Chapter 6 - The Pharmacist Who Knew Too Much
While Matteo prepared his men for the operation in the meatpacking district, an urgent lead came through.
One of Marco’s informants located Dr. Julian Vance, the rogue pharmacist who had synthesized the custom digitalis poison for Alessandra.
Vance hadn’t left Chicago yet; he was hiding in an abandoned storage unit near the rail yards on the city's South Side.
“I’m coming with you,” I said to Matteo as he checked his firearm in the armory.
He stopped, turning around with an incredulous look.
“Claire, this is not a hospital. People shoot back.”
“I know,” I replied firmly. “Vance is a medical professional. He hides his formulas in medical shorthand and coded chemical logs. Your soldiers will look at his notes and see gibberish. I can read his logs immediately and verify if there is an antidote or proof of Carmine’s toxicology.”
Matteo stared at me for several long seconds.
The tension between us was electric.
“You put on a Kevlar vest,” he said, his voice deep and authoritative. “And you stay behind me at all times. If I tell you to drop, you drop. Understood?”
“Understood.”
Twenty minutes later, three black SUVs rolled through the rain-soaked industrial district, headlights off.
The warehouse was dark and dilapidated, surrounded by rusted shipping containers.
Matteo’s men breached the side entrance with surgical precision.
We moved through the shadows of the warehouse until we reached an office illuminated by a single flickering desk lamp.
Inside, a man in his late fifties with thinning hair was frantically stuffing bottles of chemical reagents and cash into a leather duffel bag.
“Dr. Vance,” Matteo’s voice sliced through the silence.
Vance spun around, dropping a glass beaker that shattered across the concrete floor.
“Romano!” Vance cried out, backing against the wall. “Please! I was forced! They threatened my daughter!”
Matteo walked into the light, his gun lowered by his side.
“You forged the digitalis prescription for my mother. And you gave Alessandra the fatal dose that stopped my father’s heart two years ago.”
Vance began to weep hysterically.
“Salieri paid me two million dollars! He said Carmine was getting too powerful... he said it would look like a natural cardiac arrest! No autopsy would catch the micro-doses!”
I stepped around Matteo and approached the desk.
Scattered across the surface were handwritten chemical formulas, dates, and dosage schedules spanning over twenty-four months.
I picked up the black ledger and scanned the figures.
“Mr. Romano,” I called out.
“What is it, Claire?”
“These notes confirm everything. There is a precise timeline of every dose administered to your father starting six months before he died. It was slow-acting digitalis toxicity. And on the last page, there is an order for an identical cycle intended for Mrs. Romano, scheduled to culminate this week.”
Matteo looked at Vance.
The coldness in his eyes was absolute.
“You documented my father’s murder like a science experiment.”
“I kept the records as insurance!” Vance sobbed, falling to his knees. “So Salieri wouldn't kill me once it was done! Take the ledger! Take everything! Just let me live!”
Matteo looked at Marco.
“Take him into custody. Deliver him to the federal prosecutor’s private safe house along with this ledger. Let the law build the case against Salieri before we execute our own justice.”
As Marco’s men handcuffed Vance and led him away, Matteo turned to me.
He reached out and gently brushed a wet strand of hair away from my forehead.
His touch was warm, sending a shiver through my entire body.
“You did well, Claire. You’re braver than any soldier I’ve ever commanded.”
“I just wanted the truth,” I whispered, looking up into his dark, magnetic eyes.
May you like
For a heartbeat, neither of us moved.
Then, the crack of gunfire echoed from the exterior yard.
