Chapter 15 - Vincent Found His Father’s Name in the Dead Registry
Thomas survived.
Skull fracture.
Two broken ribs.
No interview immediately.
Police recovered stolen page from his coat.
So yes, he had taken it.
But why?
His apartment search found files proving he had been privately investigating his own family for three years.
Not covering.
Investigating.
The page theft may have been desperate attempt to confirm original handwriting.
Thomas had discovered Senator William Harlan and Charles Harlan used St. Verena to move money and conceal scandals.
One scandal involved William’s daughter.
Eleanor Harlan, age nineteen, pregnant in 1987.
No public record of pregnancy.
She later became diplomat.
Died cancer 2015.
Was her baby adopted through network?
Thomas suspected.
Then why attack him?
Maybe someone else in family.
Charles?
At eighty-two still influential but unlikely physical.
Could hire.
Then Thomas's files showed payments as recently as 2024 from Harlan Foundation to private investigation company.
Purpose:
legacy protection.
Recipients monitored adoptees and researchers.
Open Records included.
So old scandal had modern guardians.
Maya went deeper.
Meanwhile Vincent confronted another shock.
His father Dominic’s name appeared not only as signer.
Binder Two had entry:
Dominic Moretti — deceased 2018?
No.
Dominic actually died 2018? Depending timeline. But “dead registry” maybe his identity also manipulated? User snippet says Anthony DeMarco died months before; Dominic maybe earlier.
Samuel discovered death certificate for Dominic dated 1997.
But Dominic lived two decades after.
A second legal death.
Why would Dominic himself be declared dead and continue?
Different jurisdiction.
Name:
Dominic Angelo Moretti.
DOB exact.
Cause: gunshot.
Body cremated.
Then later resumed same identity publicly? Impossible unless certificate hidden/fraud not vital system? Maybe duplicate identity used.
Maya suggested:
“This may be a false death certificate prepared but never entered into central index.”
Check.
It bore seal but certificate number belonged to blank batch stolen from county office.
So not legal death in system.
A contingency document.
Prepared in case Dominic needed disappear.
Why?
Thomas Harlan’s files held answer.
1996 correspondence:
Moretti is threatening disclosure regarding Colonna. Prepare exit package.
Exit package included fake death.
Dominic planned turn on St. Verena.
Then didn't.
Why?
His wife pregnant? Vincent born earlier. Maybe threat to family.
A letter from Dominic to unknown attorney:
I thought I was moving witnesses out of danger. Harlan is using same mechanism to bury women whose testimony costs money. Margaret was last. I will not transport another.
Vincent read twice.
His father had participated before understanding full scope.
Then tried leave.
Another:
If anything happens to me, protect Vincent. He knows nothing.
Vincent sat alone in archive.
I joined.
“He tried.”
“Yes.”
“He still took money.”
“Yes.”
“He still moved Evelyn.”
“She consented.”
“Margaret didn't.”
“He refused Margaret secondary transport, according records.”
He looked at me.
“Why do I want you to absolve him?”
“Because he's your father.”
“That's not evidence.”
“No.”
He leaned back.
“I spent years hating him for making me violent.”
“You chose things too.”
“I know.”
“He may have chosen differently eventually.”
“Too late for some women.”
“Yes.”
No clean answer.
Then Teresa provided memory.
Dominic came home once with blood on shirt and said:
“Never let anyone tell you disappearing is same as being saved.”
Vincent was twelve.
He forgot context.
Now maybe Margaret.
His father perhaps helped her escape from second facility?
What if?
We searched.
A Moretti vehicle log 1996 showed unauthorized trip to Pennsylvania.
Driver: Dominic himself.
Destination near St. Verena house.
Date same day Margaret vanished.
Then payment from Dominic personal account to motel under name M. Cole.
Could he have helped escape?
Evelyn thought nobody knew.
Maybe Dominic.
Then Margaret's Christmas card in 2019 to Evelyn:
Still dead. Still angry. Tell nobody.
Why send if safe?
She knew.
We had to find only if she consented.
The anonymous caller said stop.
So we did not trace call aggressively? Law enforcement may due threat to Thomas. But Rosalia asked Maya separate criminal investigation from public outreach.
Maya agreed not involve me in locating unless safety.
Then Thomas woke.
Interview.
He admitted break-in.
“I needed original page before my father destroyed it.”
“Your father Charles?”
“Yes.”
He claimed Charles ordered surveillance but not attack.
Who attacked him?
“A woman.”
Older?
“Maybe fifty. Strong.”
She took his phone, searched, then left.
Said:
Stop digging graves that aren't yours.
Could be someone from living list protecting identities.
Not Harlan.
Thomas uttered “Margaret” because attacker asked him what he knew about her.
Not because Margaret attacked necessarily.
Then Thomas disclosed current secret:
Harlan Foundation maintains sealed fund called Quiet Harbor.
Pays living stipends to fourteen women from old network who chose remain under new identities.
That could be benevolent.
But control?
Payments conditioned on confidentiality.
Some women financially dependent.
Charles still manages silence.
Modern blackmail disguised support.
One recipient recently tried stop agreement.
Name hidden.
Thomas believed it was Margaret.
If Margaret reemerged, she could expose Harlan.
Motive.
Then Harlan attorneys approached federal authorities offering full cooperation in exchange for privacy protections for recipients.
Why sudden?
Because Thomas exposed.
Charles perhaps calculating.
Before deal progressed, Charles Harlan requested private meeting with me and Vincent.
Maya advised no without counsel.
We met federal office.
Charles was elegant old man with oxygen cannula.
Not cartoon villain.
He looked tired.
“My uncle William was a bastard.”
Strong opening.
“He used St. Verena.”
“Did you?”
“I inherited it.”
“Inherited what?”
“Payments. Agreements. Fear.”
“Did you continue?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because some women wanted money and anonymity.”
“And those who didn't?”
Silence.
Vincent leaned:
“My father tried expose you.”
Charles looked.
“Your father had bloodier hands than mine.”
“Answer.”
“Yes.”
Dominic confronted Harlans.
“He threatened release names.”
“Why didn't?”
Charles looked at Vincent.
“Because your mother was kidnapped.”
Vincent went completely still.
“What?”
No one had ever told.
“When?”
“1997.”
Vincent was maybe young child? Let's say thirteen.
Charles continued.
“Not by us.”
“Then who?”
“Miriam Vale.”
St. Verena lawyer.
“She took your mother for forty-eight hours to remind Dominic what disclosure cost.”
Vincent stood so fast chair fell.
I grabbed hand.
His face went empty.
“What happened?”
“Dominic stopped.”
His father’s silence was bought through threat to family.
Then Charles said:
“He did one more thing before surrendering.”
“What?”
“He got Margaret Colonna out.”
There.
Dominic helped Margaret escape.
“Where?”
Charles shook.
“I never knew.”
Then he looked at me.
“But Margaret knew where every original ledger was buried.”
“Buried?”
“Not metaphorically.”
And suddenly we had reason somebody wanted her.
The records in trunk were copies.
The original master ledger containing names of buyers, judges, hospitals, payments—
had never been found.
Margaret Colonna may have hidden it somewhere thirty years earlier.
If she was still alive, people were not hunting a woman.
May you like
They were hunting what she knew.
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