Chapter 5 - Vanessa's Perfect Lie
The letter contained three pages.
Catherine had written about money disappearing from her husband's business accounts. She had discovered payments made to companies that did not exist and transfers authorized using forged signatures.
At first, she believed someone was stealing from her husband.
Then she found a second set of books.
The accounts were not merely fraudulent. They connected several respected Chicago businessmen to illegal transactions, secret properties, and shell companies created to hide their profits.
One of those businessmen was Salvatore Bellini.
Another was Luca's own father.
The letter did not accuse Luca's father of arranging Catherine's death. Instead, it described a growing conflict between the two men and Catherine's determination to expose the truth.
Near the bottom of the second page, her handwriting became shaky.
Salvatore came to the house today. He says I have misunderstood everything. He says the money is temporary and that my husband knows nothing about it. But I saw the signatures. I saw the dates. I know someone is lying.
The final page contained a sentence that changed the direction of the investigation.
There is a little girl caught in the middle of all this. Her name is Vanessa. Her mother has asked me to keep her safe.
Luca read it again.
“Vanessa's mother asked my mother to protect her?”
Joe nodded.
“That's what I suspected.”
“Why?”
“Because Evelyn Bellini was frightened. She told Catherine that Salvatore had become dangerous and that she wanted to leave him. She said she feared what he would do if he discovered she had been keeping records of his business.”
Luca stared at the letter.
“And my mother agreed to help her.”
“Yes.”
I looked at the photograph on the table.
The little girl with the silver locket had been standing beside Catherine, not because she was part of the Moretti family, but because Catherine had been trying to protect her.
“Then why did Vanessa lie?” I asked.
Luca looked toward me.
“Because the truth may be worse than the lie.”
We returned to Chicago that afternoon with the letter secured in a locked case. Luca's attorney arranged for the documents to be examined and copied. Delaney agreed to provide a formal statement, though he insisted he would only speak to investigators who were independent of both families.
Luca agreed.
For the first time since I had met him, he seemed determined to let the law do its work.
But Vanessa had not disappeared.
At six that evening, she called.
Luca put the phone on speaker.
“Luca, darling,” she said, her voice trembling just enough to sound convincing. “I've been waiting for you to call.”
“Where are you?”
“At my mother's old house.”
“Why did you leave the party?”
A pause.
“Because that man frightened me.”
“Joe saved my life.”
“I know that now.”
“No, Vanessa. You knew who he was before he entered the ballroom.”
Silence.
Then she began to cry.
“I was protecting you.”
“From what?”
“Your past.”
Luca closed his eyes briefly.
“Tell me about the photograph.”
“I was a child. My mother took me to the Moretti house because she needed Catherine's help. I don't remember everything.”
“Do you remember the fire?”
“No.”
“Do you remember the emerald earrings?”
“They belonged to my grandmother.”
“Your mother gave them to you?”
Another pause.
“Yes.”
“Then why does Catherine's letter say she was keeping you safe?”
Vanessa's crying stopped.
When she spoke again, her voice had lost its softness.
“Because your mother thought she could save everyone. She believed people were better than they were.”
“Was she wrong?”
“She was naïve.”
Luca's expression hardened.
“Careful.”
“Don't threaten me, Luca. You asked for the truth, and the truth is that your mother interfered in matters she didn't understand.”
“Did Salvatore Bellini start the fire?”
“I don't know.”
“Did your mother?”
“I don't know!”
For the first time, Vanessa sounded genuinely angry.
“You want a villain, Luca. You want someone to blame because you can't bear the idea that your mother died and you couldn't save her. But sometimes terrible things happen, and nobody gets the answers they deserve.”
Luca said nothing.
Vanessa exhaled.
“Come home. We can discuss this. We can still get married. We can forget that old man ever came to the party.”
“Forget Joe?”
“Forget all of it.”
“Goodbye, Vanessa.”
He ended the call.
For several seconds, the room remained silent.
Then his phone rang again.
This time, the caller was Marcus.
“We have a problem.”
Luca stood.
“What?”
“Someone broke into the storage facility where the Moretti family keeps its old records.”
“What's missing?”
“Everything connected to the fire investigation.”
Luca's jaw tightened.
“Who had access?”
“Only a few people. One of them was authorized to enter this afternoon using a family security code.”
“Whose code?”
Marcus hesitated.
“Vanessa Bellini's.”
Luca stared at the phone.
Then he looked toward Joe.
“She knew we were going to Delaney.”
Joe shook his head.
“No. Someone must have warned her.”
“Who?”
Joe slowly reached into his coat and removed a small, folded piece of paper.
“I found this in my lunchbox when I arrived at the mansion. I thought it was an old receipt.”
Luca took it.
The paper contained a handwritten address and a time.
11:30 p.m. — Old Firehouse, South Side.
Beneath it were five words.
Ask what your father buried.
Luca looked up.
“My father died before the fire.”
Joe nodded.
“Which is why I've never understood how he could have helped cover it up.”
Luca studied the note.
“Unless he didn't.”
He turned toward Marcus.
“Find out who wrote this.”
Marcus examined the paper.
“Boss, there's something else.”
“What?”
“The old firehouse was demolished twenty years ago.”
Joe shook his head.
“Not all of it.”
He looked at Luca, and for the first time, I saw something like hope in his tired eyes.
“The basement was sealed. Your father owned the building before it became a firehouse. If there's anything left of the old records, that's where it will be.”
Luca folded the note.
“Then that's where we're going.”
He looked at me.
“Emma, I need you to stay here.”
I nodded, relieved.
Then Joe spoke.
“Let her come.”
Luca frowned.
“Why?”
“Because she noticed the locket when everyone else was staring at Vanessa's face. She sees details that other people overlook.”
I wasn't sure whether that was a compliment or a terrible reason to walk into another dangerous situation.
Luca considered it.
Finally, he nodded.
“You stay behind me. You don't touch anything without permission, and if I tell you to leave, you leave.”
“Understood.”
I should have known that the night was about to become much more dangerous than any of us imagined.
May you like
Because when we arrived at the abandoned firehouse, the basement door was already open.
And someone was waiting inside.
