Chapter 3 - THE NECKLACE
The old greenhouse was visible from the ballroom like a dark glass box at the edge of the winter garden.
Vincent had not stepped inside it since the spring before Sofia vanished.
Sofia had loved the place because it smelled like wet soil and lemon leaves even in January.
After she disappeared, Vincent ordered the gardeners to close it.
He told himself he did it because the heating system was expensive.
Everyone who knew him understood the real reason.
Grace looked through the ballroom windows and tightened her grip on Emily's hand.
"Daniel knew about the greenhouse," she said.
"He repaired the irrigation lines for Sofia once."
Vincent nodded.
"Marco will search it."
Emily shook her head.
"Dad said to look where the house keeps summer alive."
"That is the greenhouse."
"He said I should tell them."
Grace crouched beside her.
"Sweetheart, you already did."
Emily looked uncertain.
"Maybe he meant I was supposed to go too."
Grace's answer came instantly.
"No."
Vincent agreed.
"Absolutely not."
Emily's chin lifted with the offended dignity only an eight-year-old could manage in a ballroom full of adults.
"Then why tell a kid?"
Nobody had a quick answer.
Dominic gave a humorless half smile.
"She has a point."
Vincent looked at him.
Dominic raised both hands slightly.
"I am not volunteering to argue with her mother."
The tension in the room loosened for less than a second.
Then Marco returned carrying a tangle of old charging cables.
"We found three that might fit."
Emily immediately sat at the edge of the marble signing table.
Marco connected the first cable.
Nothing happened.
The second did not fit.
The third slid into the worn port.
A tiny red battery icon appeared.
Emily smiled.
Grace did not.
"Do not turn it on until it has enough charge," she said.
Marco nodded.
"We can clone the storage before opening anything."
Vincent looked at him.
"Do it in front of me."
"Yes, sir."
Isabella had remained beside the table throughout the confrontation, but she had said almost nothing since the recording mentioned a second key.
Vincent finally turned toward her.
"The necklace."
Isabella's fingers moved toward it automatically.
Then she stopped herself.
"What about it?"
"Sofia said the second key would already be in the room if they followed the plan."
"You think she meant this?"
"You touched it the moment she said it."
Isabella looked at the pendant resting against her ivory dress.
"Because I realized I had seen the design before."
Vincent's eyes narrowed.
"Where?"
"In a photograph of Sofia."
Grace inhaled sharply.
Vincent stepped closer.
"Take it off."
Isabella did not move.
"Vincent, I did not steal this from your wife."
"Then taking it off should be easy."
Her cheeks flushed.
"You think I knew she was alive."
"I do not know what I think yet."
Isabella held his gaze.
Then she reached behind her neck and opened the clasp.
The silver pendant dropped into her palm.
She placed it on the marble table between them.
Vincent stared at it without touching it.
Two narrow silver leaves curved around a small oval stone the color of deep water.
Grace stepped closer.
"That belonged to Sofia."
Isabella shook her head.
"Charles gave it to me."
The room seemed to tilt again.
Vincent looked at her.
"When?"
"Eighteen months ago."
"Why?"
"He said it had belonged to your mother."
Vincent's expression turned cold.
"My mother never owned anything like that."
Isabella swallowed.
"He told me it was a Moretti family piece and that you would recognize it when you were ready."
"I have seen you wear it dozens of times."
"I assumed you did recognize it."
Vincent shook his head.
"Sofia almost never wore jewelry in the house."
Grace reached toward the pendant but stopped before touching it.
"She wore this once."
Emily looked up.
"At the laundry room castle."
Everyone turned toward her.
Emily pointed at the necklace.
"That is where I saw it."
Grace stared at her daughter.
"You remember that?"
"She leaned over to tape the cardboard roof, and the blue stone hit the box."
Emily tapped the marble table with one finger.
"It made a little click."
Vincent picked up the pendant.
He turned it over.
The back looked smooth except for a fine scratch near one leaf.
"Marco."
The security chief produced a small flashlight.
Vincent held the pendant beneath it.
A faint engraving appeared along the inner edge of the silver.
S.M.
Isabella closed her eyes.
"God."
Dominic moved closer.
"There is something else."
He pointed to the second leaf.
A narrow seam ran along its base.
Vincent pressed it with his thumbnail.
Nothing happened.
Emily leaned forward.
"The blue part."
Vincent glanced at her.
"What about it?"
"Turn it."
"Why?"
"Because Sofia let me turn it when we were making the castle."
Grace looked astonished.
"She let you play with that necklace?"
Emily shrugged.
"Only the blue part."
Vincent took the pendant between his fingers and carefully rotated the stone.
It resisted at first.
Then it moved half a turn.
A tiny click came from inside the silver leaves.
The second leaf opened like a narrow lid.
Inside was a key no longer than a fingernail.
Dominic whispered a curse.
Isabella stepped backward.
"I swear I never knew."
Vincent lifted the tiny key.
A number had been stamped along its side.
317.
Grace stared at it.
"Locker number?"
Marco shook his head.
"Too small for a standard locker key."
Dominic looked toward the estate plans framed on the far wall.
"Safety box."
Vincent turned to him.
"Where?"
"Old family vaults sometimes use keys that size."
Dominic's gaze stayed on the number.
"There are deposit drawers in the wine cellar."
Vincent frowned.
"Those are numbered in the five hundreds."
Dominic nodded slowly.
"The greenhouse seed cabinets used three-digit locks."
Grace looked toward the windows.
The greenhouse seemed farther away now.
Vincent placed the key in a small evidence envelope Marco provided.
"We search the greenhouse first."
Marco spoke quietly.
"I recommend we clear it before you go."
"Do it."
He turned toward the guards.
"Two men around the outside perimeter, two inside, no one enters until I say."
The guards moved.
Vincent looked at Grace.
"Emily stays here."
Grace nodded immediately.
Emily opened her mouth.
Grace gave her one look.
Emily closed it.
"With me," Grace said.
Vincent then turned to Isabella.
"You stay too."
Her expression sharpened.
"Because you do not trust me?"
"Because I do not trust anyone right now."
Dominic gave a short breath that might have been a laugh if the room had been different.
"Including me?"
Vincent looked at his cousin.
"Especially people I have trusted for years."
Dominic's face closed.
"Fair enough."
Marco returned five minutes later.
"Greenhouse perimeter is clear."
"Inside?"
"Front door is still chained from the outside."
Vincent looked at him.
"Still?"
Marco hesitated.
"The chain is old, but the padlock is not."
That changed the room again.
"How new?"
"Months, not years."
Vincent took his coat from a chair.
"Open it."
He and Dominic followed Marco through the east corridor.
Outside, the December air cut across the terrace and turned every breath white.
The garden paths were edged with bare hedges and patches of old snow.
The greenhouse waited beyond the fountain with its dark glass walls reflecting the mansion behind them.
Marco's men stood at opposite corners.
One held the newly cut padlock in a gloved hand.
"No visible movement inside."
Vincent stepped through the open door.
The smell hit him first.
Wet earth.
Rust.
And faintly, impossibly, lemon leaves.
Someone had been watering the old trees.
The greenhouse should have been dead.
Instead, half the irrigation system was running.
Dominic crouched beside a clay pot.
"Soil is fresh."
Vincent looked toward the center aisle.
Dust covered most of the floor.
But not all of it.
A narrow track had been swept recently from the rear door to the old potting bench.
Marco raised a hand.
"Stay behind me."
Vincent ignored him and walked forward.
The potting bench looked exactly as he remembered it.
Sofia's old brass scissors still hung from a hook.
Three ceramic pots sat upside down near the wall.
A cracked wooden clock shaped like a sunflower hung above the seed cabinets.
Its hands had stopped at 10:40.
Vincent stared at it.
"That clock was not here before."
Dominic looked up.
"You sure?"
"Sofia hated decorative clocks."
Marco moved toward it.
Vincent stopped him.
"Wait."
The words from Sofia's recording returned to him.
I hid the first key where winter roses cannot grow.
Emily's memory returned too.
Look where the house keeps summer alive.
Vincent reached for the sunflower clock.
It came away from the wall more easily than it should have.
Behind it was a square recess.
Inside lay a small tin box wrapped in brittle plastic.
Dominic stared.
"How long has that been there?"
Vincent pulled the box out.
"Long enough."
The lid was secured with a tiny brass lock.
Stamped beneath it was the number 317.
Vincent looked at Dominic.
Then he removed the evidence envelope from his coat.
The pendant key slid perfectly into the lock.
Inside the box were three things.
A folded ledger page.
A memory card sealed in wax paper.
And a photograph.
Vincent picked up the photograph first.
It had been taken through a car windshield on a winter night.
Sofia stood near the estate's rear gate.
Her face was turned toward someone beside her.
The person had been partly cut off by the frame.
Only one arm and one shoulder remained visible.
The man wore a dark wool coat.
On his wrist was a silver watch with a cracked black face.
Dominic stopped breathing.
Vincent looked at him.
May you like
Dominic slowly pulled back his sleeve.
On his wrist was the same watch.
