Chapter 4 - The Photograph
The Black Lantern closed immediately.
Customers were escorted outside.
Vincent’s men searched every room.
Anthony had escaped through a service corridor.
Nora sat alone inside Vincent’s private office.
She expected police.
Instead, Vincent entered.
He closed the door.
“You saved my life tonight.”
Nora blinked.
“I translated numbers.”
“You identified a betrayal.”
He placed something on the desk.
A check.
Nora stared.
$8,000,000.
Her mouth opened.
“You were serious?”
“I don’t joke about money.”
“I can’t take this.”
Vincent actually looked confused.
“You just earned it.”
“I poured your coffee.”
“And solved something people with government pensions couldn’t.”
Nora stared at the check.
Eight million dollars would erase every debt she had.
It would pay for graduate school.
It would buy her mother a house.
It would change everything.
But Nora looked toward the door.
“Anthony stole the notebook.”
Vincent nodded.
“Then your brother’s message is gone.”
“No.”
She reached into her apron.
Vincent’s hand immediately moved beneath his jacket.
Nora pulled out her phone.
“I photographed the last page.”
Vincent stared at her.
“When?”
“Before the lights went out.”
For several seconds he said nothing.
Then something almost resembling admiration entered his expression.
“Show me.”
Nora enlarged the photograph.
They examined it together.
The initials.
The harbor markings.
The intermediary symbol.
Then Nora noticed something she had overlooked.
There was writing beneath the ledger.
Extremely faint.
She increased the contrast.
Three words appeared.
La casa bianca.
Vincent frowned.
“The White House?”
“No.”
Nora shook her head.
“It’s not Italian in this context.”
She enlarged the photograph again.
“It means a white house.”
Vincent became completely still.
Nora noticed.
“You know one?”
Vincent walked toward the window.
May you like
“My mother lives in one.”
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