Chapter 6: What Celeste Said on the Phone
Dante's man was named Fico.
He was twenty-six, looked like a university student, and could lip-read in four languages.
He had been forty meters behind Celeste in the garden.
He sat across from Dante in the security office and read from his notes.
"First call, eight minutes.
She said: 'He knows about the capsules.
The girl found them.' Then: 'I don't know how much he's put together yet.' Then she listened for a while.
Then she said: 'Marco is coming tonight.
If Lorenzo pushes too hard, Marco needs to move the proxy vote forward.
We only need three more board members.' Then she said: 'The girl is the problem.
She saw everything.
We need her gone from the estate.'"
Dante looked at the notes.
"Gone."
"That was the word she used."
"Second call?"
"Four minutes.
Different number — I ran it, it's registered to a shell address in Luxembourg.
She said: 'It needs to happen before he gets Ferrante involved.' Then: 'I don't care what it costs.
If he recovers, everything we built falls apart.' Then she said: 'The housekeeper's daughter.
Seven years old.
Make it look like the child wandered.'"
Dante set the notes down.
He walked to Lorenzo's study and knocked once.
Lorenzo was still at the desk.
He looked up.
Dante put the notes in front of him without speaking.
Lorenzo read them.
His face didn't change.
That was the thing about Lorenzo Rinaldi that people always misread — they expected rage to look loud.
It didn't.
It went very quiet and very still, like water just before it freezes.
"Where is Mia right now?" he said.
"Guest house.
Rosa is with her.
Two of my men outside the door."
"The Luxembourg number."
"I'm running it."
"Run it faster." Lorenzo stood up from the wheelchair.
It was the first time he had attempted it without assistance in fourteen months.
His legs shook.
He gripped the desk edge.
But he stood.
Dante didn't move to help him.
He understood instinctively that this was not a moment for help.
Lorenzo stood for eleven seconds.
Then he sat back down.
"Get Ferrante back here tomorrow morning," he said.
His voice was steady.
"And call Inspector Gallo in Rome.
Tell him I need a private meeting.
Tonight if possible."
"Gallo will ask what it's about."
"Tell him it's about a crjme that has been happening inside this estate for almost a year." Lorenzo looked at the notes again.
"And tell him to bring someone from financial crimes.
Because this goes further than the wheelchair."
Dante picked up his phone.
At the door he stopped.
"Lorenzo.
When she said 'make it look like the child wandered' — she meant—"
"I know what she meant," Lorenzo said.
The room was very quiet.
"She made a mistake," Lorenzo said.
"The same one everyone else made."
Dante waited.
May you like
"She forgot about Mia," Lorenzo said.
"And Mia already told us everything we need."
