Chapter 4 - The Dead Uncle
Nobody spoke.
Vincent lowered the phone.
“You saw who?”
Emily pointed toward the east windows. “The man in the picture in the old downstairs office. The one with the red tie.”
Vincent knew the photograph. Rocco Moretti in 1998, standing beside Vincent’s father at a charity dinner, smiling with a gold tooth visible at the corner of his mouth.
“You’re sure?” Dominic asked.
Emily nodded. “He was in a black car by the greenhouse. He looked at me, then covered his face when Mom came outside.”
Grace stared at her daughter. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You told me not to talk about people in cars.”
Vincent almost smiled at the bitter logic of it.
Then the old house intercom crackled.
A man’s voice filled the ballroom.
“Vincent.”
Every muscle in Vincent’s body went tight.
He knew that voice too.
Older. Rougher. But unmistakable.
“Uncle Rocco.”
A low chuckle came through the speakers.
“Still quick, kid.”
Dominic looked as though he might be sick.
“You died,” Vincent said.
“Paperwork is a wonderful thing when the right lawyer controls it.”
Vincent looked at the empty place where Charles had been sitting.
Rocco continued. “You were always sentimental. That was your weakness. Your father knew it. Sofia knew it. I knew it.”
“Where is she?”
Silence.
Vincent stepped toward the intercom panel. “Where is my wife?”
“Sign the trust papers.”
“Go to hell.”
“Then the girl’s mother tells you the rest.”
Grace’s face collapsed.
Vincent turned to her.
“What rest?”
The speakers popped. Rocco’s voice became soft.
“Ask Grace why Sofia trusted a housekeeper more than her husband.”
The line died.
Dominic moved immediately. “We trace the internal intercom—”
“No,” Vincent said. “We stay together.”
He faced Grace.
She looked cornered.
“Talk.”
Grace wiped one hand across her mouth.
“The night Sofia disappeared, she came to my apartment above the old carriage house. She was bleeding.”
Vincent stopped breathing.
“From where?”
“Her side. She said someone had tried to run her off River Road. She gave me the phone, a storage key, and a letter. She told me to hide all three.”
“You have a letter?”
Grace nodded.
“Where?”
“In the same sewing box.”
Emily whispered, “No, it isn’t.”
Grace turned.
“What?”
“When I found the phone this morning, there was no letter.”
Then Isabella spoke from behind them.
“There was yesterday.”
Everyone looked at her.
May you like
She removed the silver pendant from her neck and placed it on the table.
“I took it.”
