Chapter 2 - The Photograph in the False Bottom
I wanted to run to the hospital. Luca wanted answers first. For ten terrible seconds we stood opposite each other while thirty-two guests pretended not to listen.
“My mother has therapy on Thursdays,” I said. “She couldn't disappear. She uses a walker.”
Luca handed Michael the phone. “Get the hospital administrator. Confirm everything before we assume anything.”
Vanessa took the opportunity to whisper, “She's putting on a performance.”
I turned on her. “You had her picture.”
“I've never seen that woman.”
Aunt Evelyn made a small, disbelieving sound. “Then how did you know she was a woman before Claire said so?”
Vanessa went silent.
The document recovered from the lining was a forged authorization transferring a controlling interest in Moretti Logistics to a shell corporation. Luca showed me only the signature. He didn't need to explain what a forged signature meant to a man whose enemies would gladly steal his company.
Michael returned with news. My mother had been discharged by someone claiming to be my sister. My sister was in class across town.
My phone vibrated. A message from an unknown number showed my mother seated in a wheelchair inside a windowless room.
DO WHAT THEY TELL YOU. SAY YOU STOLE THE NECKLACE.
Luca read it over my shoulder. “I can help find her.”
“Why would I trust you?”
He considered that. “You shouldn't. Not yet. But I can put people on the streets while you call the police.”
May you like
I made the call. And when the dispatcher asked where the threat had begun, I looked straight at Vanessa Bellini.
“At an engagement dinner,” I said. “At the house of the man she plans to marry.”
