Chapter 3 - Eleven Seconds of Elena
Dante did not shout.
That frightened Clara more than shouting would have.
He stood in front of the open safe with both hands hanging at his sides while three guards searched the study.
The man on the floor, Carlo, pressed a hand to the back of his head.
"I never saw him."
Dante looked down.
"Him?"
Carlo blinked.
"Whoever did this."
"You said him."
The guard swallowed.
"Figure of speech."
Dante's eyes stayed on him.
Carlo had worked for the Vancini family for eleven years.
Clara knew that because she had heard his name twice at the restaurant and once on the drive over.
Dante knew every detail of the man's life.
That made his silence heavier.
Sophia remained attached to Clara's side.
She had stopped shaking.
Now she was watching Carlo.
Clara noticed.
"Sophia?"
The girl's gaze moved to Carlo's shoes.
Black leather.
Wet around the soles.
Clara looked toward the study windows.
They were closed.
Then she looked at the polished floor outside the study.
No wet footprints led in from the front hall.
She pointed.
"Why are his shoes wet?"
Every guard in the room went still.
Carlo looked down.
Dante did not.
"Answer her."
Carlo rubbed the back of his neck.
"I went outside earlier."
"When?"
"Before Vincent arrived."
"Which door?"
"Kitchen."
Dante looked at another guard.
"Pull the kitchen footage."
Carlo stood too quickly.
"Dante, come on."
The use of his first name changed the room.
Dante stepped closer.
"You have exactly one chance to tell me why my wife's phone disappeared from a safe you were guarding."
Carlo's face went pale.
"I was hit from behind."
"By someone who opened a safe with a six-digit code known to four people."
Carlo said nothing.
"I am one."
Dante pointed toward the doorway.
"Marco is in Naples."
He pointed to the other guard.
"Tomas was standing at the front door."
Then he looked back at Carlo.
"That leaves you."
Carlo's breathing changed.
Clara saw his right hand move toward his jacket.
Dante saw it first.
"Don't."
Carlo stopped.
Two guards stepped in behind him.
Sophia whispered against Clara's shoulder.
"Blue."
Clara looked down.
"What?"
Sophia pointed at Carlo's jacket pocket.
A tiny edge of blue silk showed near the seam.
Dante crossed the room and pulled it free.
Another ribbon.
The same narrow blue silk with gold thread.
Carlo closed his eyes.
Dante's face hardened.
"Where is the phone?"
"I don't know."
"Wrong answer."
"I swear to God."
"Try again."
Carlo looked toward Sophia.
That was his mistake.
Clara stepped between them.
"Don't look at her."
Carlo's expression twisted.
"You have no idea what these people do to someone who says no."
Dante's voice went quiet.
"These people?"
Carlo realized what he had said.
Too late.
"Who paid you?"
Carlo shook his head.
"I can't."
"Who paid you?"
"They'll kill my brother."
Dante's eyes sharpened.
"Your brother is in Queens."
Carlo stared at him.
"Not anymore."
Dante pulled out his phone.
"Tomas."
"Yes, sir."
"Find Luca Bianchi."
Carlo grabbed Dante's wrist.
Every guard moved at once.
Dante raised one hand.
They stopped.
Carlo was crying now.
"Don't call anyone."
Dante looked at the hand on his wrist.
Carlo released it.
"Where is Elena's phone?"
Carlo's voice broke.
"I put it in the service dumbwaiter."
Dante turned.
"What?"
"There was a bag waiting inside."
"Who was supposed to collect it?"
"I don't know."
"How did they know we found it?"
Carlo looked at the blue ribbon in Dante's hand.
"Vincent."
The name landed like a stone.
Clara felt Sophia go rigid.
Dante stared at Carlo.
"Vincent called you?"
"Not directly."
"Then how?"
"A number I didn't recognize sent a photograph of Luca outside his apartment."
Carlo swallowed.
"Then another message came."
"What did it say?"
"Take the old phone from Dante's safe and send it down the dumbwaiter."
Dante's face did not change.
"How did they know which safe?"
Carlo looked away.
That answer frightened him more than the others.
"Carlo."
"The message said Elena's phone would be in the east study safe."
Nobody spoke.
Clara felt the truth settle over the room.
Vincent had known exactly where Dante would put it.
That meant someone inside the house was still talking.
Or Vincent had been predicting Dante for decades.
Neither possibility was good.
A guard rushed in.
"We found the bag."
Dante turned.
"Where?"
"Bottom of the dumbwaiter shaft."
The guard held up a black canvas pouch.
"The phone is inside."
Carlo sagged with relief.
Dante did not.
"Why wasn't it collected?"
The guard shook his head.
"The basement service door is chained from the inside."
Clara frowned.
"So whoever was supposed to get it never reached the basement."
Dante looked at the front door on the security monitor.
Vincent and Julian had left eight minutes earlier.
Rain still streaked the image.
He turned back to the guard.
"Get the phone to Elias."
"Tonight?"
Dante's stare answered him.
"Yes, sir."
Elias Moreno was not introduced to Clara until forty minutes later.
He arrived carrying two hard cases and wearing jeans, a gray hoodie, and the expression of a man who had been dragged out of sleep but was smart enough not to complain.
He was Dante's digital forensics specialist.
More importantly, he had worked with Elena once.
When Dante told him what they had found, his tiredness disappeared.
"That phone was missing from the original crime scene inventory."
Dante looked at him.
"You knew she had one?"
"I knew she had two."
Dante's face darkened.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"I did."
The room went silent.
Elias set his cases on the dining table.
"Three days after she died, I told Vincent there should have been a second device."
Dante's voice dropped.
"You told Vincent."
"He said he would tell you."
Dante laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
"He didn't."
Elias looked toward the staircase.
"Then we have a problem."
"We have several."
The old phone would not power on.
Its battery had swollen.
The screen was cracked.
There was corrosion around the charging port.
Elias worked at the dining room table while Clara sat with Sophia on a couch ten feet away.
Dante refused to leave the room.
Carlo had been moved to a locked guest suite under guard.
Nobody trusted the east study anymore.
Nobody trusted the basement.
Clara was beginning to suspect nobody in the house trusted anybody at all.
Sophia had fallen asleep with her head in Clara's lap.
At 2:13 a.m., Elias spoke.
"I have storage access."
Dante stood immediately.
Clara shifted carefully so she would not wake Sophia.
Elias connected a small reader to his laptop.
Folders appeared on the screen.
Photographs.
Messages.
Voice memos.
Most were corrupted.
A few had dates.
One date made Dante stop breathing.
The night Elena died.
11:36 p.m.
The voice memo was eleven seconds long.
Elias looked at Dante.
"Ready?"
Dante did not answer.
Elias pressed play.
For two seconds, there was only static.
Then Elena's voice filled the room.
Thin.
Breathless.
Terrified.
"If Julian brings Vincent, don't let them-"
A crash cut through the recording.
Elena gasped.
Then a man's voice spoke in the background.
"Where is she?"
The recording ended.
Nobody moved.
Dante gripped the back of a chair.
Clara stared at the laptop.
Elias replayed it.
"If Julian brings Vincent, don't let them-"
Crash.
"Where is she?"
End.
Dante whispered his wife's name.
"Elena."
Sophia woke in Clara's lap.
She did not cry.
She sat up slowly.
Then she looked at the laptop.
Elias glanced at Dante.
"I can isolate the male voice."
"Do it."
Sophia's eyes widened.
Clara felt her small hand wrap around two of her fingers.
Elias cleaned the audio.
He played the last three words again.
"Where is she?"
Sophia slid off the couch.
Dante knelt.
"Sweetheart?"
The girl stared at the speaker.
Her face had gone white.
Clara came down beside her.
"Do you know that voice?"
Sophia nodded.
Dante's breathing stopped.
"Was it Julian?"
Sophia shook her head.
Clara looked at Dante.
The room seemed to tilt.
Dante tried again.
"Was it Vincent?"
Sophia did not move.
Her eyes filled with tears.
Then she whispered one word.
"Uncle."
Dante froze.
Julian was her uncle by family custom.
Vincent was not.
But Dante had another brother.
A man whose name nobody had mentioned all night.
Dante stood so quickly the chair fell behind him.
"Marco."
Elias looked up.
Clara stared at Dante.
"You said Marco was in Naples."
Dante's face had turned to stone.
"He is."
His phone rang.
The caller ID showed an international number.
Italy.
Dante answered.
"Marco."
For three seconds, he listened.
Then his expression changed.
"Say that again."
Clara could hear a man's panicked voice through the phone.
Not Marco.
Someone else.
Dante lowered the phone.
"Marco's car was found outside Naples."
May you like
He looked at Sophia.
"There was blood inside."
