Chapter 8 - THE CHILD WHO SAW EVERYTHING
Father Gabriel survived the gunshot.
Doctor Caruso removed the bullet in a guest room while Alessandro ordered the estate searched from cellar to roof.
Carlo was gone.
Two guards from the west wing were missing with him.
So was one armored vehicle.
At three in the afternoon, Matteo discovered that someone had emptied three accounts belonging to Moretti-owned shipping companies.
Twenty-one million dollars disappeared in under six minutes.
Carlo had prepared his exit.
He had not prepared it alone.
Alessandro called the six remaining council members to a meeting the following evening. He did not mention the ledger.
He wanted them comfortable.
Comfortable men made careless choices.
Sophia was moved into the mansion for protection. Emma refused to sleep unless her mother was within sight, so Alessandro had the adjoining room prepared for them.
When he entered that evening, Emma sat on the carpet arranging wooden blocks into a crooked tower.
Sophia watched from the bed.
“You should not be walking,” Alessandro said.
“I am not.”
“You tried an hour ago.”
“Bianca reports everything?”
“She is learning.”
Sophia looked toward the bandage on his shoulder.
“So are you.”
Alessandro placed a folder on the table.
“Marco Rossi.”
Her face tightened.
“I investigated his death.”
“I already know what happened.”
“You know the truck was forced from the road. You do not know who was driving the second vehicle.”
She opened the folder.
A traffic camera photograph showed a black sedan behind Marco’s truck.
Registered to Belladonna Holdings.
Vittorio’s company.
Sophia’s eyes filled, but she did not cry.
“He ordered it.”
“Perhaps.”
“You still doubt?”
“I doubt everything until I can prove it.”
“Even a child?”
Alessandro looked at Emma.
“She said Vittorio visited the cottage.”
“She may have seen someone else.”
Emma continued stacking blocks.
“White line man.”
Alessandro crouched beside her.
“When did he visit?”
She knocked down the tower.
“At dark.”
“How many times?”
She held up four fingers, then changed to five.
“Did he speak to your mother?”
Emma nodded.
“What did he say?”
Sophia shifted uneasily.
“Alessandro.”
He raised a hand.
“Let her answer.”
Emma picked up a block.
“He says Mama give paper.”
“What paper?”
“Wolf book.”
The ledger.
“What else?”
Emma placed a black block on top of two white ones.
“He says little girl go water if Mama tells.”
Sophia turned away.
Alessandro felt the room become cold.
“He threatened to drown her?”
Sophia’s voice broke.
“He knew my mother survived the river. He said history could repeat itself.”
Alessandro looked at Emma.
She was humming again.
The lullaby.
“Did the white-line man ever come with someone?”
Emma nodded.
“Old man.”
“Carlo?”
“No. Church man.”
“Father Gabriel?”
She shook her head.
“Other church man.”
Sophia frowned.
“There is no other priest at the estate.”
Emma climbed to her feet and walked toward Alessandro.
“Ring man.”
She touched his council ring.
“Did he wear one of these?”
“Yes.”
“What did he look like?”
“Hair like snow. No line.”
Luca Bellandi.
Seventy-one years old.
White-haired.
The last surviving adviser from Giovanni Moretti’s era.
He had served as family accountant, strategist and peacemaker.
He was also the younger brother of Antonio Bellandi.
The man listed as Alessandro’s biological father.
Alessandro stood.
“Luca met Vittorio at the cottage.”
Sophia stared at him.
“Why?”
“He may know the truth about my birth.”
“Or he may have helped create the lie.”
The telephone rang.
Alessandro answered.
Matteo’s voice was tense.
“We found something in the recovered footage.”
“What?”
“The night Marco Rossi died. Carlo entered the mansion at eleven sixteen. Vittorio arrived twelve minutes later.”
“And Luca?”
“He was already here.”
“Where?”
“The master bedroom.”
Alessandro looked toward the ceiling.
His parents’ old room.
His room.
“What was he doing?”
“The camera only shows him entering.”
“Leaving?”
“That is the problem. He never appears leaving.”
Alessandro ended the call.
Emma tugged at his hand.
“Ring man has door.”
“What door?”
“In your room.”
The hidden wardrobe compartment.
“No. Another door.”
She pointed toward the wall behind Sophia’s bed.
“Inside wall.”
Alessandro returned to his bedroom with Emma and Sophia behind him.
The child walked directly to the fireplace.
She reached beneath the mantel and pressed a carved leaf.
A narrow door opened beside the bookcase.
Behind it was a hidden passage descending between the walls.
Alessandro had lived in the mansion his entire life.
He had never known it existed.
The passage led beneath the house and emerged near the eastern gate.
Halfway down, they found a small chamber.
Inside were cigarette butts.
Food wrappers.
A chair.
And photographs.
Hundreds of them.
Alessandro entering the mansion.
Sophia walking through the garden.
Emma playing beneath the chestnut tree.
Some images had been taken through bedroom windows.
On the table lay a map of the estate.
A red circle surrounded Emma’s room.
Beside it was a note.
The child is leverage. Take only when the wolf has the ledger.
Sophia covered her mouth.
Alessandro turned toward Emma.
She stared at a photograph pinned to the wall.
It showed her sleeping beside Sophia.
A man’s reflection appeared faintly in the window.
White hair.
May you like
No scar.
Luca Bellandi.
