Chapter 3 - The Locked Room
Dominic crushed the photograph in his fist and shouted:
“Find Carlo.”
Adrian opened Elena’s document case and discovered a torn security badge beneath the bank statements.
One corner had been cut away.
The missing corner matched a badge still used inside the Russo estate.
Someone in Dominic’s house had helped cover up Elena’s death.
Dominic called Carlo three times.
No answer.
That alone was enough to change the room.
Carlo Rossi always answered Dominic.
At funerals.
At weddings.
During raids.
Once, according to Adrian, during emergency surgery.
Dominic lowered his phone.
“Lock down the estate.”
Adrian did not move.
“Dominic.”
“Do it.”
“We don’t know what Carlo did.”
“We know he knew something.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
Dominic’s eyes became ice.
“My wife left a photograph identifying him.”
“She wrote that he knew who pushed her. Not that he pushed her.”
Dominic stared at him.
Chloe understood immediately.
Adrian was not defending Carlo.
He was keeping Dominic from making a mistake.
Something Dominic clearly did not appreciate but perhaps needed.
Chloe looked at Luca.
The boy stared at the photograph.
His small face had become strangely still.
She crouched beside him.
“Do you remember that day?”
Luca nodded.
Dominic moved closer.
Chloe lifted one hand without looking at him.
“Give him space.”
A muscle jumped in Dominic’s jaw.
He obeyed.
Chloe pointed toward Carlo in the photograph.
“Was Uncle Carlo there?”
Another nod.
“Did he hurt Mama?”
Luca shook his head.
Dominic exhaled.
“Did he see what happened?”
Luca hesitated.
Then he whispered, “After.”
Dominic leaned forward.
Chloe glanced back sharply.
He stopped.
“After what?” she asked.
Luca stared at the floor.
“Mama.”
“What happened to Mama?”
The boy’s face crumpled.
Chloe immediately regretted asking.
“It’s okay. You don’t have to—”
“Fell.”
The word barely came out.
Dominic closed his eyes.
Luca’s breathing quickened.
Chloe put both hands around his.
“Who was with her?”
He looked toward Dominic.
Then toward the door.
“No.”
“Okay.”
“No.”
His voice grew louder.
“No house.”
Dominic frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Chloe looked at him.
“He doesn’t want to go home.”
Luca grabbed her sleeve.
“No house.”
Dominic looked devastated.
He hid it quickly.
“We’re not going back yet.”
They spent the next hour examining Elena’s documents.
The bank statements showed repeated transfers from a Russo-controlled holding company into an account belonging to a charity called the Bellini Foundation.
Mara’s last name.
Adrian searched corporate records.
The foundation had never existed publicly.
Someone created it four months before Elena died.
The account received $800,000.
Then another $600,000.
Then, two days after Elena’s death, every dollar disappeared.
“Blackmail,” Adrian said.
Dominic stared at the statements.
“Or hush money.”
Chloe looked at the digital recorder.
“Have you listened to that?”
Dominic picked it up.
The battery was dead.
Adrian found a cable in his laptop bag.
They connected it.
The screen flickered.
One audio file.
Date-stamped two days before Elena’s death.
Dominic pressed play.
Static.
Then Elena’s voice.
“If you’re hearing this, I failed.”
Dominic’s hand froze.
Luca looked up.
Elena continued.
“Dominic, you will want revenge. Don’t.”
Dominic gave a bitter laugh.
“Too late.”
The recording continued.
“The person responsible wants exactly that. They want you angry. They want you reckless. They know how easy it is to control you when you think someone has threatened your family.”
Dominic’s expression darkened.
Chloe looked at him.
Elena had known her husband well.
“There is something happening inside the organization,” Elena said. “Money is disappearing. Men are being moved without your approval. Someone is manufacturing a war with the Morettis.”
Adrian and Dominic exchanged looks.
Chloe remembered the docks.
Three million dollars in merchandise.
Two wounded men.
The territorial conflict dominating Dominic’s life.
Elena’s voice trembled.
“I found proof. Mara helped me. Carlo found out.”
Dominic leaned closer.
“But Carlo did not betray me.”
Everyone froze.
Elena continued.
“He tried to protect Luca and me.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
Adrian whispered, “Jesus.”
“If Mara is dead, Carlo may be next. The person behind this has been inside your house longer than I have.”
Static interrupted the recording.
Then Elena returned.
“One more thing. Luca saw enough that night to be dangerous.”
Chloe’s stomach turned.
Dominic looked at his son.
“If he stops speaking, don’t force him. He will speak when he feels safe.”
Chloe felt tears burn her eyes.
Elena had predicted everything.
Then came the final sentence.
“Dominic, if you remember nothing else, remember this: the person you trust most will be the easiest weapon to use against you.”
The recording ended.
Nobody spoke.
Dominic stood.
“I accused Carlo.”
Adrian closed the laptop.
“You reacted.”
“I threatened him.”
“You haven’t found him yet.”
Dominic walked toward the window.
“What if they already did?”
Chloe looked at Luca.
The boy was staring at the torn security badge.
She slid it toward him.
“Do you know this?”
He touched the missing corner.
Then he nodded.
“Where?”
Luca picked up a pen.
He drew a rectangle.
A door.
Then stairs.
Then another door.
Dominic turned.
“What is he drawing?”
Chloe watched.
Luca added three small circles.
Then a large X.
Adrian frowned.
“Basement?”
Dominic took the paper.
“There’s an old service corridor under the west wing.”
“Locked?” Chloe asked.
“Since before Elena died.”
Luca whispered, “Mama room.”
Dominic looked at him.
“What?”
“Mama room.”
They returned to the Russo estate shortly before noon.
Security surrounded the property.
Carlo’s vehicle remained in the garage.
His phone had been found on the kitchen counter.
No sign of Carlo.
Dominic took Chloe, Luca, Adrian, and two guards toward the west wing basement.
The corridor smelled of dust.
At the end stood a steel door.
Dominic entered a code.
Red light.
“Changed.”
Adrian examined the keypad.
“Recently?”
Dominic touched the edge.
“Someone scratched the screws.”
Luca pulled Chloe toward a framed painting nearby.
Behind it was a small recessed switch.
Dominic stared.
“You knew about this?”
Luca nodded.
He pressed it.
The steel door unlocked.
Beyond it lay a narrow concrete hallway.
They followed it.
Thirty feet inside, another door appeared.
This one was wooden.
Old.
Dominic pushed it open.
Chloe expected storage.
Instead she found a room.
A desk.
Shelves.
Computers.
Stacks of surveillance photographs.
Hundreds of them.
Dominic.
Elena.
Luca.
Carlo.
Even Chloe.
Her stomach dropped.
One photograph showed her leaving Loyola University eight months earlier.
Before she ever applied for the nanny position.
“This is impossible.”
Dominic snatched the photograph.
His expression changed.
“You were being watched before you came here.”
Chloe stepped backward.
“Why?”
Nobody answered.
Adrian moved to the desk.
A monitor sat dark.
He pressed the power button.
The screen came alive.
A password prompt appeared.
Luca suddenly pulled away from Chloe.
He walked toward a drawer.
Inside was a child’s puzzle box.
He opened it.
A slip of paper lay beneath the pieces.
Dominic unfolded it.
One word.
HASTINGS.
Chloe’s blood went cold.
“My last name.”
Adrian entered it.
The computer unlocked.
Folders filled the screen.
Russo.
Moretti.
Bellini.
Hastings.
Dominic clicked Chloe’s name.
A profile opened.
Photographs of Chloe.
Her college records.
Her apartment.
Her mother’s hospital.
Medical invoices.
Everything.
At the bottom was a document.
EMPLOYMENT PLACEMENT REQUEST.
Wellington Domestic Agency.
Requested applicant:
CHLOE HASTINGS.
Requested by:
The screen flickered.
Dominic leaned closer.
A name appeared.
Not Carlo.
Not Elena.
Not anyone Chloe knew.
Adrian whispered it aloud.
“Dr. Nathan Hastings.”
May you like
Chloe stopped breathing.
Her father had been dead for fourteen years.
