Chương 5
Luca turned toward the window. Beyond the glass, the mansion grounds descended through black lawns and bare trees toward the road. Security lights burned along the drive. Every vehicle passed two gates and six cameras. The estate had been designed to prevent enemies from entering.
He had never considered how difficult it might be to leave.
“Elena,” he said, “why did Sofia trust you?”
Her expression closed.
“That isn’t relevant.”
“It is to me.”
“She didn’t at first.”
“What changed?”
“I told her the truth when everyone else lied.”
“About what?”
“You.”
A tired smile almost appeared at the corner of Elena’s mouth, but it faded before becoming one.
“Sofia asked whether you were sleeping with someone during the weeks you kept coming home at dawn.”
“I wasn’t.”
“I told her that.”
“What else?”
“I told her you sat in your car at the end of the drive for twenty minutes before coming inside.”
Luca’s face hardened.
Elena continued. “You did it almost every night after your father died. You’d turn off the headlights and sit there. Sometimes you called no one. Sometimes you held the steering wheel like you were trying not to break it.”
“You watched me.”
“I closed the kitchen.”
“That did not require watching the drive.”
“No. It didn’t.”
“What did Sofia say?”
“She cried.”
Luca looked away.
“She thought you were with another woman,” Elena said. “It was easier for her than believing you were afraid to come home.”
“I wasn’t afraid.”
“Then you wasted a lot of gasoline for nothing.”
The dry remark was so unexpected that Luca almost laughed.
The sound did not come.
He put the letter inside his jacket.
“You’ll tell Miriam Walsh we’re coming.”
“She told me never to call.”
“Then how do we find her?”
Elena took a small paper card from the pocket beneath her apron. An address was written on it, along with a set of instructions.
Go to the rear entrance. Ring twice. Wait. Do not bring a phone inside.
Luca read it.
“How long have you carried this?”
“Since the funeral.”
“Every day?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because this house has locks on the doors and men at the gates.”
He handed the card back.
“We leave in ten minutes.”
Nico returned before they reached the stairs.
“Brennan’s not answering.”
“Find him.”
“His home alarm was disarmed twelve minutes ago. A vehicle left the garage.”
“Plate?”
“His wife’s SUV.”
“Direction?”
“North on River Road. Traffic camera lost it near the interstate.”
“His wife with him?”
“She’s in Florida with her sister.”
Elena’s fingers tightened around the card.
Luca felt the first hard shape of the trap.
Not certainty. Not yet.
But movement.
Rafe had called the doctor after seeing the envelope. The doctor had run.
“What has Brennan prescribed Matteo?” Luca asked.
Nico frowned. “You want the list?”
“Everything. Medication, supplements, specialists, pharmacies, laboratories. Get Caldwell to help. Do it without using the house network.”
“You think the kid’s treatment—”
“I think nothing. I verify.”
Nico looked toward Elena again. “And Rafe?”
“Keep him comfortable.”
“That may be harder than keeping him here.”
“Tell him I’m with Matteo.”
“He’ll ask to see him.”
“He can ask.”
Nico lowered his voice. “One more thing. The blocked call from Rafe’s office bounced through a private relay, but it lasted nineteen seconds. Two minutes later, a garage camera at Brennan’s house went offline.”
Luca nodded once.
The mansion seemed to breathe around them.
“Get the car.”
“Which one?”
“Not mine.”
Nico understood.
They left through the service corridor while Rafe waited in the east office.
Luca changed nothing about his appearance. The black three-piece suit, the open collar, the silver chain, the tattoos visible above the shirt—every detail made him recognizable. Elena put on a dark wool coat over her uniform and loosened her bun enough to hide the white collar.
Matteo remained upstairs with Caldwell.
Before leaving, Luca entered the boy’s room alone.
Matteo was awake.
The monitor cast a green line across the darkness. He held the stuffed lion against his chest.
“Where you going?” he asked.
Luca sat on the edge of the bed.
“To get something your mother left.”
“Cake?”
“No.”
Matteo considered this.
“More cake tomorrow?”
“If Caldwell says yes.”
“She says no a lot.”
“She enjoys it.”
Matteo’s mouth moved into a faint smile.
Luca brushed a curl from his forehead.
“I’ll be back before you wake up.”
“Promise?”
The word stopped him.
He had made promises casually before Sofia died. Flights, dinners, Sundays without phones. He had broken them for meetings that felt urgent at the time and became impossible to remember later.
“Yes,” he said.
Matteo studied his face as if checking the answer.
Then he held out the lion.
“For you.”
“You keep him.”
“So you not scared.”
Luca took the toy.
The fabric was warm from Matteo’s body.
He left it visible in his hand as he crossed the hallway. The two guards outside the room looked away with professional speed.
Elena waited at the rear entrance.
When she saw the lion, something changed in her expression.
She opened the door without comment.
Nico drove. Luca sat in the rear with Elena, though the arrangement made all three of them uncomfortable. A second car followed at a distance, then turned east as a decoy.
The mansion gates opened.
Rain had begun, light enough to shine on the road without obscuring it. Luca watched the side mirror for headlights that stayed too long.
“Phones,” Elena said.
Nico placed his in a signal pouch. Luca did the same. Elena had left hers at the mansion.
They drove south without speaking.
After ten minutes, Nico said, “Rafe asked where you were.”
“What did you tell him?”
“That Matteo needed quiet.”
“And?”
“He said grief can make men careless.”
Luca stared through the window.
“Did he say men?”
“Yes.”
“Not fathers?”
“No.”
Elena looked at Luca.
May you like
He ignored her.
The address led them to a narrow brick building behind a closed stationery shop. The alley smelled of wet cardboard and restaurant grease. No sign identified a lawyer’s office.
