Mac shook her head. “Nothing wrong with my eyesight. Trust me.” A sniper’s eyes are their most important weapon, aside from their rifle. “I’m sorry you lost your friend.”
It was true, she felt bad for the loss Henry had experienced. That didn’t mean Mac was sorry her uncle was dead.
Sadness filled the older man’s brown eyes. “I will miss him dearly. I know you and Tony parted ways in a sudden and…unexpected manner. But he cared about you more than you knew.”
“I’m not so sure about that.”
“Well, I am. And I have proof.”
“Proof?”
“I wasn’t going to do this here”—he reached into the inner pocket of his suit coat—“but I suppose now’s as good a time as any.” Henry handed her a folded document made up of several stapled papers.
Her eyes glanced over the top sheet. “You’re giving me a copy of Tony’s will?”
“Keep reading.”
Doing as she’d been told, Mac continued scanning the papers. She felt her jaw drop when she got to the bottom of the second page. Her eyes shot up to his.
“He left me hisestate?”
Henry smiled. “I told you he cared about you. Now, Luca Marino, you remember your uncle’s assistant, right? Anyway, Luca had been staying with your uncle for the past few weeks. With Tony’s health deteriorating so quickly, he needed someone to be there around the clock. He didn’t want a bunch of strangers staying in his house, so his doctor came by a couple times a week. Luca moved in so someone would always be there in case he needed assistance.”
Luca playing nursemaid? Yeah, that definitely doesn’t sound odd at all.
“Henry, this makes no sense. Tony and I hadn’t spoken a single word to each other since the night before I left.”
“Apparently that didn’t matter. Despite your differences, your uncle said he wanted to make sure you were taken care of. Those were his exact words to me the day he changed the will.”
Mac was shocked. “I-I don’t know what to say.”
“Say you’ll have lunch with me tomorrow. You can sign all the required documents and get the keys, and you and I can catch up before you go take a look at the old place.”
Mac’s mind was still a swirling mess. “Um…sure. O-okay.”
“Excellent. Why don’t you meet me at my office, and we can go from there? You remember where its located?”
“Still in the same building on the edge of town?”
“The very same.”
“One o’clock okay?”
The man beamed with excitement. “Sounds perfect. That way, we’ll miss the lunch rush.”
“I guess I’ll see you then.”
“Until tomorrow, Abigail.”
Stunned by the unexpected turn of events, Mac glanced up the street at the black car again. She wondered if the man inside had witnessed the conversation.
Deciding not to wait for the funeral procession to begin, she slid inside her rental and took off for the cemetery. As expected, the black car pulled out behind her, following her the entire way.
With a plan in place, she called upon her training to clear her head and keep an eye on her surroundings. She needed to stay focused and remember why she was here.
By the time she got to the cemetery, Mac felt like her calm and steady self again.
Nearly a half hour later, she stood at the gravesite with the others, listening as Father Medina recited one final, departing prayer for Anthony Moretti’s soul. Several had chosen to come to the outdoor service. Once it had concluded, however, it took no time for the crowd to dissipate.
