Chapter 4 - The Woman in the Poisoned Footage
Vincent drew his gun.
“Show yourself.”
The woman laughed softly.
“You still point guns before asking questions.”
Vincent froze.
Norah heard recognition in the silence.
Emergency lights flickered on.
A woman stood at the end of the hallway.
Dark coat.
Gray hair.
Silver bracelet.
Mrs. Caruso.
But Vincent lowered the gun.
“Teresa?”
Norah stared.
Mrs. Caruso’s first name was Angela.
The woman smiled.
“Hello, Vincent.”
She looked almost identical to the housekeeper.
Almost.
Vincent understood first.
“Her sister.”
The woman nodded.
“Twin.”
Teresa Caruso had once managed financial accounts for Vincent’s father. Twenty years earlier, she had disappeared after being accused of stealing.
Vincent had believed she was dead.
She wasn’t.
And she had entered the estate wearing her sister’s face.
“You poisoned me,” Vincent said.
Teresa’s expression hardened.
“I put something in your coffee. But not what nearly killed you.”
Nobody moved.
“What does that mean?”
“I drugged you.”
“Why?”
“To force a blood test.”
Vincent stared.
Teresa glanced toward Caleb.
“Your father buried something that should have ended the Rossi empire years ago.”
Vincent raised the gun again.
“What?”
Teresa smiled.
“Ask Enzo.”
A shot shattered the window.
Teresa dropped.
Vincent pulled Norah down.
More gunfire erupted.
When it stopped, Teresa was gone.
Only blood remained.
Back at the estate, Vincent confronted Enzo.
Enzo listened.
Then sat down.
“My father worked for yours.”
“I know.”
“No. You know the version they told you.”
Enzo opened Vincent’s locked cabinet.
Inside were old records.
One contained a photograph.
Vincent’s father.
Enzo’s father.
Teresa.
And a fourth man.
Norah recognized him from the shipping company logo.
Russo.
The bookmaker connected to Caleb’s debt.
Vincent stared.
“Russo worked for my father?”
Enzo nodded.
“Until he betrayed him.”
The conspiracy had not begun six months ago.
It had begun decades earlier.
Russo had spent years building businesses around the Rossi organization.
Now he wanted everything.
But someone inside Vincent’s circle had been helping him.
Norah returned to the kitchen.
She needed to think.
Cooking helped.
She opened the pantry.
Something felt wrong.
The flour container had moved.
She checked her photograph.
Three inches.
She called Vincent.
No answer.
Then she saw an envelope beneath the cutting board.
NORAH.
Inside was a photograph of her sleeping.
Taken through her apartment window.
On the back were six words.
YOU SAVED HIM. NOW KILL HIM.
Norah heard the pantry door close behind her.
She turned.
May you like
A man stood between her and the exit.
And he was holding the same vial from Caleb’s photograph.
