Chapter 6: The Architect
Lorenzo set the photograph on the desk.
He did not look at it again.
"Where is Aldo now?" he said.
"I don't know." Valentina's voice had lost its careful smoothness.
She sounded tired.
"He stopped contacting me directly after the mountain road.
Everything since then has come through intermediaries."
"The messages to R."
"R is what I called him.
I never used his name in writing.
He insisted on that from the beginning." She sat back down.
"He's careful, Lorenzo.
He has been planning this for a very long time."
Marco appeared in the doorway.
He had heard enough.
"Aldo is at his apartment in Rome," Marco said.
"I had someone check an hour ago when we started pulling the thread on the holding company.
The registered agent's firm has represented him twice before.
Small property disputes.
Nothing significant." He paused.
"Until now."
Lorenzo turned.
"Call Ferretti back.
Add Aldo Moretti to the conversation."
Marco stepped away.
Lorenzo looked at Valentina.
"The second arrangement.
The one involving Sophia and Lena." His voice was quiet.
"Who was hired?"
Valentina pressed her lips together.
"I don't know his name.
I only know he was told to wait for a signal.
If the estate went into lockdown and I stopped communicating, the signal would be interpreted as a failure." She looked at her hands.
"He would then take the woman and the child and contact you with terms."
"Where would he take them?"
"I don't know."
"Valentina."
"I genuinely don't know." She met his eyes.
"I told Aldo I wouldn't agree to anything that hurt a child.
He told me it was a contingency only.
That it would never be needed." Her voice thinned.
"He lied to me about a great many things."
Lorenzo walked to the door.
"Stay in this room," he said.
"When Ferretti arrives, you will tell him everything you've told me.
Every detail.
Every name.
Every message."
"And if I do?"
"Then you cooperate with an investigation instead of leading one from a cell." He stopped at the threshold.
"I won't make promises I can't keep.
But I'll tell Ferretti you came forward voluntarily."
He left her there.
In the corridor, he found Dante waiting.
His brother was standing against the wall with his arms at his sides, and he looked like a man who had been awake for three days.
"You knew about Aldo," Lorenzo said.
Dante closed his eyes.
"He came to me first," Dante said.
"After the will.
He said it wasn't fair.
He said Father had been manipulated in his final months.
He said there were legal grounds to contest." He opened his eyes.
"I believed him.
I was angry and I believed him."
"When did it stop being a legal contest?"
"When he introduced me to Valentina and explained what he actually wanted." Dante's voice dropped.
"I told him no.
I told him I wouldn't be part of something like that."
"But you introduced Valentina to me anyway."
"He told me she would simply marry you and the transfer would happen through the marriage settlement.
Legally.
No one gets hurt." Dante looked at the floor.
"I was a fool.
I told myself it was just money.
Just property.
That you would be fine."
"My driver wasn't fine."
The corridor was silent.
"No," Dante said.
"He wasn't."
Lorenzo studied his brother for a long moment.
"The anonymous messages.
The phone you found.
You were trying to undo it."
"I was trying to stop it without destroying everything." Dante looked up.
"I know that's not good enough."
"It isn't." Lorenzo moved past him.
"But it's something."
He stopped.
"Dante.
The man Aldo hired for the second arrangement.
Do you know anything about him?"
Dante straightened.
"He goes by Testa.
I heard the name once.
Aldo mentioned him when he thought I wasn't listening." He paused.
"He said Testa doesn't wait long before he acts."
Lorenzo walked faster.
He found Marco at the end of the corridor.
"Testa," he said.
"Find that name.
Now."
Marco was already on his phone.
They were halfway to the guest wing when Marco stopped walking.
"Lorenzo."
Something in Marco's voice.
Lorenzo turned.
Marco held up his phone.
On the screen was a security camera feed.
The east garden.
Exterior wall.
May you like
A figure was moving along the base of the wall in the dark.
Moving toward the guest wing.
