Chapter 7 - THE INTERROGATION OF LEO HALE
The subterranean detention bunker beneath Moretti Tower smelled of damp concrete, ozone, and old iron.
Leo Hale sat strapped to a heavy steel chair in the center of the windowless interrogation chamber.
A single overhead halogen bulb cast harsh, dramatic shadows across his bruised face.
Adrian stood three feet away, his tactical vest removed, wearing only a blood-splattered black dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his forearms.
I stood behind the two-way mirror in the observation booth, my fingers clenched tightly around the cold rim of the control counter.
Marcus stood beside me, monitoring the audio feeds while flipping through the digital files we had extracted from Leo's salvaged hard drives.
"He's terrified, Boss," Marcus observed into his lapel microphone.
"He should be," Adrian's voice answered through the intercom speaker.
Adrian stepped into the direct cone of light, looking down at Leo with an expression devoid of any human empathy.
"Talk to me about Vanessa, Leo," Adrian began, his voice deceptively soft.
"She set you up, Adrian," Leo pleaded, his eyes darting frantically around the room.
"Six years ago, when she faked her cardiac relapse, she knew exactly what she was doing," Leo blurted out.
My heart stopped inside my chest behind the glass.
I leaned forward, pressing my palms against the mirror.
"Say that again," Adrian said, his posture freezing into unnatural stillness.
"She didn't have a near-fatal heart attack that night," Leo wept, tears cutting clear tracks through the grime on his cheeks.
"She paid off a crooked cardiologist at Northwestern Memorial to sign fraudulent admission paperwork," Leo admitted.
"She found out you were planning to take Evelyn to Paris for your third anniversary," Leo confessed.
"Vanessa couldn't stand the thought of you actually loving another woman," Leo stammered.
"She swore that if she couldn't have the Moretti name and the empire, she would burn your marriage to ash," Leo cried.
Adrian's hands curled slowly into white-knuckled fists at his sides.
The muscle in his jaw throbbed with such violence that I could see it twitching under the harsh light.
"And the divorce papers?" Adrian asked, his voice shaking with a rare, terrifying tremor.
"Dominic Russo drafted them beforehand," Leo whispered.
"Your own consigliere was already working with Vanessa's financial backers in New York," Leo said.
"Dominic told you that Evelyn had left of her own accord because she was terrified of the syndicate," Leo confessed.
"He told you Evelyn signed the papers before she boarded the flight to Boston," Leo revealed.
A cold, suffocating wave of dizziness washed over me in the observation booth.
All those years of agonizing hatred, all those lonely nights in Cambridge wondering why my husband had discarded me like garbage, had been orchestrated by a web of calculated deceit.
Adrian hadn't simply chosen Vanessa over me.
He had been fed forged documents by the man he trusted most in his criminal hierarchy.
"And where did you fit into this, Leo?" Adrian asked, his voice dead and hollow.
"I had gambling debts, Adrian!" Leo screamed in desperation.
"Vance bought out my markers at the underground casino in Atlantic City!" Leo sobbed.
"They told me if I didn't get them Vanessa's biometric master keys to Moretti Tower, they would chop me into pieces and feed me to the pigs in Rockford," Leo babied.
"And the photo of Evelyn and the twins?" Adrian pressed, stepping directly into Leo's personal space.
"Vanessa took it herself," Leo admitted, hanging his head.
"She tracked Evelyn to Cambridge two weeks ago," Leo said.
"Vanessa realized that New York was going to kill her the moment they took over Chicago," Leo explained.
"She wanted you to find the children so you would fight back against Salvatore and the Lucianos," Leo whispered.
"She knew you would let the city burn before you let anything happen to Dr. Carter and your bloodline," Leo added.
Adrian turned slowly, his eyes fixing directly on the two-way glass where he knew I was watching.
Through the reflective panel, our gazes collided across the painful divide of six wasted years.
"Where is Salvatore holding her right now, Leo?" Adrian asked, not breaking his gaze from the glass.
"Warehouse forty-two at Calumet Harbor," Leo whimpered.
"They have twenty mercenaries from the New York Outfit guarding the perimeter," Leo disclosed.
"And Adrian... they have heavy ordnance," Leo warned.
"They brought military-grade anti-materiel rifles and thermite charges," Leo added.
"Salvatore isn't planning on negotiating with you," Leo said.
"He is waiting for you to walk into a kill-box so he can claim the throne before noon," Leo concluded.
Adrian tapped the intercom button on his collar.
"Marcus," Adrian said evenly.
"Yes, Boss?" Marcus replied.
"Leave Leo locked in this cell," Adrian ordered.
"Prepare the assault teams," Adrian instructed.
"We leave for Calumet Harbor in twenty minutes," Adrian added.
"Wait," I spoke into the microphone, my voice steady despite the storm raging inside my soul.
Adrian paused, his head tilting toward the speaker.
"Evelyn, go back to the penthouse," Adrian said quietly.
"No, Adrian," I replied, opening the observation door and walking straight into the concrete detention cell.
I stood between Adrian and the trembling young man tied to the chair.
"Leo," I said, my voice cutting like a razor.
Leo looked up at me with terror in his bloodshot eyes.
"You said Vanessa tracked me to Cambridge two weeks ago," I noted.
"How did she find my private address when my university records were sealed under a federal research grant?" I asked.
Leo swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing.
"There was a courier package delivered to your laboratory three weeks ago," Leo stammered.
"A promotional toy sent from a children's foundation in Chicago," Leo whispered.
My breath hitched violently in my throat.
"The plush unicorn," I gasped, the world spinning beneath my feet.
"Lily's favorite toy," I whispered in horror.
"It wasn't a promotional gift," I realized.
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"It had a passive tracking transponder sewn into the lining," Leo confessed softly.
"And it's broadcasting their exact location right now," I screamed, turning toward the stairs.
