Chapter 3 - What Lily Found
Elena ran before Matteo could stop her.
“Lily!”
Matteo reached the red door first.
Beyond it was a narrow storage room, then a second stairway leading beneath the warehouse.
He had never known the stairs existed.
Lily’s crying echoed below.
“Elena, stay here.”
“Absolutely not.”
He turned.
Her face left no room for argument.
Fine.
They descended together.
The basement smelled damp.
Matteo switched on his phone flashlight.
At the bottom, they found Lily standing beside an old metal cabinet.
She was not hurt.
She was frightened.
And pointing.
“There’s Daddy.”
Elena froze.
“What?”
Lily pointed at a photograph taped to the cabinet.
Daniel Marlowe.
Alive.
Standing beside two men.
The photograph had been taken inside the warehouse.
Elena rushed forward and pulled it free.
“Daniel.”
Her fingers trembled across his face.
Matteo shone the light closer.
Daniel stood beside a loading container.
One of the men was unknown.
The other was Vittorio.
Elena looked at Matteo.
“You said your uncle raised you.”
“He did.”
“Then why was he secretly meeting my husband?”
“I don’t know.”
“You keep saying that.”
“I’m starting to dislike it too.”
Matteo opened the metal cabinet.
Inside were files.
Dozens.
Shipping manifests.
Employee records.
Photographs.
Payment logs.
Someone had built an archive.
Daniel.
Or someone using him.
Matteo flipped through the folders.
One name appeared repeatedly.
V. DeLuca.
Payments.
Unauthorized transfers.
Shipments routed through Warehouse Nine after midnight.
There were code names beside many entries.
Medicines.
Chemicals.
Imported pharmaceuticals.
Elena took one sheet.
“What is A-19?”
Matteo looked.
His blood chilled.
“I don’t know.”
He searched another file.
A-19.
Again.
Then A-19 beside the word MONKSHOOD.
Aconite.
The poison in his coffee.
Elena stared at him.
“This was here before Daniel died.”
“Yes.”
“So somebody was moving poison through your company.”
“Yes.”
“And Daniel found it.”
“Yes.”
Lily tugged her mother’s sleeve.
“Mommy, can we go home?”
Elena crouched.
“Yes, baby.”
Matteo looked around.
“We take everything.”
It took them fifteen minutes to load the most important files into two crates.
Matteo carried them upstairs.
Elena carried Lily.
Before leaving, Matteo called Nico.
“Meet me at the old apartment.”
Nico understood immediately.
Not the estate.
Matteo kept a secure apartment downtown that only Nico knew.
Or so he hoped.
They drove there.
Dr. Russo was already waiting.
He examined Lily first.
Then Elena.
Then Matteo.
All clear.
“No exposure,” Russo said.
Matteo handed him Daniel’s file.
“Could aconitine have killed him?”
Russo read.
“Easily.”
“Would it look like cardiac arrest?”
“Yes.”
“Could a standard autopsy miss it?”
“If nobody looked for it.”
Elena sat beside Lily on the couch.
“So Daniel was murdered.”
Russo looked at Matteo.
Matteo answered.
“We don’t know.”
Elena stood.
“You do know.”
“Knowing and proving are different.”
“I don’t care about court.”
“I do.”
She stared at him.
That surprised her.
Matteo added, “Because if Vittorio did this, killing him is easy. Proving everyone who helped him is harder.”
Nico arrived carrying the dead prepaid phone and a laptop.
“I got the phone powered.”
Matteo stepped closer.
“Anything?”
“Messages.”
“To whom?”
“Mostly erased.”
“Mostly?”
“One thread survived.”
Nico opened the phone.
A series of messages appeared.
Daniel: I copied everything.
Unknown: You need to leave tonight.
Daniel: He knows.
Unknown: Who?
Daniel: V.
Unknown: Did he see you?
Daniel: No.
Unknown: Then go home. I’ll call.
Then one final message.
Daniel: If anything happens, protect Elena and Lily.
Elena covered her mouth.
Her eyes filled.
“Who was he texting?”
Nico shook his head.
“Number is dead.”
“Can you trace it?”
“Maybe.”
Matteo looked at Daniel’s USB drive.
“And that?”
“Encrypted.”
“How long?”
“Hours. Maybe days.”
Matteo turned toward Russo.
“Tell me about Vittorio’s doctor.”
“Dr. Paolo Ferrante.”
“Did he have access to aconite?”
“Possibly. He works with cardiac medication and toxicology research.”
“Where is he?”
Russo hesitated.
“He died six months ago.”
Matteo frowned.
“How?”
“Car accident.”
Nico cursed under his breath.
Elena laughed bitterly.
“Convenient.”
Matteo agreed.
Too convenient.
He looked at the clock.
11:36 a.m.
Four hours earlier, he had nearly died at breakfast.
By noon, he had learned Elena’s husband might have been murdered using the same poison, that Vittorio was connected to illegal shipments, and that one of Vittorio’s guards had been watching Warehouse Nine.
But something still bothered him.
Why now?
Daniel had been dead eleven months.
Warehouse Nine had been closed.
If Vittorio wanted Matteo dead, why poison his coffee today?
Something had changed.
He looked at Elena.
“When did you start working at the estate?”
“Three weeks ago.”
“When did Lily first come with you?”
“Today.”
“Why?”
“My babysitter canceled.”
Matteo stared.
Coincidence.
He had stopped believing in those years ago.
“What?”
Elena asked.
“The poison came today.”
“So?”
“Today was Lily’s first morning inside my house.”
Elena went still.
“You think someone knew she could recognize it?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
Matteo looked toward the files.
“Maybe the target wasn’t just me.”
Nico frowned.
“What do you mean?”
Matteo walked toward the window.
“Daniel hid evidence. He died. Eleven months later Elena accidentally gets hired inside my estate.”
Elena’s expression hardened.
“It wasn’t accidental. I applied.”
“Who recommended you?”
She opened her mouth.
Stopped.
Matteo turned.
“Who?”
“A woman from the agency.”
“Name?”
“Marissa.”
“Last name?”
“I don’t know.”
Nico was already typing.
“What agency?”
“Sterling Domestic.”
Nico searched.
Then looked up.
“No Sterling Domestic registered in the city.”
Elena’s face drained.
“What?”
Matteo stepped toward her.
“How did they contact you?”
“Facebook job group.”
“Do you still have the messages?”
“Yes.”
She opened her phone.
Scrolled.
The conversation was gone.
Elena stared.
“I didn’t delete it.”
Matteo’s jaw tightened.
Nico took the phone.
“Account?”
“Gone.”
Elena sat.
Someone had placed her in Matteo’s house.
Deliberately.
The question was why.
Lily climbed into her mother’s lap.
“Mommy, I’m hungry.”
Elena hugged her.
“I know.”
Matteo looked away.
Something about the child’s ordinary complaint made everything feel worse.
Nico’s laptop chimed.
He leaned closer.
“I traced the prepaid number Daniel was texting.”
Matteo turned.
“To who?”
“Not directly. But the number connected repeatedly to one tower near the estate.”
“That proves nothing.”
“There’s more. The SIM was purchased with a corporate expense card.”
“What company?”
Nico looked at the screen.
“DeLuca Holdings.”
Matteo felt his pulse in his throat.
“Whose card?”
Nico swallowed.
“Yours.”
Elena stared at Matteo.
He shook his head.
“I didn’t buy it.”
Nico continued typing.
“The receipt has a signature.”
Matteo stepped closer.
“What signature?”
Nico turned the screen.
The name written across the electronic receipt was clear.
MATTEO DELUCA.
Elena backed away.
“No.”
Matteo stared.
Someone had used his identity.
Someone close enough to have access to his corporate accounts.
Nico said, “There are only four people who could authorize that card.”
“Names.”
“You.”
“I know.”
“Me.”
Matteo looked at him.
Nico’s jaw tightened.
“Vittorio.”
“And?”
Nico hesitated.
Matteo already knew.
“Say it.”
“Your sister.”
Matteo’s face went blank.
Sofia.
His younger sister.
The one person he had kept completely outside his business.
The one person he had sworn his enemies would never reach.
His phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
A photograph arrived.
Sofia.
Sitting in the back of a car.
Her eyes wide.
A man’s hand gripped her shoulder.
Below the photo was one sentence.
BRING THE GIRL TO THE ESTATE OR YOUR SISTER DIES.
Matteo read it twice.
Then Elena whispered, “What girl?”
Lily looked up.
Matteo did not answer.
May you like
Because another message appeared.
WE KNOW WHAT SHE REMEMBERS.
