Chapter 6 - THE VOICE INSIDE THE LOCKED ROOM
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Paulo Richi had been missing for seventeen days when investigators confirmed that the photograph was recent.
The image established that he was alive at the time it was taken.
It did not establish where he was being held.
Luca found that uncertainty almost unbearable.
He paced his office.
Stopped.
Started again.
Then stared at the photograph until he could no longer see the details clearly.
Dante Moretti watched from the doorway.
“Boss.”
Luca didn't look up.
“What?”
“We can't keep doing this.”
Luca stopped.
“Doing what?”
“Waiting.”
Luca turned.
“Then what do you suggest?”
Dante hesitated.
A year earlier, the answer would've involved men, vehicles, and threats.
Now Grace had warned them that any private attempt to seize a suspect could endanger Paulo and compromise the investigation.
Dante looked down.
“We cooperate with the investigators.”
Luca stared at him.
Then nodded slowly.
“Good.”
Dante blinked.
“Good?”
“That's the first sensible thing you've said today.”
Dante almost smiled.
Sophia spent the following days working with an independent linguistics specialist retained through Amelia.
They examined the threatening messages, the negotiation transcripts, and several archived communications connected to Winter Seven.
Sophia identified a recurring phrase in the Hungarian-language correspondence.
The inner door.
At first, it seemed like a metaphor.
Then she found the full proverb Balint had spoken during the meeting.
A ajtó belülről nyílt.
The door opened from the inside.
Balint had used it to suggest the betrayal originated within the organization, not from an outside enemy.
But the same phrase appeared in a message written six years earlier.
One her father had received shortly before his death.
Sophia stared at the screen.
“It's a marker.”
The linguistics specialist looked up.
“What kind?”
“A phrase used by someone who expected the recipient to understand a shared reference.”
She pointed toward the message.
“Someone was telling my father the fraud could only have happened with internal authorization.”
The specialist nodded.
“That interpretation is plausible, though we'd need corroboration.”
Sophia looked toward the window.
Vittorio.
The trusted adviser.
The man who had controlled so many decisions.
The one who kept saying the enemy was outside.
The next morning, investigators located an abandoned storage facility linked to a company associated with the missing interpreter's travel route.
Inside, they found evidence that someone had recently been held there.
A chair.
Food packaging.
A discarded prescription bottle.
But Paulo was gone.
The information reached Luca through official channels.
His expression collapsed.
Sophia was present with Amelia when he received the news.
For a moment, she thought he might smash the phone.
Instead, he set it carefully on the table.
Then whispered, “I'm losing him.”
Sophia looked at him.
“Not necessarily.”
He shook his head.
“I should've protected him.”
“You didn't know.”
“I should've.”
Sophia considered.
Then said quietly, “You can't protect people by believing you control every danger.”
Luca looked up.
She continued.
“Sometimes the best thing you can do is cooperate with people trained to find them.”
He stared at her.
Then nodded.
For the first time, she saw the man beneath the reputation.
Not the Mafia boss.
Not the heir to Enzo Romano's empire.
A frightened person who had spent most of his life believing failure was unforgivable.
That evening, Sophia received a phone call from an unfamiliar number.
She answered cautiously.
A man's voice spoke in Hungarian.
“Zsófia Varga?”
She stopped breathing.
“Yes?”
“This is Paulo Richi.”
Her hand tightened around the phone.
“Mr. Richi?”
He sounded exhausted.
“I can't talk long.”
“Where are you?”
“I don't know the exact address.”
Sophia reached for a pen.
“Are you injured?”
“A little.”
“Can you contact emergency services?”
“I've managed to reach a phone. I'm trying.”
His breathing became ragged.
Then he whispered something that made Sophia go cold.
“Vittorio knows where I am.”
The line went dead.
Sophia stared at the phone.
For a moment, she couldn't move.
May you like
Then she called the investigators.
Because Paulo had just named the one man everyone had been afraid to accuse.
