I know all of them. Two have been with me for years, and I remember approving every hire.
They stand in the kitchen in various states of half-sleep and alertness, and I stand at the head of the room, looking at each of them in turn.
I don't raise my voice. I never do.
"There's a camera in the guest bedroom. It was installed from inside this building. I need to know who put it there."
Silence.
Six men. Six faces doing different things — shock, confusion, the careful blankness of men who've been in rooms like this before and know how they end.
"I'm going to ask once. Once. And then I'm going to start pulling threads. When I find the end — and I will — the conversation will be considerably less civil than it is right now."
More silence.
Then Caruso says, very quietly: "Bruni."
I look at him.
Caruso's jaw is tight. His eyes are fixed on a point above my left shoulder — the look of a man delivering something that costs him. "He requested a shift change two days ago. He wanted theovernight shift. Said he needed the hours." A pause. "I approved it."
I look at Bruni.
He doesn't run. I'll give him that. He stands in my kitchen in the grey pre-dawn, looking at me with the stillness of a man who has already calculated his options and found them limited.
"How much?"
He swallows. "Two hundred thousand. And a guarantee — my family gets protection and relocation."
"From whom?"
"Dennis Falco." He says it as the name costs him. "Former NYPD. He reached out six weeks ago and said all he needed was eyes on the girl."
"Six weeks ago." I keep my voice even. "Before she was anywhere near this organization."
"I know." Bruni meets my gaze. "I asked him the same thing. He said Tessaro had been planning to use her for weeks — that he'd been watching Tessaro, knew a handoff was coming, and needed someone on the inside in case it happened." He pauses. "He said he'd been watching her himself, but couldn't get close enough. Too much risk of spooking Tessaro before the play."
That lands.
Falco knew about Tessaro's plan before Tessaro carried it out. He'd been monitoring Tessaro for weeks — waiting for the handoff, positioned to intercept it. But Tessaro knew he was being watched, and he couldn't safely approach Serafina until there was no clean way to stop him.
A hospital trauma bay at midnight. Bleeding out. Thirty seconds of consciousness.
Not the plan Tessaro wanted. The only plan Falco couldn't block without a body count in front of witnesses.
He chose the moment he did because it was the only moment he could.
"The camera.When did Falco tell you to install it?"
"Three days ago. They mailed the equipment. Instructions were to install it and say nothing." He pauses. "I didn't know what it was for until it was already done."
"And you did it anyway."
My voice comes out even.
That's how they know to be afraid.
"I have a wife. Two kids in Queens." Bruni meets my eyes. "I'm sorry, Moretti. I am. But I'd do it again."
