Chapter 27 - MARTIN CAME TO OUR HOUSE
He arrived at 7:10 on a Sunday morning.
No lawyer.
No security.
Martin Devereux stood behind our ordinary wooden fence wearing a wool coat.
Roman saw him through the window.
Everything inside my husband changed.
“Stay here.”
He stopped.
Closed his eyes.
Turned back.
“Sorry.”
I almost smiled.
“Better.”
“What do you want to do?”
“I want him inside.”
Roman looked appalled.
“Savannah.”
“We have federal surveillance.”
“He may be armed.”
“He’s seventy-one.”
“That has never stopped anybody in my family.”
Fair.
Agent Avery’s team was six minutes away.
We waited.
Then let Martin enter.
He looked around our house.
Children’s shoes.
Toys.
School photographs.
No guards visible.
“You really did leave it all.”
Roman said nothing.
Martin smiled.
“Salvatore would be disappointed.”
Roman’s jaw tightened.
“No.”
Martin’s smile faded.
“He was leaving too.”
That landed.
“You knew.”
“I knew everything about your father.”
“Did you kill my mother?”
Martin looked at him.
“No.”
“Did you order Walter Vale to crash into her?”
“No.”
I watched carefully.
He did not look nervous.
Roman asked:
“Did you sabotage her car?”
Martin paused.
Tiny.
Almost nothing.
There.
I saw it.
So did Roman.
“You did.”
Martin sighed.
“I told Graham Pike to frighten her.”
Roman moved.
I stepped between them.
Not because I could physically stop him.
Because he would stop for me.
He did.
Martin continued.
“Pike damaged a brake line. He told me it would fail gradually.”
Roman’s face emptied.
“He lied.”
“I learned that afterward.”
“You killed her.”
“No.”
Martin’s voice sharpened.
“Pike killed her.”
“You paid him.”
“Yes.”
Silence.
There it was.
Not courtroom proof.
But confession.
Recorded from three separate devices.
Martin must have known.
Which meant—
I understood first.
“You came here to confess.”
He looked at me.
Roman realized it too.
“Why?”
Martin sat down.
Suddenly he looked old.
“Because Carlo is going to have me killed.”
Roman laughed.
“Carlo is in federal prison.”
Martin looked at him.
“And you still think prison ends power?”
My stomach tightened.
Martin explained that Carlo had learned Devereux diverted millions from the trust.
Money Carlo believed belonged to him.
From prison, he had contacted former associates.
Martin was afraid.
“You want protection.”
“Yes.”
Roman stared at him.
“From me?”
“No.”
Martin almost smiled.
“From the government.”
Agent Avery entered thirty seconds later.
Martin did not resist.
Before they took him away, Roman asked one final question.
“My father?”
Martin stopped.
“Did you kill him too?”
For the first time, Martin looked almost ashamed.
“No.”
Roman’s shoulders lowered slightly.
May you like
Then Martin said:
“Carlo did.”
