Chapter 38
Vittorio’s expression flickered.
“He was a coward,” he said.
“He was careful,” Allesia said. “There’s a difference.”
Dante moved to stand beside her.
Vittorio looked from one to the other.
“So this is it,” he said. “The two of you, in a graveyard, in the rain, holding a book.” He shook his head. “You have no idea what you’re doing. You have no idea who I am in this city. You could walk into a police station with that ledger this afternoon and by tonight it would be ash and you would be under investigation for fraud.”
“I’m not going to the police,” Allesia said.
Vittorio blinked.
“You’re not.”
“No.” She opened the satchel and took out the ledger and held it up. “I’m going to read it. Here. Out loud. On the record.”
Vittorio looked past her — and for the first time, he saw them: two cars parked on the gravel at the top of the drive, and beside them, in the gray rain, three people with cameras and one with a recorder, standing very still, watching.
“Who are they?” he said.
“Journalists,” Dante said. “Two from the Trib. One from the Reader. One from a wire service. I invited them last night.” He put his hands in his pockets. “You said I’d burn it before I’d read it in public. You were wrong.”
Vittorio’s face went through something — disbelief, then calculation, then, at the very end, a kind of grim appreciation.
“You planned this,” he said.
“I learned from you,” Dante said.
Vittorio looked at the reporters. Then at the ledger in Allesia’s hands. Then at the grave at his feet.
“You’ll destroy the company,” he said.
“Maybe.”
“Your mother’s company.”
“My mother’s name,” Dante said. “The company was always yours and my father’s. She just kept the books.”
Vittorio was quiet for a long moment.
Then he did something Dante had not expected.
He laughed. A real laugh, tired and old and almost warm, the laugh of a man who has been holding a door shut for fourteen years and has just felt the lock give.
“Well,” he said. “There it is.”
He reached into his coat.
Dante moved — one step, hand going to his jacket — but Vittorio only took out a small leather case and opened it and took out a cigar, and put it in his mouth, and patted his pockets for a lighter that he did not have.