“No,” Sophie said.
“Only the part that may save it.”
Matteo opened the messages.
Chloe’s name appeared above seven missed calls, three texts, and one voice recording sent at 10:58 p.m.
Sixteen minutes before the apartment door had been kicked open.
Matteo tapped the recording.
Chloe’s breathing filled the warehouse.
“Soph, do not hang up when you hear this.
I made a mistake.
A real one.”
Her voice trembled beneath traffic noise.
“I took a courier job from the man with the scar.
Leo.
He said the package was worth two million, but the papers are copies.
I saw the redemption receipts.
He already moved the real money.”
Leo lunged for the phone.
Matteo caught his wrist before he reached it.
The speed of the movement shocked Sophie more than the violence.
Matteo twisted Leo’s hand away and forced it flat against the table.
The recording continued.
“He told me Romano would blame me if anything went wrong.
I took his locker key.
I’m sorry, Soph.
I used your address because I thought nobody would connect us.
If he finds me, he’ll come to you next.”
A metallic clatter sounded on the message, followed by Chloe whispering a locker number and a location near Canal Street.
Then the recording ended.
Matteo released Leo’s wrist.
Nobody spoke.
Leo slowly straightened his sleeve.
“A frightened thief says my name, and suddenly that’s proof?”
“It is a lead,” Sophie said.
“It is a performance.”
“Then the locker will be empty.”
Leo looked at her.
That was his second expensive mistake.
His eyes moved toward Matteo before he could stop them.
Matteo saw it.
“Where is the key?” he asked Sophie.
“I don’t know.”
Leo smiled again, relief slipping into his face.
Sophie picked up her phone and examined the unanswered texts.
Chloe’s final message contained only a photograph.
It showed the brass mailboxes in the lobby of Sophie’s apartment building.
One box hung open.
Inside it rested a small key taped beneath the upper lip where it could not be seen from the hallway.
The number stamped on the key matched the locker mentioned in the recording.
Matteo studied the image.
Leo shook his head.
“By now she’s moved everything.”
Sophie looked at him.
“You just said the locker did not prove anything.”
“I said—”
“You also said Chloe stole bonds worth two million dollars.
Now you are worried she moved whatever is inside a locker you supposedly knew nothing about.”
