Chapter 6 - WHEN THE LIGHTS WENT OUT|
Darkness swallowed the Moretti mansion so completely that I couldn't see my own hands.
Somewhere down the hallway, glass shattered.
Rosa cried out.
I reached for her immediately.
"Mrs. Moretti, I'm here."
Her fingers found my arm.
The moment she gripped my bruised wrist, I winced.
She released it at once.
"Oh, sweetheart, I'm sorry."
"Don't worry about me."
I guided her toward the sofa, using the faint moonlight coming through the windows.
"Just stay close."
Across the room, Luca's voice thundered.
"Nico, answer me!"
Static crackled through his earpiece.
Then Nico responded.
"Someone disabled the main power system."
"The emergency backup is coming online."
Detective Ruiz spoke with remarkable calm.
"Nobody leaves this room until we know what's happening."
A distant metallic crash echoed through the west wing.
Vanessa screamed.
Or at least, that was what I thought I heard.
Then the emergency lights flickered on.
Dim red strips illuminated the hallway.
Luca hurried toward his mother.
"Are you hurt?"
Rosa shook her head.
"No, but Claire's wrist—"
"I'm fine," I interrupted.
I wasn't.
But there were more important things to worry about.
Luca looked around.
"Where's Vanessa?"
Nobody answered.
The doorway where she had been standing was empty.
Ruiz immediately contacted the officers waiting outside the property.
I heard her give a description of Vanessa's dress and request that the entrances be checked.
Luca turned toward Nico's voice on the radio.
"Find my wife."
"Already trying, boss."
A moment later, we heard a struggle somewhere beyond the study.
A man's voice shouted.
Then something heavy struck the floor.
I pulled Rosa closer.
Ruiz moved us away from the open doorway.
"Stay behind me."
Footsteps approached.
Nico appeared with another security officer.
Between them was a younger guard wearing a black uniform.
His name badge read EVAN MERCER.
I recognized him.
He had been working the west corridor the previous night.
And I remembered something else.
When Vanessa grabbed my wrist, Evan had been standing at the far end of the hallway.
He had watched.
He had done nothing.
Now blood trickled from a small cut above his eyebrow.
Nico held an access card in one hand.
"This is the man who opened the service gate."
Evan shook his head.
"I was following instructions."
"Whose instructions?" Ruiz asked.
He looked at Luca.
Then away.
"I don't know."
Luca stepped forward.
"Evan, I have paid your salary for eighteen months."
"I trusted you to protect the people in this house."
Evan swallowed.
"They told me nobody was supposed to get hurt."
I felt a cold sensation spread through my chest.
"Who told you?"
His eyes moved toward the corridor Vanessa had used.
Ruiz noticed.
"Was Mrs. Moretti involved?"
Evan said nothing.
Luca stared at him.
"Look at my mother's arm."
Evan reluctantly looked.
"Look at Claire's."
I pulled back my sleeve.
His expression crumpled.
"She said they were making trouble."
"She said they were trying to destroy her marriage."
Rosa's voice was barely a whisper.
"So you believed her?"
Evan looked down.
"I needed the money."
Those four words seemed to echo through the study.
I understood what it meant to need money.
I understood what it meant to worry about rent, groceries, and whether your next paycheck would arrive.
But I also knew something Evan apparently hadn't learned.
Desperation didn't make hurting innocent people acceptable.
Ruiz directed the officers to take him for questioning.
Before they led him away, Evan looked at Luca.
"The man with the briefcase wasn't supposed to stay."
"What was he supposed to do?" Luca asked.
"Leave something in the office."
"And then?"
Evan's face went pale.
"Keep you busy until the church was empty."
Rosa gasped.
"Sister Ruth."
Luca was already reaching for his phone.
He called St. Agnes Church.
No answer.
He tried again.
Still nothing.
Nico returned from the west wing carrying a black briefcase.
"The intruder escaped through the service courtyard."
"He left this behind."
Ruiz opened it carefully.
Inside were photocopies of legal documents.
Most bore Luca's forged signature.
Beneath them was a photograph.
It showed Rosa leaving St. Agnes Church several weeks earlier.
On the back, someone had written a message.
"Stop looking, or the old woman disappears."
Rosa stared at the photograph.
"Victor has been following me."
Luca looked at his mother.
"Why were you at St. Agnes three weeks ago?"
She lowered her eyes.
"Because I was finally thinking about telling you the truth."
I watched Luca absorb those words.
Three weeks.
His mother had nearly found the courage to speak.
Then Vanessa had come into the house and made certain she stayed silent.
Detective Ruiz contacted another unit and requested that officers check the church immediately.
Luca wanted to go himself.
Ruiz hesitated.
"Mr. Moretti, we don't know if this is a diversion."
"Then you understand why I can't ignore it."
He looked at Rosa.
"Mama, stay here with Nico."
She started protesting.
I knelt in front of her.
"Please, Mrs. Moretti."
"Let me go with Luca."
She looked frightened.
"Claire, that man knows what happened to Antonio."
"I know."
"And he knows we're coming."
I touched her hand.
"Then we'll make sure the detective comes with us."
Ruiz studied me.
"You're willing to help identify anything you recognize?"
I nodded.
"If it helps protect Rosa."
Luca looked at me.
For once, he didn't give an order.
"Claire, you don't have to do this."
"I know."
That was exactly why I could.
I was choosing.
Not obeying.
Not hiding.
Choosing.
Twenty minutes later, Detective Ruiz, Luca, and I approached the old stone church on Chicago's West Side.
Two police vehicles were already parked outside.
The front doors stood open.
A cold wind moved through the entryway.
Inside, the sanctuary was almost completely dark.
Then a small voice called from behind the altar.
"Rosa?"
I turned toward the sound.
An elderly nun stepped into the light.
Her face was pale.
And she was holding a thick blue envelope against her chest.
"Tell Rosa," Sister Ruth whispered, "that Antonio was right."
Luca hurried forward.
"About what?"
The nun looked at him with tears in her eyes.
"Victor came back for the one thing he couldn't destroy."
May you like
She held out the envelope.
"And now, his son has to decide whether he's brave enough to read it."
