Chapter 3
The tunnel wasn't supposed to lead anywhere important.
That was what I had been told when we bought the museum.
The dinosaur gallery had been renovated for private family events.
Children crawled through foam excavation passages.
Behind the exhibits were maintenance spaces.
Nothing more.
Apparently someone had found something more.
I knelt beside Leo.
“What secret door?”
He pointed.
“Back there.”
Daniel stood.
A bodyguard put him back down.
“This is ridiculous.”
Leo looked at his father.
Daniel's face hardened.
“Stop lying.”
My grandson's shoulders dropped.
Claire immediately touched his hair.
“He's not lying.”
Daniel laughed.
“Of course you'd say that.”
He looked at her.
“You've made him as dramatic as you are.”
I walked toward the foam tunnel.
Preston spoke.
“Salvatore.”
I stopped.
First time all night he had used my first name.
“It's a maintenance crawlspace.”
I looked back.
“How do you know?”
Silence.
Preston had just made my evening easier.
I sent two men through.
One returned seven minutes later.
His face told me enough.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“It opens behind the council-room wall.”
Mauro Ferraro stepped forward.
My consigliere.
“What?”
The bodyguard nodded.
“Old ventilation access. Narrow.”
“Adult?”
“Not comfortably.”
I looked at Leo.
A three-year-old could fit.
Daniel rubbed both hands over his face.
Claire looked sick.
I crouched beside her.
“Did you know?”
“No.”
Daniel laughed.
“She never knows anything.”
Then he looked at Claire.
“That's her biggest talent.”
She ignored him.
Good.
Leo whispered:
“Daddy gives me treasure.”
“What treasure?”
He thought.
“A black bug.”
Preston closed his eyes.
Daniel said:
“Toy.”
Too quickly.
I looked at the bodyguard.
“Go back.”
“What am I looking for?”
“A black bug.”
Daniel stood again.
“You're tearing apart your own museum because a toddler said bug?”
I looked at him.
“Your toddler.”
Daniel smiled.
“Exactly.”
His voice became uglier.
“He can barely wipe his own nose.”
Leo heard.
Claire's face tightened.
Daniel continued.
“And you're treating him like some little witness.”
I understood then.
Daniel wasn't just insulting his son.
He needed everyone else to dismiss him.
The bodyguard returned carrying a small black object between two fingers.
Not a bug.
A transmitter.
Compact.
Professional.
Mauro stared at it.
“What the hell?”
It had been fixed behind the carved ventilation screen between the dinosaur gallery and my council room.
I turned toward Daniel.
He shrugged.
“Never seen it.”
Leo shook his head immediately.
“Daddy gave it.”
Daniel snapped:
“Enough.”
Leo jumped.
That one word frightened him more than Daniel's shouting had frightened anyone else.
Claire pulled Leo against her.
Daniel looked at her.
“This is your fault.”
I almost laughed.
“My fault?” Claire whispered.
“You let him talk.”
His voice was calm now.
Worse than angry.
“I told you what happens when he embarrasses me.”
I walked toward him.
Daniel watched me come.
Still arrogant.
Still convinced the room would eventually become reasonable again.
“Did you make your son crawl inside that wall?”
“No.”
Leo whispered:
“Yes.”
Daniel stared at him.
My grandson started crying.
Daniel rolled his eyes.
“Oh, here we go.”
He looked at me.
“There's your brave Bellini grandson.”
My hands curled.
Claire stood.
“Stop talking to him like that.”
Daniel smiled at her.
“Or what?”
She stopped.
He leaned forward.
“Your mother knew when to keep quiet.”
Claire's face changed.
My wife, Elena, had been dead for nine years.
Daniel knew exactly what he was doing.
“She would've been embarrassed by you too.”
I crossed the room so quickly that two of my own men moved.
Not to stop me.
To be ready.
But I didn't hit him.
Daniel expected violence.
I wanted truth.
I picked up the transmitter.
“Who was listening?”
“No idea.”
“Who gave you this?”
“Didn't.”
Preston looked toward the gallery doors.
One second.
Maybe less.
I noticed.
“Lock those.”
The bodyguards did.
Then the transmitter emitted a tiny pulse.
Once.
A green light blinked.
Mauro looked at it.
“It's still broadcasting.”
Everyone went quiet.
I stared at Daniel.
Then Preston.
May you like
Someone outside that gallery was listening to my council room right now.
And Daniel's face told me he knew exactly who.
