Chapter 21: What the Files Said

Lorenzo's POV

The lawyer's office was one room above a shoe repair shop.

He was a small, balding man with ink on his cuff, and he was sweating before I closed the door.

Two of my men stood behind me.

I did not need them.

I had my hands in my pockets.

"The lawyer is not in," he said.

"You are the lawyer."

"Yes. Well. Yes."

"Donata Santoro came here this afternoon with a grey box."

He looked at the floor.

"She wished me to hold it," he said. "She said it was a family matter."

"She wished you to threaten me with it."

His eyes flicked up.

"I did not hear her say that," he said faintly.

"You will give me the box."

"I can't. It's privileged."

"The woman who gave it to you is facing a charge of conspiracy to murder," I said.

"I know."

"The man who helps her hide evidence can face the same charge. I could make one phone call, and it would be both of you in a cell tonight."

He sat down.

He opened a drawer, and took out a key, and then a grey metal box with a lock.

He pushed it across the desk with two fingers.

"She said it would destroy the Santoro girl," he whispered. "She said you would pay anything to keep it quiet."

"What does it do?"

"I didn't look."

I opened it.

There were three things inside.

A deed, signed and notarized, transferring the Santoro docks to the Brandolini house in the event of her father's death.

A bank book in Livia's name, with sixty-one thousand dollars in it, opened the year she turned eighteen.

And a sealed letter, with her name on the front in a square careful hand.

The lawyer watched my face.

"So that's what she meant," he said. "The father signed the docks over to you. Behind the family's back."

I read the deed twice.

I understood it the second time.

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