Chapter 11 - The Face That Wasn'T Mine12
12
I stared at the photograph until the room felt unreal.
"Two years ago?"
Nico nodded.
"According to the embedded timestamp."
"I had never heard of Bell Street Exchange two years ago."
"I believe you."
"Then who is that?"
He zoomed in.
The image quality was poor, but the resemblance was impossible to dismiss.
The woman wore her hair exactly as I had worn mine then.
She even carried a canvas tote from a grocery store near my apartment.
"Somebody studied me."
The thought made my skin crawl.
Nico's expression turned cold.
"Yes."
"For two years?"
"Possibly longer."
I shook my head.
"Why?"
"Because of Eleanor."
"My grandmother had been dead for almost ten years."
"That does not mean her enemies stopped being afraid of what she left behind."
I looked again.
Something bothered me.
Not the face.
The hands.
The woman was signing a document.
She held the pen in her left hand.
I am right-handed.
"There."
I pointed.
Nico leaned closer.
"Left hand."
"I can't write with my left."
His eyes sharpened.
"Good."
"Good?"
"A flaw."
"A woman wearing my face is not what I would call good."
"It is evidence she is an imitation."
Grace entered.
Nico showed her the image.
She looked unimpressed for exactly six seconds.
Then she saw the hand.
"Useful."
"Why does everyone call horrifying things useful?"
Grace ignored me.
"The prosecution has a problem."
"Only one?"
"Julian's statement is collapsing."
She placed a stack of printed images on the table.
The birthday livestream showed me at table eleven during the time he claimed I was near the brass strip.
Another customer's photograph captured Julian himself standing beside the VIP booth at 8:51.
In his hand was a white service cloth.
My heartbeat accelerated.
"Can you see the floor?"
Grace slid over the next image.
The brass strip reflected light beneath him.
A wet sheen ran across it.
"Oh my God."
Nico's face went lethal.
"He did it."
Grace shook her head.
"The image suggests he may have."
"He lied about Emma."
"That is stronger."
"Where is he?"
Grace gave Nico a look.
"You are going to do nothing illegal to Mr. Julian Hart."
"I was going to ask him questions."
"Your version of asking questions has a reputation."
"Unfairly exaggerated."
"Nico."
"Grace."
I almost laughed.
"Now I understand how I sound to you."
He ignored me.
At the morning hearing, Grace dismantled Julian's timeline piece by piece.
She presented the livestream.
The customer photograph.
The left-handed woman at Bell Street.
Then she produced phone records showing my device had connected to Lumina's employee Wi-Fi while the suspicious messages were being sent from an IP address across town.
The prosecutor looked furious.
The judge released me pending investigation.
Not because I was cleared.
Because the evidence had become too contaminated to justify detention.
It should have felt like victory.
It did not.
Outside the courthouse, reporters screamed my name.
"Emma, did Nico Valenti pay you to save his son?"
"Emma, are you romantically involved with him?"
"Emma, did you stage the attack?"
"Emma, are you part of the Valenti organization?"
The questions came faster than footsteps.
A reporter shoved a microphone so close it hit my chin.
Nico appeared beside me.
The crowd recoiled without anyone being told to.
He took my elbow and guided me through.
"Do not answer."
"I wasn't planning to."
"Good."
A woman shouted from behind us.
"Mr. Valenti, are you sleeping with the accused?"
Nico stopped.
I grabbed his sleeve.
"Keep walking."
He looked at me.
"Please."
That worked.
He kept moving.
Inside the SUV, I finally exhaled.
"I hate everyone."
"Temporary condition."
"You seem experienced."
"Very."
Leo was waiting at the estate.
He ran toward me the moment I entered.
Then he remembered my back and stopped himself before impact.
He hugged my waist carefully.
"They said you were bad on television."
My throat tightened.
"Television says lots of stupid things."
"Papa turned it off."
"Smart papa."
Leo looked at Nico.
"I told him you didn't do it."
"Thank you."
"Because you wouldn't get cut on purpose."
"Exactly."
"That would be dumb."
"Extremely."
Nico's mouth twitched.
Marco was recovering in a guest suite under medical supervision.
When he saw me, he lifted one eyebrow.
"Celebrity."
"Prisoner."
"Former prisoner."
"Alleged criminal."
"Also fair."
Clara sat beside him with a laptop.
"We found something on the Saint Gabriel camera backups."
Nico moved closer.
"What?"
She opened a frame from six weeks earlier.
A man wearing a cap entered the facility carrying a medical case.
His face was visible in profile.
I recognized him.
"Julian."
Clara nodded.
Nico's expression darkened.
"Your restaurant manager visited the prison holding my wife and brother."
I stared at the image.
"Julian complains when he has to cross the river for a staff meeting."
Marco looked at me.
"Then someone made the trip worthwhile."
Nico turned to one of his men.
"Find him."
The man hesitated.
"Police picked Hart up an hour ago."
Grace looked up sharply.
"For what?"
"Obstruction."
"Which precinct?"
The guard checked.
"Twelfth."
Grace swore.
"Pike works Twelfth."
Nico was already moving.
Grace stepped in front of him.
"No."
"Move."
"You walk into a police station while your name is attached to an attempted murder investigation, and Vittorio gets exactly the photograph he wants."
"Julian may be killed."
"Then we use lawyers."
Nico looked like he wanted to break the concept of lawyers with his hands.
Grace called the precinct.
They denied Julian was in custody.
The arresting officer denied arresting him.
The booking desk had no record.
Julian Hart had entered a police vehicle in broad daylight and vanished.
I felt sick.
"Pike."
Grace nodded.
"Likely."
Nico looked at Marco.
"Where would Vittorio take someone he needed quiet?"
Marco considered.
"Old freight yard on Halsted."
"Too obvious."
"Boat repair warehouse near Calumet."
Nico turned toward the door.
I followed.
He stopped.
"No."
"He's my manager."
"He framed you."
"Which means I want to hear why."
"Emma."
"Also, if he sees only armed men, he may panic."
Marco looked amused.
"The waitress has a point."
Nico glared at him.
"Stop helping."
We reached the Calumet warehouse before police did because police were apparently part of the problem.
The building was empty except for one office with a light on.
Julian sat tied to a chair.
His face was swollen.
A plastic bag covered the floor around him.
I understood why and wished I did not.
"Emma?"
He stared at me as if seeing a ghost.
"You came."
"You lied about me."
He began to cry.
I felt no satisfaction.
"I am sorry."
"Why?"
"They had my wife."
My anger faltered.
"What?"
"Cancer treatment."
His words came too fast.
"Insurance denied the trial drug."
"Vittorio paid?"
Julian nodded.
"At first."
Nico's voice went cold.
"Then?"
"Then he said I owed him."
Julian looked at me.
"He told me to give David access to the employee system."
"David already had my password."
"Not the admin schedule."
"You gave him that?"
Julian cried harder.
"Yes."
"Did you put the gel on the floor?"
He shook his head violently.
"No."
"You were photographed holding a cloth beside the strip."
"I was wiping wine."
"You lied and said it was me."
"Because Pike told me my wife would lose everything if I didn't."
Nico stepped closer.
"Who applied the gel?"
Julian looked terrified.
"I don't know his name."
"Describe him."
"Tall."
"Dark coat."
"Valenti pin."
Nico's face changed.
"Which pin?"
"Silver lion."
Marco had gone still behind us.
"Only capos wear those," he said.
Nico's jaw tightened.
"Which one?"
Julian swallowed.
"He had a scar across his right hand."
Marco and Nico looked at each other.
They both knew.
"Who?" I asked.
Nico's voice turned to ice.
"Salvatore Conti."
"Your man?"
"My father's closest friend."
"Was he at your house the night Bianca disappeared?"
Nico did not answer.
Marco did.
"Yes."
Julian suddenly began choking.
I turned.
Foam appeared at the corner of his mouth.
"What is happening?"
Nico caught him before the chair fell.
Grace shouted for the medic.
Julian convulsed.
A medic rushed in.
He checked Julian's mouth.
"Poison capsule."
"He didn't take anything," I said.
The medic pulled a small broken crown from Julian's back tooth.
"Pressure release."
Marco stared.
"They put it in him before they left."
Julian's eyes found mine.
"Emma."
"I'm here."
"The ring."
His voice barely existed.
"Do not give it to Nico."
Nico went still.
"Why?"
Julian looked directly at me.
"Because the ledger says his name too."
May you like
Then his eyes closed.
