cassette tape.
“We let a dead man speak.”
The next evening, Caldwell arrived at the Drake at 7:43.
Vittorio arrived separately.
Judge Pierce came ten minutes later.
Three hospital executives entered through a private garage.
At 8:16, dinner began.
At 8:31, every television inside suite 1408 turned on.
Thomas Vale’s voice filled the room.
Date, April 14, 2008.
Bellweather Hotel.
Room 417.
Meeting requested by Lorenzo Marchetti.
Caldwell rose so quickly his chair fell backward.
Vittorio stared at the television.
Judge Pierce began shouting.
Security rushed toward the hallway.
That was the moment Enzo needed.
Marco watched from a surveillance van.
“He’s moving.”
Caldwell left the suite carrying a leather briefcase.
The Cathedral.
Enzo followed from another floor.
Caldwell entered a private elevator.
Vittorio followed.
They went down.
Not to the lobby.
To the basement.
Enzo and Adeline used the service stairs.
Camilla remained in the surveillance van.
At basement level, Caldwell crossed into a restricted parking area.
A black sedan waited.
He placed the briefcase inside.
Vittorio stopped him.
“We should destroy it.”
Caldwell looked at him.
“Never destroy leverage.”
“It has become liability.”
“It is the reason governors answer my phone calls.”
Vittorio grabbed Caldwell’s arm.
“Enzo knows too much.”
Caldwell smiled.
“Then Enzo will die.”
Adeline recorded every word from behind a concrete column.
Vittorio lowered his voice.
“And the girl?”
Caldwell looked almost bored.
“Like her father.”
Enzo’s hand tightened.
Adeline touched his arm.
Wait.
Caldwell continued.
“Tomorrow night.”
“Make it look like Marchetti killed her after discovering she was an informant.”
Vittorio nodded.
“And Camilla?”
“Unfortunate overdose.”
“And Charles?”
“Complications from surgery.”
Adeline’s face went pale.
Four deaths.
Already planned.
Caldwell opened the car door.
Then froze.
A voice behind him said, “That is enough.”
Floodlights switched on.
Federal agents emerged from both ends of the garage.
Caldwell stared.
Enzo stepped from behind the column.
Adeline beside him.
For the first time in decades, Dr. Henry Caldwell looked surprised.
Then he smiled.
“You think this ends because you recorded one conversation?”
Enzo looked toward the sedan.
An agent removed the leather briefcase.
“No.”
May you like
Caldwell’s smile faded.
“I think it begins when they open that.”
