Chapter 5 - THE MISSING PEARL
The police recovered thirty-nine pearls from the ballroom floor. The
fortieth was still missing.
Evelyn had returned home and was resting in her suite with her shoulder
immobilized.
“Did Vanessa take the last pearl?” Luca asked.
“I don’t know,” Evelyn replied. “I saw her put something into a small
black case, but I couldn’t see what it was.”
Daniel searched the ballroom again. Behind the decorative fireplace
grate, he found the missing pearl. It was ordinary, with no seam.
Luca was more concerned about what else his mother had hidden.
“Your father made a second record,” Evelyn told him. “Not for the fund.
For the people who tried to take it.”
“Where is it?”
“He hid it before he died. He said the truth should have more than one
home.”
Luca remembered a locked room in the old family library. His father had
kept personal papers there and forbidden anyone to move them.
Behind a row of law books, Daniel found a small safe. The combination
was the date of Evelyn and her husband’s wedding.
Inside lay an envelope, photographs, and a digital storage drive.
The letter was addressed to Luca.
My son,
If you are reading this, someone has tried to use our family name to
steal from the people we promised to protect. Your mother will know what
to do. Listen to her.
The drive contains copies of the original fund records and the names of
those who approved each transfer. Give it to people who can establish
the truth.
Your father.
The photographs showed Richard meeting two men outside a private bank.
One was a former Moretti financial officer who had supposedly resigned
years earlier.
Daniel examined the files.
“There’s enough to connect Richard to the transfers.”
May you like
Luca stared at the photographs. “Then we give everything to the
investigators. No private deals.”
