Chapter 4 - VINCENT CALLED THE ONE MAN HE HAD AVOIDED FOR YEARS
Vincent did not call his soldiers.
He called Daniel Mercer.
Retired FBI Special Agent Daniel Mercer answered on the fourth ring from a house in Oak Park.
“Vincent?”
“You still keep promises?”
Mercer went quiet.
“What happened?”
“I have Luca’s original cassette.”
A longer silence.
Then:
“Where are you?”
“My house.”
“Who’s with you?”
Vincent looked at Marcus.
“His son.”
Mercer swore softly.
Tony moved toward the door.
Marcus blocked him.
“No one leaves.”
Tony gave him a warning look. “You don’t know what you’re doing.”
“Probably not.”
Marcus picked up the pistol one of his men had set on the dresser and removed the magazine.
“But I know I’m done letting everyone else decide what I’m allowed to hear.”
That surprised Vincent.
It also frightened him.
Marcus was not becoming loyal.
He was becoming independent.
Twenty years too late.
Mercer agreed to come only after Vincent assured him the house was secure. Vincent did not mention armed men in the bedroom. He simply told Marcus to disarm everyone and have Elena call 911 if anyone refused.
Tony laughed at that.
“Police?”
Vincent looked tired.
“Yes, Tony. Police.”
“What happened to family handling family?”
“That idea buried Luca.”
Nobody argued.
Local officers arrived first.
They separated everyone, recovered the weapons, documented the forced entry, and detained Tony’s two armed associates pending identification and warrants. Marcus was not arrested immediately because he had neither assaulted Vincent nor fired a weapon, but officers treated the situation as an armed home invasion until prosecutors could sort out participation.
Tony demanded an attorney.
That told Vincent almost nothing.
Guilty men ask for lawyers.
So do intelligent innocent ones.
Mercer arrived forty-five minutes later.
He looked older than Vincent remembered, white-haired and heavier, but the eyes were the same.
He saw Marcus.
Then Luca’s tape.
His face tightened.
“You kept it.”
“For him.”
“You kept it for yourself.”
Vincent accepted that.
Probably both.
The cassette was placed in an evidence bag rather than played on Vincent’s machine. Mercer contacted a former colleague who could arrange proper forensic transfer and authentication because the recording might become evidence in an old homicide.
Marcus became furious.
“We could listen right now.”
Mercer shook his head.
“And let Tony’s lawyer say Vincent altered it tonight?”
That silenced him.
The ledger was taken too.
So were the weapons.
By dawn, Vincent’s house was quieter than it had been in twenty years.
Marcus sat at the kitchen table while Elena made coffee none of them drank.
Then Mercer returned from the hallway.
“There’s something else you both need to know.”
Vincent looked up.
Mercer’s expression was grim.
“Luca wasn’t only keeping records on Tony.”
May you like
He looked at Marcus.
“Your father had contacted the FBI six weeks before he died.”
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