Chapter 6 - THE QUESTION I SHOULD HAVE REMEMBERED
I spent the next hour reconstructing the conversation.
Vanessa had found me polishing the silver in the breakfast room. She was holding her phone and pretending to read a message. She asked whether Luca still worked in the study after dinner, whether he ever used the library for private meetings, and whether the west entrance was kept locked after nine.
I had answered without thinking.
I told her Luca usually went to his study, that the library was used for meetings, and that the west entrance was monitored by security. I had not given her a code or a key. I had not thought I was revealing anything important.
Matteo wrote everything down.
“Did she ask you to keep the conversation secret?”
“No.”
“Did she mention the engagement dinner?”
“No.”
He thanked me and left.
I sat alone in the laundry room, feeling foolish. I had not installed the transmitter, but I might have helped someone choose the room and timing.
Luca came to find me before lunch.
“You didn't know what she was planning,” he said.
“I should have remembered.”
“You remembered now. That's what matters.”
“She asked me questions because she knew I would answer.”
“That's how people gather information. They make ordinary questions sound harmless.”
I looked down. “I don't want to be the reason someone gets hurt.”
“You aren't.”
He said it with such certainty that I finally looked at him.
“Do you know what the transmitter was meant to capture?” I asked.
“Possibly a conversation about a property transfer. Possibly a list of people attending the private meeting. We don't know yet.”
“Why would anyone need that?”
Luca was quiet for a moment.
“Because there are people who want control over parts of my business. They believe I have become distracted by the engagement and that they can move around me while I am planning a wedding.”
“Was Vanessa part of that?”
“I don't know how much she understood.”
His answer surprised me. I had expected him to call her a traitor. Instead, he was still separating what he knew from what he suspected.
That evening, Matteo brought a new development. Richard's car had been found in a parking garage near the river. The vehicle was empty. His phone had been switched off.
Luca ordered a search of the estate's vendor records. The investigation uncovered invoices for equipment that had never been delivered, payments to shell companies, and a series of calendar changes made from Richard's office.
One appointment stood out.
A private meeting between Luca and Peter Lang, scheduled for the night after the engagement dinner.
The location was listed as the west library.
Luca had not approved it.
“Richard created the appointment,” Matteo said. “Then he sent a copy to an external address.”
“Whose?”
“Celia Voss.”
Luca looked at the screen. “And Vanessa?”
“She received a copy too.”
I stood behind them, holding a tray of tea. No one noticed me until I spoke.
“Miss Bellini said she had arranged extra security for tonight.”
Luca turned. “When?”
“Before the dinner. She said she wanted to protect you from threats.”
Matteo looked at the invoice. “The transmitter was categorized as event security.”
Luca nodded slowly.
“Then the engagement dinner was a cover.”
The words settled over the room.
I set the tray down.
“Cover for what?”
“To record the private conversation that was supposed to happen afterward,” Luca said. “Or to make it look as though I approved something I never said.”
He looked at Matteo.
“Find Richard. Find Peter Lang. And don't assume Vanessa is the only person involved.”
A moment later, Elena entered with a sealed envelope.
“We found this in the guest suite,” she said. “It was hidden inside the lining of Vanessa's travel case.”
Luca opened it.
Inside was a printed floor plan of the mansion, a list of security rotations, and a photograph of the west library door.
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At the bottom, someone had written:
THE CHAIR IS ONLY THE BEGINNING.
