Chapter 12 - The Chicago Subpoena
The black SUV glided through the neon-drenched rain of downtown Chicago at midnight. Towers of dark steel and rain-slicked glass soared into the fog above, a stark contrast to the quiet rolling hills of the Indiana vineyard.
Sitting in the back seat, Clara reviewed a stack of digitized medical records on her tablet. Next to her, Alessio checked the action on his concealed sidearm with quiet, practiced familiarity.
"The medical ledgers don't add up, Alessio," Clara said, turning the screen toward him. "When Leo was poisoned two years ago at Chicago Presbyterian, the official chart listed a rare metabolic reaction. But these encrypted billing logs from Thorne’s shadow company show thousands of dollars moving into the hospital's private pharmacy account on the exact night Leo fell ill."
Alessio’s eyes darkened. "So the poisoning wasn't just a political hit by the Cicero Capos."
"No," Clara said coldly. "It was an experiment. A manufactured emergency designed to trigger Don Vito’s emergency financial clause—which forced him to sign Thorne's collateral agreement."
Their vehicle pulled into the underground parking structure beneath Chicago Presbyterian Hospital. Rain dripped from the concrete ceiling as Clara and Alessio stepped out, flanked by Marco and two trusted vineyard security guards.
They took the private service elevator straight to the third-floor administrative archives. The hallway was silent, smelling of floor wax and antiseptic.
Clara swiped her old chief nurse keycard at the heavy vault door. To her surprise, the indicator light flashed green.
"Still active?" Alessio asked, his hand resting near his holster.
"My administrative access was never formally revoked by the board," Clara whispered, pushing the heavy door open.
Inside, row upon row of physical paper records sat in steel filing cabinets. Clara navigated straight to Section 4—Pediatric Trauma, Year 2024. She pulled open file box 88-B and extracted a thick, black-bound ledger.
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Suddenly, the overhead fluorescent lights flickered and died, plunging the archives into pitch blackness.
The heavy steel vault door slammed shut behind them with a deafening metallic boom.
