Chapter 2 - The Dead Man on Vivien’s Flight
Adrian did not show Rachel the message.
Not yet.
People revealed more when they did not know exactly what you knew.
He placed the phone face down.
“When did you last see Daniel?”
Rachel’s answer came immediately.
“The night before he died.”
“Where?”
“Our apartment in Queens.”
“What happened?”
“He came home after midnight. He was terrified.”
“Of whom?”
“He wouldn’t say.”
“What did he give you?”
“The key.”
“Anything else?”
“A letter.”
“Where is it?”
“I burned it.”
Adrian’s gaze hardened.
“Why?”
“Because Daniel told me to.”
“What did it say?”
Rachel wiped her cheek.
“That if he disappeared, I was never supposed to trust anyone who came asking about the Carter Trust.”
“Anyone?”
“Anyone.”
“Including me?”
“He specifically said you were different.”
Adrian glanced at the photograph of his father.
“Why?”
“He said your father had made a promise.”
“What promise?”
“I don’t know.”
That answer was becoming irritating.
Yet Rachel’s fear looked genuine.
Adrian picked up his phone.
“Take Emma to the staff cottage.”
Rachel frowned.
“Why?”
“Lock the door.”
“Mr. Moretti—”
“Do it.”
She obeyed.
When the study door closed, Adrian called Matteo.
“You’re sure?”
“I ran facial recognition twice.”
“Where is Carter now?”
“We lost the airport trail.”
“Lost?”
“He entered a private vehicle registered to a shell company.”
“Which company?”
“I’m digging.”
“Was Vivien with him?”
“Not visibly. She cleared customs twenty-three minutes earlier.”
“Coincidence?”
“You don’t believe in those.”
“No.”
Matteo paused.
“You want me at Ravenwood now?”
“Yes. Quietly.”
“I’ll use the service entrance.”
Adrian ended the call.
He looked at the wedding invitation on his desk.
ADRIAN MORETTI
&
VIVIEN ROSSI
Four days.
He tore it in half.
Not because the wedding was canceled.
Not yet.
Canceling it would warn her.
And Adrian needed Vivien to believe everything was proceeding exactly as planned.
At dinner that evening, she played her role beautifully.
She talked about flowers.
Table assignments.
The disagreement between two guests who could not be seated together.
Adrian listened.
He asked questions.
He even smiled.
Across the table, Vivien never suspected that Matteo was twenty yards away in a hidden security room tracing her movements for the previous six months.
“Your mother called,” Vivien said.
Adrian lifted his wineglass.
“She always calls.”
“She asked whether we were still planning to leave for Lake Como Monday morning.”
“And?”
“I told her yes.”
Vivien smiled.
“I can’t wait to finally have you to myself.”
Adrian returned the smile.
“Neither can I.”
He wondered which version of him she believed she would be alone with.
After dinner, Vivien went upstairs.
Adrian waited seven minutes.
Then he entered the security room.
Matteo had covered three screens with timelines.
“You’re not going to like this.”
“I haven’t liked anything today.”
Matteo pointed.
“Vivien has visited a private bank downtown eleven times in the past four months.”
“Which bank?”
“Mercer Continental.”
Adrian stared.
The photograph of his father had been taken outside a Mercer branch in Zurich.
“Box 317?”
“I already checked. No box under your name.”
“Try Carter.”
Matteo typed.
Nothing.
“Daniel?”
Nothing.
“Vivien Rossi?”
Matteo stopped.
“There is a box.”
“What number?”
He opened the record.
Both men went silent.
Adrian leaned toward the screen.
“That’s impossible.”
“Apparently not.”
“Who authorized it?”
“Opened twelve years ago.”
“Vivien was nineteen.”
“And she wasn’t the original holder.”
Matteo clicked again.
The original registered holder appeared.
LORENZO MORETTI.
Adrian’s father.
The room became very quiet.
Lorenzo had died ten years earlier.
Yet the box had transferred to Vivien seven years after his death.
“Who transferred ownership?”
“Digital authorization from Moretti Family Holdings.”
“I control Moretti Family Holdings.”
“Now.”
Adrian understood.
Someone with old authority credentials.
Someone trusted by his father.
“What’s in the box?”
“No way to know without opening it.”
Adrian removed Rachel’s brass key from his pocket.
“We may have a way.”
Matteo stared at it.
“Where did you get that?”
“Rachel.”
“You trust her?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“She thinks Daniel is dead.”
“He isn’t.”
“Which means either he lied to her, or she’s lying to me.”
Matteo leaned back.
“There’s more.”
He opened flight records.
Daniel Carter had traveled under his own name only twice during the past decade.
Both trips were from Geneva to New York.
The first had been seven years ago.
Three days before safe-deposit box 317 transferred to Vivien Rossi.
The second was three weeks ago.
Adrian rubbed his jaw.
“What connects Daniel and Vivien?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“Find it.”
“You want to confront her?”
“No.”
“Daniel?”
“First we find him.”
Matteo smiled without humor.
“There’s the Adrian I know.”
At midnight, Adrian returned to his bedroom.
Vivien was awake.
She lay beneath white sheets reading from her tablet.
“You disappeared.”
“Security issue.”
“Serious?”
“No.”
She placed the tablet down.
“Come here.”
Adrian removed his jacket.
He sat on the edge of the bed.
Vivien touched the tattoos along his neck.
“You’ve been distant all evening.”
“I’m tired.”
“Cold too.”
He looked at her.
Vivien smiled softly.
“You get this way before something important.”
“Do I?”
“You did before proposing.”
That memory cut strangely now.
He had proposed in Florence.
Rain had fallen that night too.
Vivien had cried.
Had those tears been real?
“You know me well,” Adrian said.
“I should.”
She kissed him.
He allowed it.
Then she whispered against his cheek.
“After Sunday, there won’t be secrets between us.”
Adrian almost laughed.
Instead he said, “No. There won’t.”
Vivien fell asleep twenty minutes later.
Adrian remained awake.
At 2:13 a.m., her phone lit up.
A message appeared on the lock screen.
UNKNOWN NUMBER.
HE CAME HOME EARLY. DID HE SEE YOU?
Adrian stared.
Vivien slept beside him.
Another message.
WE CAN’T RISK THE CHILD TALKING AGAIN.
His blood chilled.
Again.
Emma.
Adrian quietly photographed the screen.
Then the messages disappeared remotely.
Not deleted by Vivien.
Erased by the sender.
Sophisticated.
Adrian rose from bed.
He walked into the hallway and called Matteo.
“I need security on Rachel’s cottage now.”
“What happened?”
“Someone mentioned Emma.”
Matteo did not ask twice.
Adrian dressed.
Three minutes later, he was moving toward the western grounds.
The rain had stopped.
Rachel’s cottage sat among bare maple trees behind the greenhouse.
A small porch light glowed.
Adrian saw Matteo approaching from the opposite direction.
They reached the door together.
Adrian knocked.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Matteo checked the handle.
Unlocked.
They entered.
“Rachel?”
Silence.
The living room lamp was on.
A cup of tea remained warm.
Emma’s rabbit lay on the floor.
Adrian’s stomach tightened.
“Emma?”
A tiny sound came from the hallway.
He moved quickly.
Emma stood inside her bedroom.
Alone.
She was crying.
Adrian knelt.
“Where’s Mommy?”
Emma pointed toward the kitchen.
“She went outside.”
“With who?”
“The man.”
“What man?”
Emma sniffled.
“The dead man.”
Adrian looked at Matteo.
“What did he look like?”
Emma pointed toward a framed photograph on Rachel’s dresser.
Daniel Carter.
“My daddy.”
Adrian stood.
The back door was open.
Mud marked the floor.
He followed the prints through wet grass.
They stopped beside the greenhouse.
A black sedan had been parked there.
Gone now.
Matteo crouched.
“No struggle.”
“Rachel went willingly.”
“Maybe.”
Adrian saw something beneath a rosebush.
A phone.
Rachel’s.
The screen was cracked.
He picked it up.
A draft message was open.
It had never been sent.
MR. MORETTI, DANIEL IS ALIVE. HE SAYS YOUR FATHER DIDN’T DIE THE WAY YOU THINK. HE SAYS VIVIEN—
The sentence ended there.
Adrian stared at it.
Then Emma called from behind him.
“Mr. Adrian?”
He turned.
She stood at the back door clutching Bunny.
“You need to see.”
She held out a folded piece of paper.
“Daddy gave me.”
Adrian took it.
“When?”
“Just now.”
He unfolded the paper.
There were only five words.
OPEN BOX 317 BEFORE SUNDAY.
Below them was an address.
Mercer Continental Bank.
And beneath that, one final handwritten warning:
DO NOT BRING MATTEO.
May you like
Adrian slowly lifted his eyes.
Matteo stood directly beside him.
