Chương 4
“What did she find?”
“You read the letter.”
“I’m asking what she told you.”
“She said pregnant women had lived near the property. Children too. She said the company records showed chemicals being moved after midnight and described as construction fill.”
“That does not mean Matteo’s illness came from there.”
“I didn’t say it did.”
“She went to Kearny while she was pregnant?”
“Twice that I know of.”
Luca remembered Sofia coming home with mud on her boots and refusing to explain where she had been. He had been angry because they were late for dinner with a lender. She had showered, changed, and spent the evening unusually quiet. He had assumed she was punishing him.
His assumptions had always been efficient.
“You should sleep,” Elena said.
He looked at her.
“That wasn’t an order.”
“It sounded like one.”
“You look like you’re going to fall over.”
“I don’t.”
“You do.”
He almost told her to leave the room. Matteo shifted in the bed and made a small sound, and the argument evaporated before it began.
Luca placed the stuffed lion beside his son.
“Be ready at eight.”
“The bank opens at nine.”
“We leave at eight.”
“With your security?”
“No.”
“Your father will know if you dismiss them.”
“I’m not dismissing anyone. We’re taking the nurse’s car.”
“My car.”
“Yes.”
“You hate my car.”
“It is gray and invisible.”
“It is twelve years old and the passenger window opens when it wants to.”
“For once, those are advantages.”
Elena picked up her cardigan from the chair. She had forgotten she had wrapped it around Matteo in the laundry room. One sleeve was dusty.
At the door, she stopped.
“Luca.”
He did not look at her.
“I am sorry I waited.”
“You are not forgiven.”
“I didn’t ask to be.”
After she left, Luca remained beside the bed until dawn.
He did not call his father.
He came close twice.
At two thirteen, Salvatore sent a message asking how Matteo’s birthday had gone. At three forty, another message arrived.
You should not make medical decisions when you are exhausted.
Luca read that one until the screen dimmed.
He had not told Salvatore about the meeting with Dr. Kaplan.
By seven, the mansion kitchen had begun producing breakfast for people who did not know anything had changed. Coffee machines hissed. A dishwasher complained through its cycle. Someone burned toast and opened a window. Luca stood at the counter in yesterday’s black shirt while the cook pretended not to notice that he had slept in it.
He poured coffee and forgot to drink it.
Elena entered through the service hall wearing dark trousers, a plain blouse, and a navy coat. Her hair remained in the same low bun. She carried Matteo’s medication bag and a leather folder.
“His nurse will stay until noon,” she said. “I told her we have an appointment.”
“What kind?”
“I didn’t specify.”
“Did she ask?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“I told her it was private.”
Luca checked the kitchen doorway.
“Where are the guards?”
“Front hall. One of them asked why my car was moved from staff parking.”
“What did you say?”
“That the battery was dying.”
“Is it?”
“No.”
For the first time since opening the letter, Luca almost smiled.
They left through the delivery entrance. Elena’s gray sedan started on the second attempt. The passenger window remained closed for three blocks, then lowered two inches with a tired mechanical sigh.
Luca pressed the switch.
Nothing happened.
“I told you,” Elena said.
He tried again.
“It gets worse if you take it personally.”
He looked at her.
She kept her eyes on the road.
They drove toward White Plains through morning traffic. Luca had traveled the same roads hundreds of times from the back seat of a black car, answering calls while someone else watched brake lights. From the passenger seat of Elena’s sedan, he noticed a laundromat with half its sign missing, a man scraping ice from a delivery van, a girl in a school uniform eating cereal from a plastic cup at a bus stop.
The ordinary world offended him by continuing.
At a red light, Elena checked the rearview mirror.
“Blue SUV,” she said.
Luca did not turn. “What about it?”
“It left the mansion two cars behind us.”
“Could be anyone.”
“It changed lanes when we did.”
The light turned green.
Elena drove normally for another mile, then took an exit toward a shopping center. The blue SUV followed. She entered the parking lot, passed the grocery store, and stopped near a pharmacy.
The SUV continued past.
Luca watched it in the side mirror. It turned around near the loading dock.
“Stay here,” he said.
“No.”
He opened the door.
The passenger window chose that moment to drop completely.
Cold air rushed into the car.
Elena swore under her breath and grabbed his sleeve.
“You walk toward them, they call your father. We lose any chance of reaching the box quietly.”
“They already know we left.”
“They may only know you’re with me.”
“That is enough.”
“No, it isn’t. Not yet.”
The SUV began moving back toward them.
Elena pulled out of the space and drove behind the shopping center. Delivery trucks blocked one lane. She slipped between two vans, took an access road, and reached a residential street before the SUV cleared the loading area.
Luca held the broken window up with both hands until Elena found a roll of packing tape in the trunk. They secured the glass to the frame in the parking lot of a dentist’s office.
“This is absurd,” he said.
“It has been absurd for years. You just had better cars.”
He looked at the tape crossing the window.
“What now?”
“We keep going.”
May you like
The bank occupied the first floor of an office building near the courthouse. Elena parked underground. They waited ten minutes before entering separately, Luca first, Elena afterward.
A customer service manager named Denise verified Elena’s identification, reviewed the signature card, and asked whether she wanted to add an authorized user.
