Nele Neuhaus - Swimming with Sharks

Nick, Connors, and Shepard stared at the woman in astonishment.

“Are you surprised to see me?” asked Constanzia Vitali. For a moment she almost seemed amused. Nick remembered Alex telling him that Mrs. Vitali had separated from her husband and that she wanted to talk to him. He had completely forgotten.

“We surely are,” Connors said. “What’s on those videotapes?”

Constanzia Vitali put her meticulously manicured hand on the tapes and smiled sadly. The three men waited impatiently.

“This,” she said after a while, “is the testimony of Nelson van Mieren, my husband’s long-time lawyer and confidant.”

Connors opened his eyes wide.

“Testimony? What kind of testimony?”

“Everything that you need to put Sergio Vitali behind bars for the rest of his life.”

The three men looked at each other, bewildered. Connors was the first to regain his faculties.

“Is… is that true?” he asked.

“Yes. See for yourself. I think it’ll be quite revealing.”

“Excuse us for being surprised,” Nick said slowly. “Might I ask what motivated Mr. van Mieren, and especially you, to take this step?”

Constanzia Vitali looked at him for quite some time and then asked to sit down.

“Nelson was diagnosed terminal cancer,” she said. “He realized his wrongs. He might have kept his mouth shut if Sergio hadn’t lied to him.”

“Lied?”

“It’s all on the tapes.” She gestured vaguely with her hand.

“And what about you?” Connors asked. “Why do you want to testify against your husband?”

“Because I hate him,” the woman exclaimed with unexpected vehemence. “He has humiliated me and lied to me for thirty long years. He only married me because Carlo Gambino was my father. Sergio wanted my father’s connections, and as you can see, he succeeded.”

She sighed.

“I had to endure so much sorrow. I’ve tried to ignore all the corpses my husband left behind on his way to the top. But they reappear in my nightmares. And still, I tried to live with it. Until the day when Sergio ordered the murder of my son.”

“I knew it,” Connors murmured. “I’ve always doubted it was suicide.”

“My husband ordered one of his men to kill Cesare and make it look like suicide.” Her lips were quivering. She shook her head impatiently. “My boy was killed by his own father.”

Tears sparkled in her big brown eyes, but she straightened her shoulders and managed to suppress the pain that still haunted her.

“I left my husband because I could no longer bear to be married to someone who had his own son killed like a stray dog.”

“Do you have any evidence that your husband is behind this?” Connors’s voice was breathless with excitement.

“Yes,” Constanzia Vitali said, nodding, “it’s all on the tapes.”

She was silent for a moment and then looked at Nick.

“Mr. Kostidis,” she said quietly, “I know that Sergio Vitali is responsible for the deaths of your wife and son. I’m terribly sorry about it. Believe me—I know how horrible it is to bury your own child.”

Nick stared at her and then nodded slowly. He struggled to remain calm and composed.

“Sergio is a monster,” she continued, “an ice-cold beast without human emotions. He kills anyone who’s in his way or could threaten him. But I’m not afraid of him anymore. He’s taken from me what I loved the most. I have nothing left to lose. Before I die, I want revenge and retribution for what he did.”

Lloyd Connors could hardly believe it. Never before in the history of legal action against the Mafia had there been a key witness this far up in the families’ hierarchy. Nelson van Mieren was an insider—no, he was the insider of the Vitali clan. He alone could break Sergio Vitali’s back and help them close countless unsolved murder cases.

“Mrs. Vitali,” Connors asked, trembling with excitement and triumph, “will Mr. van Mieren be willing to testify against your husband in a court trial?”

“I afraid he can’t do that,” Constanzia Vitali answered, dashing Connors’s hopes.

“Why not? He already recorded his testimony on video!”

“Nelson put a bullet through his head on Sunday afternoon,” Constanzia Vitali replied. “He’s not dead yet, but he’s in a coma. Even if he survives, he won’t be able to testify.”

Alex had understood Justin’s warning. It could only mean that Sergio’s people had already found and captured him. She quickly packed her bags and left the hotel through a back exit. Without a moment’s hesitation, she headed to Germany in her rental car. It had unsettled her very much that neither Justin nor Nick had heard from Mark or Oliver. She had called both of them repeatedly, and she had to use every bit of willpower to suppress the trembling that overcame her when she thought about Sergio. What would Sergio do to these three completely innocent men? The thought that someone could be harmed just for helping her caused her terrible feelings of guilt. What would happen if she returned to New York and went to the FBI? Would they believe that she was innocent? Her disappearance was still in the headlines of every American newspaper. Her picture was everywhere.

Alex chewed her lip. She had stepped on a hornet’s nest, and now the hornets were swarming. Ever since she’d handed the bank statements to Nick, the situation had gotten out of control. He had passed them on to the US Attorney’s Office. Sergio wouldn’t rest until he got his revenge for this humiliation. She couldn’t possibly be on the run from him for the rest of her life.

In Basel, she crossed the border into Germany without a problem. Just after Freiburg, she exited to fill up and buy cigarettes and a few phone cards; then she walked to a telephone booth. It was about noon in New York right now. Alex dialed Mark’s extension at LMI with shaking fingers. Mark didn’t answer, but an entirely different voice did.

“Hello,” she said in a French accent, “this is Hélène Lelièvre from Prudential Securities. Mr. Ashton?”

“No, Mr. Ashton is away from his desk at the moment.”

“Oh, when will he be back?” Alex realized that she was talking to her employee Tom Burns. “He asked me to call him right back, that it was urgent.”

“I have no idea when he’ll be back. He hasn’t been in the office for the last four days.”

Alex hung up. She leaned against the wall of the phone booth, her heart pounding. Mark had been gone for four days. That could not be good! She decided to try calling Oliver again. But he didn’t answer. As she dialed Nick’s number, she was close to tears. She needed to return to New York! Nick answered the phone right away, sounding very concerned.

“Alex,” he said in a muted voice, “where are you? Are you all right?”

“Yes, I’m okay. Have you heard from Mark Ashton?” she asked.

“No, but I found out where Oliver Skerritt is,” Nick replied. “He’s been sitting in a cell at the police headquarters for four days.”

“Why?” Alex almost dropped the telephone receiver. “Where is he now?”

“I managed to get him out. I had him brought to a safe place,” Nick answered. “He’s doing reasonably well.”

Alex felt miserable.

“I’ll never forgive myself that all of the people who were only trying to help me are in danger,” she sobbed. “They nabbed Justin yesterday. Nick, what should I do? I can’t just stand by and watch what this man is doing to my friends!”

“Come back to the city,” Nick pleaded. “I’ll pick you up from the airport and make sure that nothing happens to you.”

“I won’t drag you into this as well.” Alex wiped away her tears. “Out of the question. Vitali would kill us both!”