Chapter 16 - Wedding Morning
At 4:17 a.m., Celeste turned her hidden phone on again.
This time it stayed active for forty-two seconds.
The signal came from a parking garage beneath Charles Beaumont's Manhattan townhouse.
Marco's team reached the block seven minutes later.
They found Celeste's borrowed car abandoned on the third level.
The driver's door was open.
A smear of blood marked the concrete near the elevator.
No Celeste.
No Charles.
No Elena.
Nora stood behind the police barrier watching forensic technicians photograph the stain.
"Is it hers?"
Sloan shook her head.
"Too early to know."
Luca looked at the townhouse across the street.
"Search warrant?"
"Signed."
"Team is inside."
The house was almost empty.
Charles's staff had been dismissed for the week.
His office computers were wiped.
The basement safe stood open.
Documents were missing.
In the garage elevator, investigators found Celeste's broken bracelet and one strip of fabric from her dress.
There were no signs of a struggle beyond the blood.
Then Marco found the camera.
It was mounted above the garage exit and connected to a local recorder Charles had overlooked.
The footage showed Celeste arriving alone.
She waited beside the elevator.
Four minutes later, Derek Shaw appeared.
They argued.
Shaw grabbed her arm.
Celeste struck him with her handbag and ran.
He caught her near the stairwell.
Then another car entered.
Shaw released her and stepped away.
The driver's window lowered.
Celeste stared at the person inside.
Nora leaned closer to the monitor.
"Who is it?"
The angle hid the face.
Celeste opened the rear door and got in willingly.
The car drove out.
Sloan froze the frame on the license plate.
"Registered to Gabriel Ventresca."
Luca's face hardened.
"My uncle has her."
Marco called Gabriel.
No answer.
They went to his apartment.
Empty.
His phone was off.
His driver said Gabriel had dismissed him at midnight.
At 6:02 a.m., another message arrived.
This one was sent to Luca from Elena's phone, which had been left at the estate the night before.
That meant someone had returned to the house or remotely cloned her account.
The message contained a photograph.
Elena sat in a chair beside a window.
A newspaper rested on her lap.
The date was visible.
She was alive.
Behind her was a stone wall and a narrow strip of green glass.
The text beneath the photograph read:
WEDDING PROCEEDS AT FOUR.
CELESTE SIGNS.
YOU SIGN.
NO POLICE AT THE CEREMONY.
ELENA COMES HOME AFTER THE RECEPTION.
Nora looked at Luca.
"Charles changed the deadline."
Daniel shook his head.
"Or Gabriel sent this."
"We do not know who has Elena anymore."
Luca enlarged the photograph.
His mother looked directly at the camera.
Her left hand rested on the newspaper.
Her fingers formed a loose circle.
Her right index finger touched the table twice.
Nora stared.
"Is that another code?"
Sal Bellini, standing near the door, moved closer.
His face changed.
"Yes."
"What?"
"Antonio taught family drivers hand signals before radios became reliable."
"Circle means loop."
"Two taps means second route."
Marco looked at him.
"Second loop?"
Sal shook his head.
"Second route around a loop."
"A road?"
"Maybe."
Nora looked at the green glass behind Elena.
"Where in New York would she expect Luca to recognize a second route and green glass?"
Luca stared at the photograph.
Then he understood.
"Calvary."
Daniel frowned.
"The cemetery?"
"My father is buried at Calvary Cemetery."
"There are two service loops behind the family mausoleum."
Sal nodded.
"And the old caretaker chapel has green glass windows."
Marco was already on the radio.
"No marked vehicles."
"Plainclothes only."
Sloan pointed at Luca.
"You stay here."
He did not argue this time.
That scared Nora more than if he had.
At 6:39 a.m., two federal vehicles entered Calvary Cemetery through separate gates.
Nora rode with Sal because she could identify Elena immediately and because, after the last two days, nobody had enough energy left to stop her convincingly.
The caretaker chapel stood empty.
Its green glass windows matched the photograph.
On the floor was Elena's handkerchief.
Warm coffee sat in a paper cup.
They had missed her by minutes.
Outside, Sal studied tire marks in the wet grass.
"Van went east."
An agent photographed them.
Nora walked around the chapel.
Near the rear wall, she found another dried orange blossom.
This one had been tucked into a crack beside an old service map.
Nora pulled out the folded map.
A route had been circled in pencil.
It led from the cemetery through Queens to an industrial district near the East River.
At the end was an old Beaumont cold-storage warehouse.
Marco received the coordinates.
"Teams moving."
Nora stared at the map.
"Elena is doing this while they move her."
Sal smiled grimly.
"Antonio used to say she was the most dangerous person in the family because everybody mistook manners for softness."
They reached the warehouse at 7:21.
The loading doors were open.
A white ambulance sat inside.
Empty.
A chair stood in the center of the floor.
On it was Elena's scarf.
Another message had been taped beneath the seat.
Luca, stop chasing the route.
Find the destination.
Nora recognized Elena's handwriting.
She read it twice.
"She wrote this herself."
Sal nodded.
"They let her."
"Why?"
"Maybe they thought she was writing to cooperate."
Nora looked around the warehouse.
The route was not the point.
The destination was.
The wedding.
Charles needed Elena alive long enough to control Luca through the ceremony.
That meant she had to be close enough to move quickly once the documents were signed.
"Where is the reception?" Nora asked.
"Grand Veridian," Sal said.
"Where is the ceremony?"
"St. Matthew's Cathedral."
"What property does Beaumont control near either?"
Sal did not know.
Daniel did.
A Beaumont charitable trust owned a women's residential foundation three blocks from the cathedral.
The building was officially closed for renovation.
Federal agents entered at 8:03.
On the third floor, they found Elena.
She was sitting beside a window with two men guarding the door.
One surrendered.
The other ran and was caught on the fire escape.
Elena looked up as Nora entered.
"You took long enough."
Nora laughed and cried at the same time.
"You are impossible."
"So I am told."
Nora knelt beside her.
"Are you hurt?"
"I have been served terrible coffee."
"Anything else?"
"No."
Sal entered.
Elena's face softened.
"You found the blossoms."
"Nora did."
Elena looked at her.
"Of course she did."
Marco called Luca.
Nora watched Elena speak to her son.
"I am fine."
A pause.
"No, you may not cancel the wedding because of me."
Another pause.
"Because Charles still thinks he owns the ending."
Nora stared at her.
"You still want the wedding to happen?"
Elena ended the call.
"More than ever."
"Why?"
"Because Gabriel has Celeste."
Nora frowned.
"How do you know?"
Elena reached into the pocket of her coat.
She removed a folded note.
"Derek Shaw received this while guarding me."
"He dropped it when the other man came in."
The note contained a meeting instruction for 1:00 p.m.
Location: Cathedral annex.
Bring C.B. files.
Bring the bride.
Initials: G.V.
Nora looked up.
"Gabriel plans to bring Celeste to the cathedral."
Elena nodded.
"And Charles will come because he still needs the license."
"Then the wedding is where everyone meets."
"Exactly."
By noon, the public story had become surreal.
The rehearsal-dinner collapse was described as dehydration.
Luca appeared briefly outside the estate and told reporters he was healthy.
Elena was seen returning home in a black sedan.
The wedding remained scheduled for four o'clock.
No one announced that the bride was missing.
At 1:18 p.m., Celeste walked into the cathedral annex beside Gabriel Ventresca.
She wore sunglasses and a gray coat over ordinary clothes.
Her lower lip was split.
Federal cameras recorded her arrival from three angles.
Gabriel looked around nervously.
Charles Beaumont was already waiting inside.
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For the first time since the plot began, all three principal conspirators were in the same building.
And none of them knew Elena was no longer a hostage.
