Chapter 6 — What the Thief Came For

“Call the police,” I said.

Marco looked at me.

I looked back.

“It’s her apartment.”

Maria already had her phone in her hand.

We waited while she made the report.

Then I asked what she wanted.

“To see it.”

“Marco will go with you. I’ll stay with Sophia.”

“You don’t have to.”

“I know.”

Her mouth tightened, then she nodded.

Before they left, I pulled Marco aside.

“No one touches the entry door or searches the place before the officers are finished.”

“I understand.”

“And ask about cameras. Don’t take anyone’s recordings.”

He gave me a brief look.

“You’re being careful.”

“Someone knew exactly what to remove. Careless is what they’re hoping for.”

When Sophia came downstairs, she wanted to know where her mother was.

“Checking something at home.”

“Are we home?”

“We’re at my house.”

She considered the distinction.

Then she climbed onto the chair beside me.

“Can I have cereal?”

Mrs. Donnelly brought it.

I watched Sophia eat while two photographs of her father lay facedown beneath my newspaper.

She noticed the corner of one.

“Is that Daddy?”

I moved the paper.

“Yes.”

She took the photograph with both hands.

It was the hospital picture.

“I was little.”

“You were.”

“Daddy had the scratchy face.”

I looked at Miguel’s stubble.

“Did you like that?”

“No. He rubbed it on me.”

She scrubbed her cheek against her shoulder and laughed.

I smiled before I could stop myself.

Then she pointed at Miguel.

“Do you know him?”

“No.”

“Why do you have his picture?”

“Your mother is telling me about him.”

Sophia studied me.

“He was good at pancakes.”

“I’m not.”

“You can learn.”

She returned the photograph and resumed eating.

I left it faceup.

After breakfast, Daniel arrived with a woman from an independent testing service.

Maria had already spoken to her by phone. We completed my part while Sophia built a crooked tower of blocks in the sitting room.

Daniel waited until the technician left.

“Tell me what you need examined.”

I gave him the sleeved rejection letter and copies of the other documents.

“Preserve everything,” I said. “No calls to Julian, no calls to my business office.”

His eyes lifted at the name.

“Is he involved?”

“I don’t know.”

“Then I’ll keep this separate.”

He photographed the document sleeve, noted what I had told him about its custody, and took it in a protective folder.

“When you receive the remaining records, let me see those too.”

“The originals were stolen last night.”

He stopped writing.

“From where?”

I told him.

He shut his notebook.

“Then we work from what remains, and we document the loss. Don’t let anyone convince you a copy proves more than it does.”

“I won’t.”

After he left, I called the two men checking Queens.

Their accounts didn’t agree with the warnings that had reached Carbone.

One warehouse was operating normally. Another had closed early because its manager heard a threat from a driver who couldn’t identify the source.

No one had seen the supposed attacking crew.

I requested a written account from each man.

Then I called Carbone.

“You moved people on a rumor.”

“We couldn’t take chances.”

“You took one by moving them.”

“Are you saying nothing was happening?”

“I’m saying you don’t know.”

He lowered his voice.

“Julian believes this is bigger than one warehouse.”

“Then Julian can bring evidence.”

“You used to trust his judgment.”

“I still expect him to explain it.”

After we hung up, I looked at the original meeting map.

Three red marks in Queens.

I had seen them for two days without asking who put them there.

I asked the office to send me the report used to prepare it.

Maria and Marco returned just after noon.

Sophia ran into her mother’s arms.

Maria held her for longer than the child wanted.

“Did you get my bunny?”

“Yes.”

She took a worn rabbit from her bag.

Sophia carried it into the sitting room.

Only then did Maria look at me.

“They went through the bedroom drawers. Not the kitchen. Not the living room.”

“They knew where to look.”

“The box was under our bed.”

Marco placed his phone on the table.

“The building manager has hallway footage. He’s preserving it for the officers. He let Maria see the relevant part.”

“What did it show?”

“One person. Cap, coat, face mostly turned away. We couldn’t identify him.”

“Time?”

“Just after eleven last night.”

We had been in the library.

I thought of Maria spreading Miguel’s letters across my desk while someone searched the room where she had slept beside him.

“What else is gone?”

“Nothing I could see,” she said.

“Then they didn’t come for money.”

“No.”

She opened her bag and removed an old external drive.

“This was at my sister’s.”

Marco looked at it.

“You got it?”

“She brought it downstairs when we stopped.”

“What’s on it?” I asked.

“Miguel’s scans. Photographs. Some work folders. He asked me to keep a copy away from the apartment.”

I stared at the drive.

“When?”

“Before he died.”

“Did he expect someone to take the box?”

Maria rubbed her thumb over the plastic casing.

“He said he didn’t want everything in one place.”

Marco went to the library and returned with the recorder.

“There’s another message.”

“How many?”

“Three altogether. You’ve heard the first.”

“Play the one about the box.”

He found the file.

Miguel’s voice filled the breakfast room.

“If the box goes missing, don’t assume Maria lost it. And don’t go straight to Moretti and accuse everyone you know.”

A pause.

“I made copies. Maria knows where they are.”

I looked at her.

She stood beside the counter, listening.

“The man who came to see me knew about the letters,” Miguel continued. “I never told him where my mother kept them. He knew anyway.”

Marco’s face hardened.

“He wanted me to believe there was nothing worth asking my father. Maybe he was right about some things. But he knew too much.”

I leaned forward.

“Did he give a name?” I asked.

Marco shook his head.

The recording continued.

“If somebody tries to make you look responsible, stop before you react. You work close to Anthony. Breaking that trust would leave him listening to somebody else.”

The sound ended with a click.

I looked at Marco.

“Did anyone accuse you?”

“Not yet.”

“Then we don’t help them start.”

Maria put the drive beside my hand.

“Can this stay somewhere safe?”

“We’ll make a separate copy with Daniel. You keep control of the original.”

Her eyes filled.

“Thank you.”

I called my attorney and arranged for the files to be preserved without changing the drive.

Then I sent one message to the men from the first meeting.

Tomorrow evening. All of them. Bring the reports underlying every claim about Queens.

Marco watched me finish.

“You’re putting them in the same room.”

“Yes.”

“What are you going to tell them?”

“What they already know. I canceled one meeting. That doesn’t mean they can give orders in my name.”

“And the family?”

“Nothing.”

I looked toward the sitting room.

Sophia had placed her rabbit in the chair beside mine. She was drawing on a sheet of paper Mrs. Donnelly had brought her.

For the moment, she believed the worst thing that had happened was leaving her bunny at home.

I intended to keep it that way.

Marco picked up the recorder.

“Miguel thought the visitor was close to you.”

“He knew my correspondence. He knew what Lucia had kept. And now somebody knows Maria’s apartment.”

“Could still be someone who bought information.”

“It could.”

I turned the meeting map toward us.

The red marks lay across streets I had known for most of my life.

“Then we check who paid for it.”

My phone lit up.

Julian.

I hear Maria has had some trouble. These things happen when private matters interfere with business. We should talk.

I read it twice.

Then I showed Marco.

His eyes moved toward the hallway.

“Who told him?”

“I haven’t.”

“Neither have I.”

Across the room, Maria slowly lowered her cup.

Julian’s next message arrived before anyone spoke.

You don’t need outsiders asking questions, Anthony. Let me handle it.