Chương 2
That evening, everybody noticed her.
Cooks leaned through the kitchen doors. A footman carrying a tray of espresso cups stopped so abruptly that two spoons slid to the floor. The night laundress, Mrs. Cho, held a bundle of folded napkins against her chest. Nobody asked why the boss was carrying the maid’s crying child or why Pino walked beside them without a leash.
Lorenzo entered the staff dining room and set Mara in a wooden chair. The room smelled of onions, coffee, bleach, and the lemon cake one of the cooks had made for the next morning. He pulled out the chair beside her for Elena.
“Sit.”
Elena remained standing. “I didn’t take that clock.”
“That wasn’t the question.”
“You were putting me in a car.”
“I stopped them.”
“After they put their hands on me.”
One guard shifted at the doorway. Lorenzo did not turn toward him.
“Yes,” he said. “After.”
Elena had expected denial, a threat, or one of those smooth explanations powerful men used when they wanted gratitude for undoing half the harm they had ordered. His simple answer unsettled her.
Mara reached for her mother. Elena went to her, kneeling beside the chair and touching her face, her hair, the wet shoulder of her dress. She checked for bruises without making it obvious. Mara had scraped one knee. There was dirt on her white collar. Otherwise she seemed unhurt.
“Where were you?” Elena whispered in Spanish.
Mara looked toward Lorenzo and answered in English. “With Bunny.”
“I know you had Bunny. Where were you hiding?”
“By the big freezer. Then by the bins.”
“Why?”
“Miss Renata said you were going away.”
Renata stood across the room with two guards now positioned behind her. Her eyes went to the staff gathered in the corridor.
Lorenzo followed her glance. “Everyone who was working in the service wing at five o’clock stays available. Everyone else goes back to work. Nobody discusses this outside the house.”
A cook named Danny rubbed the side of his nose. “Phones too?”
“Put them in the bread safe.”
“That thing doesn’t lock.”
“It will.”
Danny nodded and began collecting phones in a stainless-steel bowl. The gesture was almost comic. A dozen frightened adults dropped their devices among packets of sweetener and two forgotten dinner rolls. Mrs. Cho asked if she could call her husband to say she would be late. Lorenzo told her she could use the kitchen landline with someone present.
Elena looked at Mara. “Tell me exactly what you saw.”
Lorenzo pulled another chair from the table and sat across from them. Renata remained standing. Pino lowered himself beside Mara, his large head level with her elbow.
Mara rubbed the empty eye of the rabbit.
“I was looking for the red crayon.”
“What red crayon?”
“The one I dropped yesterday.”
Elena closed her eyes briefly. She had told Mara to stay in the small room beside the laundry with a coloring book while she finished the upstairs bedrooms. The childcare arrangement had failed that afternoon when Elena’s neighbor developed a fever and canceled. Renata had allowed Mara in the service wing only because Elena had promised the child would remain out of sight.
“Where did you look?” Lorenzo asked.
“Under the shelf. Then I heard Miss Renata say bad words.”
Renata’s chin lifted. “This is absurd.”
Lorenzo’s eyes moved to her. “You were told not to speak.”
Mara leaned into Elena. “She said the clock was stupid and heavy.”
“Who was she talking to?”
“Nobody.”
“What did she do?”
“She opened the gray door with the shiny key. She had the gold clock in the towel cart. She put it in the black bag. Then she saw Pino looking at her.”
Pino’s ears twitched at his name.
“Where was the black bag?” Lorenzo asked.
“By the bins. She put leaves on it.”
“And then?”
“Then the man with the red face grabbed Mommy.”
One of the guards looked offended. His face had gone red from the cold.
Elena held her daughter’s hand. “Why didn’t you come to me?”
“Miss Renata said you stole something. She said bad people go in black cars.”
The room tightened around the words.
Lorenzo lowered his gaze to the master key in his palm. The engraved number, M-1, marked it as the highest-level service key in the house. It opened the pantry cages, staff lockers, maintenance closets, guest-room service doors, and the rear stairwell. It did not open the study where the clock had been displayed. Only Lorenzo, his attorney, and Renata had keys to that room, and Renata’s study key was supposed to be sealed in the office safe except during formal cleaning.
He placed the silver key on the table.
“Where is your study key?”
“In the safe,” Renata said.
“Bring the safe.”
She blinked. “The safe is bolted to the office wall.”
“Then bring me what’s in it.”
Renata did not move.
Lorenzo looked at one of the guards. “Anthony.”
Anthony was the red-faced man. He straightened.
“Go with her. Don’t touch anything. Don’t let her touch anything except the safe.”
Renata’s nostrils flared. “I have run this house since before you were old enough to sign your own checks.”
“And tonight you’ll walk to your office with Anthony.”
“You would trust the word of a child over mine?”
“No. I would verify both.”
That answer hurt her more than open accusation. Elena saw it in the way Renata adjusted the cuff of her sleeve, smoothing fabric that was already flat.
When she left, the staff in the corridor parted without looking at her. Mrs. Cho stared at the floor. Danny pretended to rearrange the phone bowl. No one had ever seen Renata escorted through her own service hall.
Lorenzo turned toward the other guard. “Frank, call Mr. Heller. Tell him to come through the south gate. No police yet.”
Elena stiffened. “Why no police?”
“Because I don’t know what happened.”
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“You knew enough to put me in a car.”
Frank looked at the floor. Lorenzo remained still.
