Chapter 6 - THE FIRST WAR WAS A LIE
Leo Carbone disappeared before sunrise.
His apartment was empty.
Phone dead.
Cash gone.
Wife and children sent to Florida two days earlier.
Raymond had begun moving pieces.
Dominic could feel it.
Normally he would have summoned every captain.
Closed the harbor.
Blocked roads.
Taken family members.
Made fear move faster than escape.
Instead, Detective Morales obtained warrants.
Dominic provided account numbers.
Frank identified likely properties.
No kidnappings.
No unofficial interrogations.
It felt painfully slow.
Maybe that was why ordinary systems survived longer than empires built around one man’s mood.
The Providence Public Library evidence filled two encrypted drives.
Nora had copied nine suspicious death records.
All involved unusual potassium levels, unexplained sedative administration, or altered DNR documentation.
Three patients had direct ties to Blue Harbor.
One had been a freight accountant.
One a customs broker.
One a union official.
Two were hospital employees who filed internal complaints.
One was Evelyn.
The remaining three were still being identified.
Dr. Adrian Cross called in sick.
Then disappeared.
His passport registered a flight attempt to Montreal.
State police arrested him at Logan Airport.
Raymond remained in Providence.
That disturbed Dominic more.
“Why hasn't he run?” Frank asked.
They stood inside Dominic’s office.
Outside, the harbor still moved.
Trucks came.
Ships left.
Money flowed.
Most people had no idea the entire Hale structure was beginning to crack.
Dominic answered:
“Because he thinks he can take it.”
“What?”
“Everything.”
Frank frowned.
“From you?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Dominic looked toward the men working below.
“By telling them I am cooperating.”
That rumor spread by noon.
DOMINIC HALE TALKING TO STATE POLICE.
DOMINIC GAVE UP CROSS.
DOMINIC TURNING FEDERAL.
By evening, two gambling rooms stopped sending cash.
One captain refused a meeting.
Three trucks were diverted without authorization.
The empire was voting.
Not with ballots.
With disobedience.
Raymond called at 7:30.
“Come to dinner.”
Dominic almost laughed.
“Where?”
“My house.”
“Are you stupid?”
“No.”
Raymond sounded calm.
“That is why I'm inviting you.”
Dominic looked at Morales.
She shook her head.
Dominic ignored her.
“Eight o’clock.”
“Alone.”
“No.”
Raymond paused.
Then:
“Frank?”
“No.”
“Who?”
Dominic smiled slightly.
“Detective Morales.”
Raymond hung up.
Good.
Dominic did not go.
That mattered.
At nine, one of Raymond’s properties burned.
An old warehouse near Pawtucket.
Fire crews discovered shredded files.
Too late for some.
Not all.
Recovered fragments showed payments to Leo.
Cross.
A city inspector.
Two police officers.
One judge.
The machine was larger.
Federal authorities joined officially the next morning.
Dominic’s lawyers arrived.
They told him to stop talking.
He did not.
“You understand,” attorney Samuel Price said, “that cooperation does not erase your own criminal exposure.”
“Yes.”
“You operated illegal gambling.”
“Yes.”
“Protection rackets.”
“Yes.”
“Unlicensed lending.”
“Yes.”
“Smuggling.”
“Yes.”
“Violence.”
Dominic paused.
“Yes.”
Price removed his glasses.
“Then please explain why you are behaving like a man seeking prosecution.”
Dominic looked at Nora’s evidence.
“Because that might be part of the price.”
Frank looked down.
Price stared.
“You could go to prison.”
“Yes.”
“For years.”
“Yes.”
“You are worth hundreds of millions of dollars.”
“Less every hour.”
“This is not funny.”
“No.”
Price leaned forward.
“You need to protect yourself.”
Dominic’s expression changed.
“That sentence is how we got here.”
Silence.
He continued.
“Everyone protected themselves.”
“My uncle.”
“My mother.”
“Frank.”
“Hospital administrators.”
“Doctors.”
“Me.”
A pause.
“Enough.”
Price sat back.
For once, a lawyer had no immediate answer.
Then Morales walked in holding a file.
“We found Vincent DiMarco.”
Dominic stopped breathing.
“Alive?”
“No.”
He closed his eyes.
“Where?”
“Industrial lot in Johnston.”
“How?”
“Construction excavation.”
Dominic knew the site.
Former Hale property.
“Cause?”
“Two gunshots.”
“Time of death?”
“Eight years.”
The first week after Michael’s bombing.
Dominic looked toward the window.
“I ordered him taken.”
“Yes.”
“I did not order him killed.”
Morales stared.
“Who did?”
“I don't know.”
She placed another page.
“Ballistics from the recovered rounds are old, but preliminary match suggests a weapon registered years ago to Hale Security.”
“Whose?”
“Raymond’s office inventory.”
Dominic laughed bitterly.
Of course.
He had ordered Vincent captured because Raymond said he knew about Michael’s murder.
Raymond then killed the man who might have exposed the real murderer.
Efficient.
Cruel.
Perfect.
“Family?”
“Widow.”
Dominic swallowed.
“Name?”
“Maria DiMarco.”
“Children?”
“One daughter.”
His chest tightened.
“How old?”
“Nineteen.”
A baby when Dominic ordered her father taken.
“Does she know?”
“Police notified.”
Dominic stood.
“Where?”
Morales immediately said:
“No.”
“I want to speak to her.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because you are the man who ordered her husband abducted.”
“Her father.”
Morales nodded.
“Exactly.”
Dominic stopped.
She was right.
Again.
“What can I do?”
“Nothing unless she asks.”
That felt worse than confrontation.
Good.
Three days later, Maria DiMarco asked.
Not for apology.
For answers.
They met in a state police conference room.
Maria was fifty.
Dark hair.
Still.
Her daughter Sofia sat beside her.
Dominic entered alone.
Maria did not stand.
“You ordered them to take Vincent.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I believed he helped kill my father.”
“Did he?”
“No.”
Her face tightened.
“Did you know then?”
“No.”
“Would that have stopped you?”
Dominic thought.
“Yes.”
Then corrected.
“I hope.”
Maria laughed once.
“Not good enough.”
“No.”
“Did you ask anyone for proof?”
“I listened to recordings.”
“From?”
“My uncle.”
“So one man told you my husband killed your father and you destroyed my family.”
Dominic looked down.
“Yes.”
“Did you kill him?”
“No.”
“Did you create the situation where he was killed?”
Silence.
“Yes.”
Maria’s eyes filled.
Sofia stared at him with open hatred.
Good.
He should see it.
Maria asked:
“What are you going to do?”
“Testify.”
“Against Raymond?”
“Yes.”
“And yourself?”
“If required.”
Sofia finally spoke.
“Required?”
Her voice shook.
“You make it sound like a parking ticket.”
Dominic looked at her.
“You are right.”
She seemed surprised.
“I will tell the truth about what I ordered.”
Maria watched him.
“No excuses?”
“No.”
“No ‘I was grieving’?”
“I was.”
“That sounds like one.”
“It explains why I was easy to manipulate.”
A pause.
“It does not make your husband less dead.”
Maria looked away.
When Dominic stood to leave, she said:
“Evelyn came to me.”
Dominic froze.
“What?”
“Your mother.”
“When?”
“Four months before she died.”
His throat tightened.
“Why?”
“She apologized.”
Dominic sat again.
Maria continued.
“She said she believed Raymond arranged Michael’s death.”
“What did you tell her?”
“That Vincent tried to contact Dominic after the bombing.”
Dominic stopped breathing.
“He did?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“A letter.”
“Where?”
“Intercepted.”
“By?”
Maria looked at him.
“Frank.”
The room became cold.
Dominic stared.
Maria reached into her bag.
“I kept a copy.”
She handed him a faded page.
Dominic recognized Vincent’s signature.
Dominic,
Your uncle is lying.
Michael met me two days before the bombing because he wanted peace.
Raymond found out.
Do not retaliate until we speak.
Dominic’s hands shook.
Frank had intercepted it.
Frank.
The man who saved Nora.
The man who helped Evelyn.
The man who claimed he had only suspicions.
Dominic looked at Maria.
“Why didn't my mother tell me?”
“She said the letter never reached you.”
No.
It had reached someone.
Frank.
Dominic left the station without speaking.
Called once.
Frank did not answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Then Morales’s phone rang.
She listened.
Her expression changed.
“What?”
Dominic asked.
She lowered the phone.
“Frank’s car was found near the river.”
Dominic stopped breathing.
“Frank?”
“Gone.”
On the driver’s seat was a note.
One sentence.
COME ALONE IF YOU WANT TO HEAR WHY FRANK KEPT THE LETTER.
May you like
Raymond had finally found the one thing more dangerous than killing Dominic’s friends.
He had found the truth Dominic still did not understand.
