“I don’t need to be there.”
I pointed toward the recording device Ortiz had left beside the bed.
“I only need him to keep talking.”
The meeting took place in the library at Franco’s estate.
Ortiz obtained a court order authorizing investigators to monitor the conversation, and Elena made it clear to everyone present that the discussion was being preserved.
Three senior Ravellini relatives arrived first.
They sat beneath shelves of leather-bound books, speaking in low voices and avoiding Franco’s eyes.
Roberto joined by encrypted video.
He appeared in a dark room wearing a clean white shirt.
There was no sign of panic on his face.
“My brother has been waiting for an excuse to remove me,” he began.
“The nurse became convenient.”
Franco sat at the end of the table.
“Her name is Megan.”
“She became obsessed after treating me.
I tried to help her.
She entered my house willingly.”
One of the older men cleared his throat.
“The basement recordings—”
“Manufactured.”
“The chain?”
“Placed there.”
“The hospital security supervisor?”
“A liar working for Franco.”
Roberto had an answer for everything because no one in his family had challenged him when the lies were smaller.
Then Franco opened the black folder.
“Why did you pay Mercer twenty-five thousand dollars?”
“For information.”
“What information?”
Roberto smiled.
“Schedules.
Access.
Vulnerabilities.”
The relatives shifted in their chairs.
Franco continued.
“Why did you need Megan’s schedule?”
“For the same reason you do.
Leverage.”
He realized the mistake one second too late.
The smile disappeared.
In my hospital room, Ortiz leaned closer to the speaker.
Franco did not raise his voice.
“So she was leverage.”
“I was speaking hypothetically.”
“You said she entered willingly.”
“She did.”
“Then why did you need Mercer to disable a camera?”
Roberto looked away from the screen.
Behind him, something metallic flashed beneath a hanging light.
Nicholas froze the image and enlarged it.
It was the curved wing of a private aircraft.
Elena quietly passed the location to Ortiz’s team.
Only two small airfields near Chicago rented that model of hangar lighting.
One had already closed for the night.
The other had received a flight plan filed under a Ravellini company.
Roberto kept talking, unaware that investigators were moving toward him.
