Chapter 3 - THE BODY IN JULIAN’S COFFIN WAS NOT JULIAN CARUSO
Dominic did not sleep.
Neither did Hannah.
Grace slept nine uninterrupted hours.
Babies are offensively capable of ignoring family conspiracies.
At six in the morning, Hannah walked into the east-library kitchen carrying Grace on one hip and found Dominic still wearing the same shirt from the previous night.
His tie was gone.
His sleeves rolled.
The crash file covered half the table.
A second laptop displayed archived reports.
Three phones sat beside untouched coffee.
“You look terrible.”
Hannah said.
Dominic glanced up.
“Thank you.”
“Have you eaten?”
“No.”
“That was not admiration.”
He pushed a plate toward her.
“Cook prepared breakfast.”
“For you?”
“For both.”
She looked.
Eggs.
Toast.
Fruit.
Nothing absurdly luxurious.
Good.
Hannah put Grace into portable high chair the staff had brought.
“Banana?”
Dominic asked.
“Soft pieces.”
He picked one up.
Hannah stared.
“What?”
“You have no idea how small.”
Apparently his piece was too large.
She broke it into smaller strips.
Grace immediately mashed one into her hair.
Dominic watched in disbelief.
“My brother produced this.”
Hannah almost laughed.
“Your brother helped.”
Dominic looked at her.
She did laugh.
The sound did something unexpected to room.
Then his expression turned serious.
“Dental records were false.”
Her laughter died.
“What?”
“I had an independent forensic odontologist compare original imaging.”
He rotated laptop.
“Julian had a crowned upper molar from a basketball injury at nineteen.”
“The body did not.”
Hannah sat.
“So who was buried?”
“We don’t know.”
“DNA?”
“None performed.”
“That’s insane.”
“At the time, dental match plus vehicle registration plus supposed medal were accepted.”
“By who?”
“Medical examiner.”
“State police.”
“Our attorney.”
“Vincent.”
“And you.”
Dominic’s face hardened.
“Yes.”
He did not avoid.
“I believed it.”
Hannah looked at him.
“You were grieving.”
“That does not improve the evidence.”
“No.”
“Just explains why you didn’t interrogate every line.”
Dominic stared.
“You defend me strangely.”
“I am not defending.”
She gave Grace another banana piece.
“I am distinguishing.”
That word stayed with him.
The independent forensic team had located one more thing.
The original morgue retained a paraffin tissue block from the unidentified body.
Standard.
Forgotten.
A court order would be required for full DNA testing, but prosecutors had been contacted.
Hannah’s head snapped.
“Prosecutors?”
“Yes.”
“You called police?”
“State Attorney General liaison.”
She blinked.
“You didn’t use your men?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Dominic looked at her.
“You would object.”
“I would.”
“I am learning to anticipate.”
“Dangerous.”
His mouth almost curved.
Then Vincent entered.
He looked like a man who had aged overnight.
“Dominic.”
“Sit.”
Vincent did.
For decades he had been more than consigliere.
He was godfather? No, let's say mentor. He taught Dominic to drive, stood beside his father, carried Julian home after first bar fight.
Now Dominic looked at him like evidence.
“Tell me exactly what happened after the crash.”
Vincent inhaled.
“At 2:16 a.m. I received a call from Matteo.”
“Why Matteo?”
“He said state police contacted family through emergency registration record.”
“Did they?”
“We’re verifying.”
“Continue.”
“Matteo reached scene before me.”
“Why?”
“He was in Newark.”
“For what?”
“He said business dinner.”
Dominic leaned back.
“Did you confirm?”
“No.”
“Continue.”
“By time I arrived, fire had been extinguished.”
“Vehicle destroyed.”
“Body removed.”
“Matteo said truck responsible fled.”
“Police had partial description.”
“A white tractor-trailer.”
“Then?”
“The next morning dental identification came.”
“Too quickly.”
Vincent nodded.
“I see that now.”
“Why didn’t you then?”
Vincent’s jaw tightened.
“Because your father was dying.”
Hannah looked at Dominic.
He had not mentioned.
Vincent continued.
“Vittorio had advanced pancreatic cancer.”
“He was on morphine.”
“Julian’s death nearly killed what remained of him.”
“Everyone wanted certainty.”
There.
People always do.
“And the medal?”
Dominic asked.
Vincent looked at table.
“Matteo handed me an evidence photograph.”
“A silver Saint Christopher.”
“Initial J.”
“I signed family identification.”
“Did you know Julian had given original away?”
“No.”
“Neither did I.”
Dominic’s eyes turned to Hannah.
“Julian never told us.”
“Because he was hiding Grace.”
“Yes.”
Vincent looked at baby.
His face softened for a second.
Then Dominic said:
“Did Matteo control Julian’s corporate accounts?”
“Some.”
“His insurance?”
“Yes.”
“His personal security?”
“No.”
“Julian had separated from family protection nearly year before death.”
Dominic frowned.
“What?”
Vincent’s eyes lifted.
“You didn’t know?”
“No.”
“He requested independent drivers.”
“Moved out of family apartment.”
“Stopped using Caruso phones whenever possible.”
Dominic felt something unpleasant in chest.
“How did I not know?”
“You were taking over from Vittorio.”
“You and Julian barely spoke those final six months.”
That hurt because it was true.
They had fought.
Julian wanted out of the dock routes.
Dominic thought he was irresponsible.
The final argument had happened at this very estate.
Julian shouted:
You think because Dad put you in the chair at end of table you became him.
Dominic answered:
Better than becoming a coward who runs from responsibility.
Julian left.
Three weeks later, the crash.
Dominic had carried those words for eighteen months.
Now they changed shape.
Maybe Julian was not running.
Maybe he had been hiding something.
Hannah said quietly:
“He was afraid of someone.”
Both men looked.
“How do you know?”
Vincent asked.
“Because he checked our apartment window locks three times every night.”
“He changed routes coming home.”
“He stopped parking in same place.”
“One time I asked why.”
“He said, ‘Because the men watching roads know my habits better than the woman sleeping beside me.’”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“Did he name anyone?”
“No.”
“Anything else?”
“He told me if someone named Matteo ever approached me, I should leave without packing.”
The room went silent.
Vincent whispered:
“Jesus.”
Dominic stood.
“Where is Matteo?”
“Palm Beach residence.”
“Has he been contacted?”
“No.”
“Do not.”
Vincent nodded.
“We need surveillance.”
“Police.”
Vincent frowned.
“Dominic.”
“Police.”
The older man looked almost insulted.
“You are asking me to trust state investigators with internal family conspiracy.”
“Yes.”
“After everything we know about corruption?”
“Independent federal team.”
“And if Matteo has people inside?”
“Then we document.”
Vincent’s expression hardened.
“Your father would never—”
“My father is dead.”
Dominic’s voice dropped.
“And his habits did not keep Julian safe.”
Silence.
That ended argument.
By afternoon, DNA analysis on tissue sample was expedited under reopened homicide inquiry.
They needed comparison.
Dominic provided his own sample.
Hannah provided Grace’s only if legally necessary? Better indirect relation. To identify unknown body, Dominic sibling comparison enough. Grace maybe not needed. The result came next day.
NO BIOLOGICAL RELATIONSHIP CONSISTENT WITH FULL SIBLING.
The body was not Julian.
Dominic read report without moving.
Hannah sat beside him.
Grace slept in stroller.
“So he might be alive.”
Hannah whispered.
Dominic could not answer.
Hope was more painful than grief.
Then forensic team found body identity.
A missing man named Calvin Price.
Thirty-one.
Low-level courier with arrests in Newark.
Disappeared same night.
His mother had spent eighteen months looking.
Dominic stared at photograph of a stranger he had buried under Caruso name.
Another family had been denied a grave because his family wanted certainty.
“We tell her.”
he said.
Vincent nodded.
“Personally?”
“No.”
Dominic thought.
“Through investigators and victim advocate.”
Hannah looked at him.
“Why not go?”
“Because her son’s body became part of my family’s lie.”
“I don’t know if my face would help.”
Good.
Then another forensic detail arrived.
The burned coupe’s driver-seat position had been set for someone approximately five-foot-eight.
Julian was six-one.
Calvin Price had been five-eight.
The body had not simply been placed after accident.
Someone else had been driving the car before it burned.
The crash was staged from beginning.
And whoever planned it knew investigators would stop asking once the Caruso family identified the body.
That evening, Grace developed a fever.
Nothing dramatic.
Teething.
Hannah panicked anyway.
Dominic called his physician.
Hannah stopped him.
“Pediatrician.”
“Obviously.”
“You were calling an adult cardiologist.”
“He handles family medicine.”
“No.”
Dominic stared.
She smiled despite herself.
An independent pediatrician arrived.
Grace was fine.
While doctor examined, Dominic stood near doorway.
Hannah watched him.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Your face says something.”
“I’m thinking.”
“About?”
“The announcement.”
“What announcement?”
“Last night.”
“Calling her heir.”
Hannah’s face hardened slightly.
Dominic continued before she could.
“I was wrong.”
She blinked.
“Completely?”
“Yes.”
“That sounded painful.”
“It was.”
“Good.”
He almost smiled.
“I don’t know what she is to family legally yet.”
he said.
“But she is not an heir because I say.”
“No.”
“She is Grace.”
Hannah’s expression softened.
“Yes.”
Dominic looked at the baby.
“Julian would have liked that.”
Then his phone rang.
Vincent.
Dominic answered.
“What?”
Vincent’s voice came tight.
“Matteo left Palm Beach.”
“When?”
“Three hours ago.”
“Where?”
“We don’t know.”
Then:
“His house was professionally cleared.”
“No computers.”
“No documents.”
“Security system wiped.”
Dominic’s gaze hardened.
Vincent continued.
“But investigators recovered one thing from office shredder.”
“What?”
“A partial flight itinerary.”
“Destination?”
Vincent paused.
“Pittsburgh.”
Hannah went completely still.
Dominic noticed.
“What?”
She stared.
“Julian took me to Pittsburgh once.”
“When?”
“Five months before he disappeared.”
“Why?”
“He said old friend needed help.”
“What friend?”
“I never met him.”
“Where did you stay?”
“A motel outside city.”
Then memory crossed her face.
“He disappeared for six hours.”
“When he came back, his shirt was torn.”
“He had blood on his knuckles.”
“I asked what happened.”
“He said he had just made the most dangerous decision of his life.”
Dominic’s heart pounded.
“What decision?”
May you like
Hannah whispered:
“He said he had finally found someone willing to keep a dead man alive.”
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