Chương 13
Nico waited.
“Years later, I found out the second man had already planned to retire. The third had never challenged me. Rafe created the test. Then he helped me pass it.”
“Why?”
“So I would need him.”
Nico leaned back.
“You have proof?”
“No.”
“Then don’t turn suspicion into history.”
The warning sounded like Caldwell.
Luca nodded.
“You’re right.”
Nico looked surprised.
“I’m not used to that,” he said.
“Enjoy it once.”
They sat in silence.
Outside, morning traffic thickened on wet streets. A delivery truck stopped below the hospital window. The driver argued with someone near the loading entrance, then carried boxes inside anyway.
Nico said, “What do you want me to do?”
“Protect Elena.”
“She won’t like that.”
“Then do it without making her feel owned.”
“I’m not trained for subtlety.”
“You are when you lie.”
“That’s different.”
Luca almost smiled.
“Find out who administered Matteo’s medication on nights Caldwell was absent,” he said. “Give the information to Mercer. Do not question anyone yourself.”
“And Rafe?”
“Nothing.”
Nico stood.
At the door, he paused.
“Your father would hate this.”
“I know.”
“Sofia?”
Luca looked at his son.
“She waited eleven months to see.”
By afternoon, the hospital moved Matteo from intensive care to a monitored pediatric room. His color improved slightly. He ate two spoonfuls of broth and asked for the cake again.
Caldwell promised to bake something when the doctors allowed it.
“You don’t bake,” Luca said.
“I can follow instructions.”
“That has not been my experience.”
She adjusted Matteo’s pillow. “You’re still alive, which suggests I follow some.”
Elena returned with Miriam and Detective Mercer.
She had changed out of the maid uniform. She wore black trousers, a gray sweater, and a coat too thin for the weather. Without the white collar and apron, Luca saw how young she looked.
Twenty-nine.
Sofia’s age when they married.
Mercer carried a folder this time.
“Brennan was located,” he said.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“A motel near Newark Airport. He contacted an attorney.”
“Did he talk?”
“Through counsel. He claims DeLuca coerced him.”
“Into poisoning a child?”
“He says he believed the substitute medication was an off-label treatment sourced privately.”
Caldwell made a disgusted sound.
Mercer continued. “He admits falsifying records and routing prescriptions through a clinic connected to Vescari. He denies knowing the compound would harm Matteo.”
“Do you believe him?” Elena asked.
“That is not how this stage works.”
“It’s how every stage works,” Luca said. “You simply call belief evidence when enough people sign it.”
Mercer ignored the comment.
“Brennan also says DeLuca controlled access to Sofia’s medical and vehicle records after her death.”
“Why?”
“He says DeLuca told him the family required privacy.”
Luca looked at Matteo.
The boy was drawing crooked circles on a hospital menu with a green crayon.
“Where is Rafe?”
“We believe he is still in North Jersey.”
“You believe.”
“He has limited options.”
“He has passports, cash, and people who owe him.”
“So did several men who now pretend they never met him.”
Mercer opened the folder.
“We found a connection between DeLuca and Paolo Rossi.”
Elena stopped breathing.
The detective turned toward her.
“Your father was not listed as missing under his own name. A body recovered near an industrial site in 2010 was entered as unidentified. Recent comparison with a dental record provided by your mother indicates a likely match.”
Elena sat down slowly.
Luca watched her hands.
They did not tremble.
They lay flat on her knees, perfectly still.
Mercer said, “We are confirming. I am sorry.”
“Was he shot?” she asked.
Miriam touched her arm.
Mercer’s expression tightened. “The remains showed trauma. I don’t want to give you incomplete details.”
“Was Rafe involved?”
“We found a payment from a company he controlled to the site foreman two days after your father disappeared.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It’s what we can support now.”
Elena nodded once.
She looked toward the window.
Matteo held up the menu.
“Lion,” he announced.
The green drawing looked nothing like a lion.
Elena stared at it for a second, then covered her face.
No sound came at first.
Her shoulders folded inward.
Luca moved toward her, stopped, and looked at Miriam.
Miriam sat beside Elena and held her.
Luca remained standing with his hands empty.
He had comforted Sofia with gifts, protection, promises, and physical closeness. He had never learned what to do with grief that required nothing from him.
Matteo watched Elena.
“Sad?” he asked.
Luca crouched beside the bed.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Her father died.”
“Like Mommy?”
Luca glanced at Elena.
She lowered her hands.
“Like Mommy,” she said.
Matteo considered this with the serious concentration children gave to facts adults avoided.
“Lion help,” he said.
He held the stuffed toy toward her.
Elena crossed the room and accepted it.
She pressed the torn seam against her cheek.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
Later, after Mercer left, Elena stood in the hallway alone.
Luca joined her.
She did not look at him.
“My father did not run,” she said.
“No.”
“My mother waited twelve years before she took his clothes out of the closet.”
Luca leaned against the wall.
“She used to say he would hate the dust.”
“I’m sorry.”
Elena laughed softly.
“You say that like someone handing back the wrong coat.”
“I don’t know how to say it.”
“Then don’t make it neat.”
He accepted the rebuke.
After a moment, he said, “My father called him a thief.”
“Your father called everyone a thief before he took something from them.”
“I was sixteen.”
“You were not responsible then.”
“Later I believed the story.”
“You had no reason not to.”
“I had reasons. I did not want them.”
Elena turned toward him.
That answer seemed to matter.
“What happens now?” she asked.
“To Rafe?”
“To all of it.”
Luca looked through the glass at Matteo. Caldwell had fallen asleep in the chair, chin tipped toward her chest. The boy rested with one hand curled around the green crayon.
May you like
“I don’t know.”
“You always know.”
