Chapter 5 - What Pike KnewDaniel Pike had been hiding in a motel in New Jersey.
He surrendered after seeing news reports about the birthday incident.
Maya interviewed him at a Manhattan precinct.
Dominic watched through glass with his attorney beside him.
Pike looked exhausted.
Maya placed a photograph of Ethan on the table.
“Why did you run?”
Pike stared.
“I thought they’d kill me.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Try again.”
He rubbed both hands over his face.
“Two weeks ago Frank told me Mr. Vincent might have a contractor coming through during the party.”
Maya glanced toward the observation glass.
Frank stiffened.
Pike continued.
“Yesterday morning, I got a text with a photo of a man and instructions to let him through the east service door.”
“From whom?”
“Number wasn’t saved.”
“Why obey?”
“The message included an authorization code.”
“Whose?”
Pike swallowed.
“Legacy office.”
Vincent.
“What happened at 3:06?”
“I opened the door.”
“Who entered?”
Pike described a man in his forties wearing a maintenance jacket.
He carried a toolbox.
No raven pin.
“Arthur Bell?”
“That’s the name he gave.”
“What happened then?”
“He told me the camera room alarm was showing a fault.”
“You followed him?”
“Yes.”
Inside the camera room, Pike smelled something chemical.
Then memory vanished.
He woke on the floor.
Reynolds was unconscious beside him.
His badge was gone.
He panicked.
“Why not call police?”
Pike looked toward the glass.
“Because I work for Dominic Moretti.”
Dominic’s face tightened.
Maya asked, “Meaning?”
“If the boss’s kid gets poisoned while I’m guarding the door, nobody waits for a jury.”
Dominic looked away.
He hated that Pike believed it.
He hated more that Pike had reason.
Maya continued.
“Did Frank know?”
“Not about the camera room.”
“Did he know you were letting Bell in?”
“He knew there was supposed to be an inspector.”
Frank closed his eyes.
After the interview Dominic confronted him privately.
“You told Pike.”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t tell me.”
“No.”
“Why?”
Frank’s voice broke.
“Because Vincent called me.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It used to be.”
Dominic stared.
Frank continued.
“When your father was alive, Vincent could move men anywhere. Nobody questioned him.”
“My father has been dead twelve years.”
“I know.”
“Apparently not.”
Frank looked ashamed.
Dominic wanted to fire him.
Part of him wanted worse.
But anger had already nearly become someone else’s weapon.
“Go home.”
Frank blinked.
“Boss—”
“You’re suspended.”
“For how long?”
“Until I know whether I can ever trust you again.”
Frank nodded.
At the door he stopped.
“I would never hurt Ethan.”
Dominic looked at him.
“I believe you.”
Frank seemed relieved.
Then Dominic added, “That’s what makes this failure worse.”
Outside the precinct Sophia waited with Lily.
Dominic had asked her not to come.
She ignored him.
“I need to understand why my daughter was chosen.”
Maya joined them.
“We’re working on it.”
Sophia looked at Dominic.
“And I need to understand what this transition plan is.”
Dominic’s expression tightened.
“That has nothing to do with Lily.”
“It has everything to do with her if someone photographed her because of your family’s money.”
Dominic’s attorney stepped away.
Maya pretended to check messages.
Dominic said, “I’m trying to move my legitimate businesses away from everything my father built.”
“Why now?”
He looked toward Ethan through the precinct window.
“Because he turned eight.”
Sophia frowned.
“Elena and I agreed when Ethan was born that by eight, I’d be out.”
“Out of what?”
Dominic’s silence answered.
Sophia shook her head.
“You promised your wife.”
“Yes.”
“And waited until after she died.”
“I started before.”
“Not enough.”
His jaw tightened.
“You think I don’t know that?”
Sophia softened slightly.
Dominic continued.
“Elena hated what the Moretti name meant. She loved me anyway. I mistook that for acceptance.”
Sophia understood that kind of grief.
Marcus had also promised things he never lived long enough to finish.
But Dominic was alive.
That changed the moral equation.
“What happens if you complete the transition?”
“Vincent loses influence over the legitimate companies. Older structures disappear. Ethan eventually inherits clean assets.”
“And if you don’t?”
“The same men keep needing the same world.”
Sophia looked at Lily.
“So someone used my daughter to keep your old world alive.”
“Yes.”
It was the first time Dominic said it without qualification.
Maya approached.
“We found Arthur Bell.”
Dominic’s attention snapped to her.
“Where?”
“His real name is Raymond Bell.”
“Relation to D’Amato?”
“None we know of.”
That surprised everyone.
“He used to work private security.”
“For whom?”
“Several companies.”
Maya handed Dominic a photograph.
Raymond Bell had a scar across his right wrist.
Lily had mentioned no scar.
But on his lapel, in an older employment photograph, was a silver raven.
“He worked Moretti security eight years ago,” Maya said.
“Under Frank?”
“No.”
Dominic knew before she continued.
“Under Vincent.”
Maya nodded.
“Bell disappeared from New York six years ago after an internal theft investigation.”
Dominic remembered.
Twenty thousand dollars missing from a warehouse cash office.
Vincent claimed Bell stole it.
Bell vanished before Dominic could question him.
Sophia asked, “Where is he now?”
“We don’t know.”
Maya brought up financial records.
“But someone paid him.”
Three transfers totaling ninety thousand dollars had reached a company connected to Bell.
The sender was another shell corporation.
Its bank records led to Moretti Development Services.
A legitimate subsidiary.
Dominic’s company.
His face hardened.
“Who authorized it?”
Maya turned the page.
“Corporate finance.”
Dominic frowned.
“That could be twenty people.”
“Not this amount.”
A digital approval appeared beneath the transaction.
V. MORETTI.
Sophia whispered, “Vincent.”
Dominic stared at the signature.
Maya cautioned, “Could be forged.”
“Yes.”
“You sound disappointed.”
“I want it to be forged.”
“Why?”
Dominic looked at her.
“Because if Vincent did this, the man who taught me loyalty used my son to teach me fear.”
His phone rang.
Unknown number.
Dominic answered.
A distorted male voice said, “Cancel the restructuring vote.”
Dominic’s grip tightened.
“Who is this?”
“Keep the old agreements.”
“Or?”
A pause.
“Next time the little girl won’t see it.”
The line disconnected.
Sophia had heard enough.
Her face went white.
Dominic looked at her.
She took Lily’s hand.
“No.”
He frowned.
“No what?”
“You don’t get to promise me this is handled.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
“You don’t get to lock us in your house.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
“You don’t get to decide whether Lily becomes collateral for your family.”
Dominic swallowed.
Sophia moved closer.
“You want to protect Ethan?”
“Yes.”
“Then stop acting like the most dangerous man in the room.”
His eyes narrowed.
“What should I act like?”
“A father.”
She turned away.
Dominic watched her leave.
For the first time since the plate shattered, he understood something more frightening than the possibility of betrayal.
He could find Raymond Bell.
He could expose Vincent.
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He could dismantle the entire conspiracy.
And still fail Ethan if his only answer to danger was to become more dangerous.
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