Chapter 5 - THE SECRET INSIDE THE GRANDFATHER CLOCK|
Rosa survived the surgery.
Those four words were the first good news Luca Moretti had received since his wedding.
The surgeon explained that the fracture had been repaired, but Rosa would need careful monitoring, physical therapy, and months of rehabilitation.
Nobody could promise she would walk without assistance again.
Luca stood beside her hospital bed that afternoon, looking at the small woman who had raised him.
She seemed impossibly fragile beneath the white blankets.
An oxygen tube rested beneath her nose.
Her silver hair spread across the pillow.
I stood near the doorway, holding the cardigan she always wore when she felt cold.
When Rosa opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was her son.
"Luca?"
He immediately leaned forward.
"I'm here, Mama."
"Did you listen?"
"Yes."
Her eyes filled with tears.
"Then you know."
"I know Vanessa and her father have been lying."
Rosa shook her head.
"You still don't know why."
Luca pulled a chair closer.
"Tell me."
She looked toward me.
"Claire needs to hear this too."
I approached the bed.
Rosa reached for my hand.
"Your father was a good man, sweetheart."
The words broke something inside me.
For years, I had wanted someone from the Moretti family to say them.
Luca looked between us.
"Mom, how long have you known Claire's father was innocent?"
"I suspected it after the fire."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I couldn't prove it, and the people who frightened the witnesses were still close to us."
Her voice trembled.
"Frank told me that Thomas Bennett had discovered suspicious shipments moving through our warehouses."
I frowned.
"What kind of shipments?"
"Containers being used to hide money and illegal goods."
Luca's expression darkened.
Rosa continued.
"Your father wanted out of the arrangement."
"He was already making plans to separate the legitimate shipping company from Dominic's operations."
"Dominic refused."
Luca slowly sat back.
"My uncle?"
Rosa nodded.
"Dominic owed Victor Bellini millions of dollars."
"Frank found out."
"And when Frank threatened to expose them, Victor told him he would destroy everything our family had built."
Luca stared at the floor.
For seventeen years, he had treated Dominic as a second father.
The possibility that his uncle had betrayed Frank was almost unbearable.
"Do you have proof?" he asked.
Rosa looked frightened.
"Your father left me a letter two days before the fire."
"Where is it?"
"In the grandfather clock inside your father's study."
I leaned closer.
"The tall walnut clock beside the fireplace?"
"Yes."
"There's a drawer beneath the pendulum."
"I know."
"Not the ordinary drawer, Claire."
Rosa squeezed my hand.
"Behind it."
Luca stood.
"Then we'll get it."
"Wait."
His mother gripped his sleeve.
"There's a reason I didn't open that compartment for years."
"What reason?"
"Because Dominic knew the clock existed."
The room fell silent.
Rosa continued.
"After Frank died, he searched the house."
"He told me he was looking for insurance papers."
"But I heard him on the telephone saying he had to find Frank's last letter."
I felt a chill.
"Why didn't he take the clock apart?"
"Frank had already changed the hiding place."
"Only Thomas knew how the mechanism worked."
I swallowed.
"My father?"
Rosa nodded.
"He repaired that clock every Christmas."
Luca suddenly looked ashamed.
"Thomas wasn't just a maintenance worker."
"No," Rosa whispered.
"He was Frank's friend."
A knock interrupted us.
A woman in a dark business suit entered the room.
She introduced herself as Detective Elena Ruiz from the Chicago Police Department.
She had been assigned to investigate the staircase incident.
Luca handed her the photographs and explained the recording.
Ruiz listened without interrupting.
Then she spoke carefully.
"The recording gives us important leads, but we still need independent evidence."
Luca frowned.
"Why?"
"Private recordings can raise legal challenges under Illinois law, and a suspicious conversation isn't enough by itself to establish every crime being alleged."
She looked toward Rosa.
"We'll investigate the fall, the altered cane, the removal order, and the earlier fire separately."
Rosa nodded weakly.
"I understand."
Detective Ruiz turned toward Luca.
"Your attorney has also informed us about an attempted transfer of voting authority."
Luca's expression hardened.
"My mother never approved that."
"Then we need to preserve the documents before anyone destroys them."
Rosa suddenly began breathing faster.
"The documents."
I touched her shoulder.
"Mrs. Moretti?"
She looked toward her son with unmistakable fear.
"Dominic came here this morning."
Luca froze.
"What?"
"He wanted me to sign something."
"While you were recovering from surgery?"
"He said it was paperwork for my medical care."
Her voice broke.
"But I recognized Victor Bellini's name."
Luca reached for the telephone.
Rosa caught his wrist.
"Please, listen."
She struggled to continue.
"Dominic told me something before he left."
"What did he say?"
"He said that if I refused to sign, he would make sure the hospital understood I was no longer capable of making decisions."
Luca's expression changed from anger to horror.
His mother began crying.
"I told him I would call you."
"What happened then?"
Rosa looked directly at me.
"He said I should ask Claire what happened to her father when he refused to cooperate."
For several seconds, I could hear nothing except the hospital monitor.
Then Luca turned toward Detective Ruiz.
"I want an officer outside my mother's room."
Ruiz nodded.
"I can arrange appropriate protection while we assess the threat."
Luca looked back at Rosa.
"No one is making decisions for you without your consent, Mama."
Rosa closed her eyes.
But before she fell asleep, she whispered one final warning.
"Find the letter before Dominic does."
May you like
Then she added something that made my heart race.
"Frank wrote down the name of the person who locked him inside that warehouse."
