Chapter 1 - The Crypt Behind the Cypress
"Throw him into the bayou, Evelyn."
Bianca Vane didn't turn from the antique mirror.
She fastened black pearls around her throat.
"If he drowns, tell Lorenzo the current swept him away."
Outside, a category-three hurricane battered New Orleans.
Swollen bayou waters clawed up the stone stairs.
Inside, forty mafia capos gathered in solemn silence.
They were mourning Donna Maria Moretti.
And huddled in the mud was Baron.
A twelve-year-old Doberman pinscher.
Scarred flanks.
Deaf in one ear.
Shivering violently in the freezing rain.
"He has pneumonia, Miss Vane," I whispered.
"He needs warmth. I can hide him in the pantry."
Bianca turned with venomous grace.
"Did I ask for your opinion, servant girl?"
She stepped close, her mourning veil trembling.
"Your dead father owed Lorenzo three hundred thousand dollars. One word from me,
and your little sister works off that debt in the harbor dens."
Thunder shook the heavy glass doors.
Baron whimpered, pawing weakly at the pane.
I reached for the brass handle.
Bianca’s fingernails dug into my wrist.
She twisted hard.
"Open that door, and I tell Lorenzo you stole Donna Maria’s diamonds."
My name is Evelyn Cross.
I was twenty-four.
I had cleaned Lorenzo Moretti’s plantation for eighteen months.
I knew what he did to traitors.
His mother’s sudden death had turned him into ice.
"Does Mr. Moretti know you locked Baron out?" I asked.
Bianca laughed softly.
"Lorenzo is greeting the five families. He doesn't care about a dying hound."
She smoothed her black silk dress.
"Get back to the kitchen. If I see that mutt inside, you won't survive the
night."
She walked away.
I stayed.
I couldn't leave him.
I cracked the French doors open.
Rain slammed into my face.
"Baron," I whispered. "Come, boy."
The old dog could barely stand.
His legs were caked in white limestone dust.
Not garden mud.
Crushed white stone from the sealed family crypt.
Clamped in his yellowed teeth was a brass key.
Attached to a rusted safe deposit tag.
Coated in thick, dried brown blood.
I hauled his soaking frame inside.
My muscles burned.
We reached the grand hall just as Bianca returned.
Her face drained of color.
"Where did he get that?!" she shrieked.
She lunged to snatch the key.
Baron snapped his jaws, grazing her bracelet.
Bianca screamed, falling backward onto the parquet floor.
The heavy double doors crashed open.
Lorenzo Moretti stood in the archway.
Six feet three inches of lethal composure.
Tailored charcoal wool.
Silver eyes that burned like dry ice.
The parlor went dead silent.
Forty armed killers held their breath.
"What is happening in my house?" Lorenzo demanded.
Bianca scrambled up, pointing a shaking finger.
"The maid brought that rabid beast inside! It attacked me! Shoot it, Lorenzo!"
Lorenzo ignored her completely.
He looked down at Baron.
The old dog collapsed at his polished boots.
Lorenzo dropped to his knees in the puddle.
He didn't care about his thousand-dollar trousers.
He cupped the dog's gray muzzle.
"Baron. Easy, old friend."
Baron opened his mouth.
The bloody brass key clattered against the wood.
Lorenzo picked it up.
His silver eyes locked onto the serial number.
His pupils contracted.
"This belongs to my mother’s vault in Geneva."
He looked up at Bianca.
"Why is my mother’s blood on it?"
Bianca stepped back, stammering.
"She... she was buried with her keys..."
Lorenzo rose like a gathering storm.
"Evelyn. Where was he?"
"The crypt, sir. His paws are covered in limestone."
"Bring the sledgehammers," Lorenzo ordered his men.
Ten minutes later, we stood in the stone mausoleum.
The iron gate welds were cracked.
Matteo, the underboss, pried the marble coffin open with a crowbar.
The beam of Lorenzo's flashlight shone inside.
The coffin was completely empty.
Only a heavy steel strongbox.
And a fresh, bloody handprint smeared against the interior wall.
Then, from the ventilation pipe below the floor, came a sound.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
A raspy, starving whisper drifted from the dark cistern:
"Lorenzo... don't drink the wake wine... Bianca poisoned the chalice..."
Lorenzo crushed the brass key in his fist until his skin split.
May you like
He turned toward the entrance where Bianca stood trembling.
"Bianca," he whispered with deadly calm. "What did you do to my mother?"
