Chapter 13
Celeste’s bank statement did not solve the case.
It gave investigators another path.
The payment had entered her dormant business account from Northbridge.
At Marcus’s request, she transferred it the same day to a vehicle-recovery company.
Daniel Price’s company.
Celeste had believed Marcus was avoiding a tax lien connected to Northbridge.
It was illegal enough that she had kept quiet.
That silence later became leverage.
Marcus repeatedly reminded her that her name appeared in the transaction.
Investigators compared the transfer with Daniel’s phone and bank records obtained through legal process.
A pattern emerged.
Marcus and Daniel had communicated several times during the week before Anna’s death.
The calls stopped immediately afterward.
Peter Sloan confirmed Marcus had requested that Anna’s sedan service never appear electronically.
The venue’s transportation director confirmed Marcus personally changed the vehicle assignments.
A former Corsini driver remembered Marcus asking an unusual question that evening:
“Which black sedan leaves first if Raffaele changes his schedule?”
No single witness had the whole story.
Together, they built one.
Daniel Price eventually agreed to speak through counsel.
He did not confess to intending murder.
He admitted Marcus paid him to follow the Corsini sedan and “force a stop” so Marcus’s people could intercept Raffaele.
Investigators would determine how much of that claim they believed.
What mattered to Raffaele was simpler.
Daniel knew Raffaele was expected inside.
Anna was not.
Marcus had created the operation.
Anna died during it.
Claire prepared Raffaele for his own legal problem too.
The departure-hall violence had not disappeared.
Marcus swinging first supported Raffaele’s self-defense claim regarding the punch.
Celeste’s attempt to seize Lucy helped explain why he intervened physically.
It did not automatically justify striking her.
Raffaele agreed to answer questions.
No private arrangement.
No pressure on witnesses.
No family solution.
That decision surprised several senior associates.
One asked him privately:
“You’re really handing Marcus to outsiders?”
Raffaele looked at him.
“I’m handing evidence to people whose job is to decide what it proves.”
“That isn’t how your father handled family.”
“My father is dead.”
The answer ended the conversation.
By the end of the week, prosecutors had enough material to present parts of the case for further proceedings.
Marcus’s attorney requested one last meeting.
Not to confess.
To negotiate cooperation.
Marcus wanted protection on the financial investigation in exchange for information about Daniel.
Raffaele read the proposal.
Then handed it back to Claire.
“He still thinks this is business.”
Claire nodded.
“What do you want?”
Raffaele looked toward Anna’s photograph.
“I want the last decision to be his.”
May you like
Marcus could tell the full truth while it still cost him something.
Or he could keep bargaining until nobody needed his version anymore.
