Chương 9
He nodded.
“No,” Quinn said. “Say it.”
“I will call you.”
“Before Carlo?”
Vincent’s eyes narrowed.
She left.
Emily watched him.
“Who is Carlo?”
“A friend.”
“Is he the kind who brings soup or arson?”
Vincent looked toward the door.
“Kessler talks too much.”
The hospital discharged Emily two days later under a temporary safety plan.
Noah remained in the neonatal unit for observation.
Child protective services required that the Moretti apartment be inspected before he returned. All firearms had to be removed. Medications had to be locked. Visitors had to be approved by Emily. Vincent could not be the sole supervising adult until the investigator completed a background review.
The investigator, a young woman named Priya Shah, read the condition from a printed document without looking at Vincent.
He read it twice.
“You believe I poisoned my son?” he asked.
“No.”
“Then why can’t I be alone with him?”
“Because there are unresolved safety concerns in the household.”
“Which concerns?”
“Your criminal history.”
“I have no felony convictions.”
“You have twelve arrests.”
“Most were dismissed.”
“That is not the reassurance you think it is.”
Emily sat beside him in a wheelchair. She looked exhausted but alert.
“We’ll agree,” she said.
Vincent turned.
Priya slid the form toward them.
“The plan is temporary,” she said. “It is not a finding of abuse. It allows Noah to be discharged to his mother once the medical team approves.”
“And if we refuse?” Vincent asked.
“The agency may seek a court order.”
Emily took the pen.
Vincent put his hand over the paper.
She looked at him.
“You cannot lift him safely yet,” he said.
“Then Carla will stay.”
“Your sister works.”
“She offered.”
“You will need help at night.”
“I know.”
“And I am what? A visitor?”
Her expression hardened.
“You made yourself that before this form did.”
Priya looked down at her hands.
Vincent removed his hand.
Emily signed.
The apartment inspection lasted three hours.
Officers had already left evidence seals across the kitchen drawers and baby supplies. A fine layer of fingerprint powder covered the counter. The tea kettle sat inside a cardboard evidence box. The sofa cushion had been removed because Emily’s spilled drink had soaked into it.
Carla, off duty and still wearing teal scrub pants beneath her coat, helped Emily pack clothes.
Vincent opened the office safe.
He removed two handguns, seven bundles of cash, three ledgers, a stack of passports under different names, and an encrypted laptop.
Priya stood in the doorway.
Her expression changed with each object.
Emily leaned against the wall.
“You said two guns.”
“There are two.”
“You did not mention passports.”
“They are not ours.”
“That is somehow worse.”
Vincent placed everything into a black hard-sided case.
Priya pointed to the ledgers. “What are those?”
“Business records.”
“Legal businesses?”
“Some.”
Emily let out a breath.
Carla folded a nightshirt and placed it in the suitcase.
“Do you need me here for this?” she asked.
Emily said, “Yes.”
Vincent said, “No.”
Carla looked between them. “Excellent. I’ll stay.”
Priya photographed the empty safe.
“Where will these items go?” she asked.
“My attorney.”
“Not an associate?”
“My attorney.”
“I will need written confirmation.”
“You’ll have it.”
She looked at the cash. “How much?”
“Four hundred twenty thousand.”
Carla stopped folding.
Emily stared at him.
“You kept nearly half a million dollars beside the nursery?”
“The nursery is across the hall.”
“That is your defense?”
“No.”
Priya wrote the amount down.
Vincent closed the case.
Emily said, “Open the second compartment.”
He looked at her.
“I’ve seen you use it.”
“There is nothing relevant.”
“Open it.”
He entered another code.
The interior panel released.
Inside lay a small velvet box, a manila envelope, and an old photograph of Vincent’s mother standing beside a laundromat in Queens.
Emily touched the velvet box.
Vincent said, “Don’t.”
She opened it.
Her wedding ring lay inside.
Not the ring on her hand. Another one, larger and older, with a square emerald surrounded by tiny diamonds.
“My mother’s,” he said.
“You told me it was lost.”
“I did not want it in circulation.”
“Why?”
“People recognize it.”
“Who?”
He did not answer.
Emily picked up the envelope.
It contained photographs.
Robert leaving a bank.
Robert entering a private card club in Newark.
Robert meeting a man beside a marina.
Dates and times were written on the back.
Emily looked at Vincent.
“You had him followed.”
“After you mentioned the accounting error.”
“You said you thought it was nothing.”
“I wanted you to believe it was nothing until I knew.”
“You keep saying that as if fear belongs only to you.”
Vincent took the photographs from her and returned them to the envelope.
Priya watched silently.
Emily stepped closer.
“You knew he was gambling.”
“Yes.”
“You knew he was taking money.”
“I suspected.”
“You knew he was desperate.”
“Yes.”
“And you still let him hold Noah.”
That struck deeper than the accusation at the hospital.
Vincent looked at the floor.
“I thought desperate men stole,” he said. “I did not think he would hurt a child.”
Emily’s voice shook. “You hurt people.”
“Yes.”
“So why was it impossible to imagine someone else doing it?”
He had no answer.
Priya closed her notebook.
“I think we should finish tomorrow.”
“No,” Emily said. “Finish today.”
She sat at the kitchen table while Priya checked locks, windows, smoke detectors, medication storage, and the nursery. Carla made coffee with a kettle borrowed from the neighbor. Nobody drank it.
Vincent carried the black case downstairs.
An unmarked sedan waited at the curb.
Detective Quinn stood beside it.
“You came personally,” Vincent said.
“I heard your attorney was receiving a delivery.”
He looked at the sedan.
“Kessler called you.”
“Kessler understands self-preservation.”
Vincent set the case on the sidewalk.
Quinn opened it.
Her eyes moved across the cash, weapons, ledgers, passports, and laptop.
“What exactly were you planning to give your lawyer?” she asked.
May you like
“Everything required by the safety plan.”
“The safety plan requires legal storage, not obstruction.”
