Chapter 6 - CELESTE ROMANO
Isabella did not cry when she said her sister's name.
She simply stared at the frozen security image as if grief had become too old to behave dramatically.
"Celeste died eighteen months ago," she said.
Vincent looked from the screen to the pendant on the table.
"According to whom?"
Isabella finally turned toward him.
"According to the police in Switzerland."
"Did you see her body?"
"No."
"Did anyone in your family?"
"There is no one else."
The answer came with a bitterness that made Grace look at her differently.
Isabella continued before Vincent could ask another question.
"Our parents died when I was twenty-two."
"Celeste was all I had."
"She moved to Europe after that and stopped coming home."
Vincent pointed to the screen.
"Yet three years ago she was standing at my rear gate with my wife."
"I did not know."
"She was wearing Sofia's necklace."
"I did not know that either."
Vincent's gaze hardened.
"And eighteen months after this footage was recorded, Charles gave the same necklace to you."
Isabella looked at Charles.
For the first time, the calm elegance she had carried through every Moretti dinner and charity event disappeared completely.
"You told me it belonged to Vincent's mother."
Charles said nothing.
"You knew it was Celeste's."
Still nothing.
Isabella stepped toward him.
"You knew where my sister was."
Charles's voice remained measured.
"I knew many people professionally."
"Do not speak to me like I am a client."
Her voice cracked through the room.
Emily flinched.
Grace placed an arm around her.
Isabella saw the movement and immediately lowered her voice.
"Did you know Celeste was alive when you told me she was dead?"
Charles looked at Vincent instead of answering.
"This has gone far enough."
Vincent almost laughed.
"You do not decide where this goes anymore."
Marco resumed the recovered security video.
At 10:55 p.m., Celeste reached Sofia.
The two women appeared to argue.
Sofia pointed toward the mansion.
Celeste shook her head and caught Sofia's wrist.
Dominic stepped between them.
The video had no audio, but his posture suggested anger.
Then Charles removed a folded document from his coat.
He held it in front of Dominic.
Dominic read it.
His shoulders dropped.
Vincent turned toward him.
"The authorization."
Dominic nodded once.
"It had your signature."
"And that was enough for you?"
"It said Sofia had threatened to hurt herself."
Grace made a disgusted sound.
"Did she look like she was trying to hurt herself?"
Dominic did not answer.
On screen, two men in medical jackets got out of a van that had been waiting beyond the camera angle.
Sofia backed away.
She tried to run toward the house.
Celeste grabbed her coat.
One of the men caught Sofia by the arms.
Vincent's chair scraped backward.
His face had gone gray.
"Stop."
Marco paused the video.
Vincent looked at Dominic.
"You watched them take her."
Dominic's voice came out rough.
"Charles said it was temporary."
"You watched them take my wife."
"I thought you ordered it."
Vincent crossed the space between them so quickly that Marco stepped in front of him.
"Move."
"Not while you are angry."
"I said move."
"And I said no."
Vincent glared at his security chief.
Marco did not shift.
Dominic remained where he was.
"Hit me if you need to," he said.
"It will not change what I did."
Vincent's hands clenched.
Then Emily's voice came from behind Grace.
"Mr. Vincent."
He looked at her.
Emily was staring at the paused video.
"There is another car."
Everyone turned back to the laptop.
At the far edge of the frame, behind the service gate, two headlights were visible through the trees.
Marco enlarged the image.
A dark SUV sat on the public road.
Only part of the license plate could be seen.
Emily tilted her head.
"I remember that one."
Grace looked down sharply.
"From when?"
"From Daddy."
"Emily, your father never showed you this video."
"Not the video."
Emily frowned as she worked through the memory.
"He drew the numbers on my chalkboard."
Grace stared at her.
"What numbers?"
"A car number."
"When?"
"Before he died."
Emily looked frustrated now.
"He told me it was a remembering game."
Vincent knelt so his face was level with hers.
"Can you remember the game?"
Grace opened her mouth to object.
Vincent raised one hand gently.
"Only if she wants to."
Emily looked at the enlarged plate.
"It had seven things."
"Letters and numbers?"
"Yes."
"Do you remember any?"
Emily closed her eyes.
Everyone waited.
"K."
She opened her eyes.
"Then maybe four."
"Anything else?"
"Seven at the end."
Marco wrote it down.
K?4??7.
Emily shook her head.
"No."
"What is wrong?" Grace asked.
"Daddy made a rhyme."
Emily tapped her fingers against her leg.
"King, moon, four, river, river, seven."
Dominic frowned.
"That is six."
"Because the moon was two things."
Marco looked at Vincent.
"Could be K M M 4 R R 7."
Vincent shook his head.
"New York plates do not follow that sequence."
Grace suddenly inhaled.
"Not a plate."
Everyone looked at her.
"Daniel used inventory codes."
"For what?" Marco asked.
"Vehicles, generators, tools, anything owned through estate companies."
She looked at Emily.
"King, moon, four, river, river, seven."
Emily nodded eagerly.
Grace turned to Vincent.
"K-M-4-R-R-7."
Dominic went still.
Vincent saw it.
"You know that code."
Dominic looked at the SUV on screen.
"Kane Medical."
Marco frowned.
"What is Kane Medical?"
"An old transport contractor."
Vincent's eyes narrowed.
"We sold that company eight years ago."
"On paper."
Dominic's answer made the room colder.
"What does that mean?"
Dominic rubbed his jaw.
"The buyer was Harbor Light Consulting."
Vincent stared at him.
The same company name was written eight times on Sofia's ledger page.
Marco pulled up a secure corporate database on another isolated device.
The search took less than two minutes.
HARBOR LIGHT CONSULTING LLC appeared as a Delaware entity with no public operating address.
Its registered agent was a law firm in Manhattan.
Bellamy, Price & Cole.
Charles's firm.
Vincent leaned back slowly.
"You owned the company that transported my wife."
Charles's voice stayed cool.
"My firm registers hundreds of entities."
"Not an answer."
"It is the only answer you are getting without counsel."
Dominic gave him a stunned look.
"You are counsel."
"Not my own."
Vincent nodded toward the guards.
"Take him back to the library."
Charles did not move immediately.
"If you lock me in that room again, this becomes unlawful confinement."
Vincent stepped closer.
"Call the police."
Charles's eyes narrowed.
"I intend to."
"Good."
Vincent pointed toward the recovered footage.
"Show them that first."
For the first time, Charles looked uncertain about whether he had calculated the room correctly.
The guards escorted him away.
Isabella remained by the table, staring at the pendant.
"Celeste was involved."
Grace answered softly.
"We do not know why."
"She helped them take Sofia."
"Yes."
"And Charles gave me her necklace after telling me she was dead."
Vincent studied Isabella.
"Why did you meet Charles in the first place?"
Isabella's expression tightened.
"He contacted me after Celeste's supposed death."
"Why?"
"He said she had left debts."
Dominic looked suspicious.
"What kind of debts?"
"Medical debts."
"Where?"
Isabella looked at him.
"A private clinic called Saint Agnes Recovery House."
Grace's hand tightened around Emily's shoulder.
Vincent looked at Marco.
"Search it."
Marco typed.
A result appeared.
SAINT AGNES RECOVERY HOUSE - CLOSED.
The listed address was in northern Vermont.
The facility had closed fourteen months earlier after a state licensing investigation.
Marco opened an archived business filing.
The managing company appeared on screen.
HARBOR LIGHT HEALTH SERVICES.
Vincent stood.
"There is our North Program."
Isabella stared at the address.
"Celeste told me she was getting treatment in Vermont."
"For what?"
"She never said."
Isabella swallowed.
"She sent me three letters from there."
Vincent's gaze sharpened.
"Do you still have them?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
"My apartment in Manhattan."
Marco shook his head.
"Nobody leaves the estate until we clear the roads."
Isabella nodded.
Then she looked toward the pendant again.
"There is something else."
Vincent waited.
"The last letter Celeste sent me was not from Switzerland."
"I only realized that after she died."
"What do you mean?"
"The envelope had a Vermont postmark."
She closed her eyes.
"And there was one sentence I thought was nonsense."
Vincent's voice became quiet.
"What sentence?"
Isabella opened her eyes.
May you like
"She wrote, 'The woman in Room Seventeen still believes her husband will come.'"
Nobody in the ballroom moved.
