Chapter 2 – THE DRAWING IN THE BLUE COAT

Vanessa stared at the child’s drawing in my hand.

The color drained from her face so completely she looked like a ghost.

“That means nothing,” she stammered, backing away toward the library doors. “Leo is always drawing silly things. He’s a child with an overactive imagination.”

Luca didn’t blink.

“My nephew hasn’t been to this house in three weeks.”

He took the blue coat from his mother’s hands.

His thumb brushed against the drops of blood.

“And he certainly wasn’t bleeding the last time I saw him.”

Teresa swayed, her hand flying to her chest. “My grandson. Luca, where is my grandson?”

I quickly guided Teresa into the nearest armchair, kneeling beside her. I could feel her heart racing through the thin fabric of her blouse.

“I’ll get you some water,” I whispered.

But as I stood up, the library doors opened.

The gray-haired gentleman from the dining room stood in the doorway. He was holding a leather briefcase.

“Is there a problem, Mr. Moretti?” he asked smoothly.

Luca carefully set the blue coat on the desk.

“Who are you?” Luca asked.

The man smiled. “I told you. I am an independent medical evaluator.”

“No,” Luca said, taking a slow step forward. “Independent evaluators don’t come to engagement dinners. And they don’t accept keys from my fiancée.”

Luca pointed at the child’s drawing.

The man’s eyes flicked to the paper, and for a fraction of a second, his confident smile faltered.

“A child’s scribble,” the man said dismissively.

“Leo has a photographic memory,” Teresa whispered from the chair. “He draws exactly what he sees. He has since he was four years old.”

I looked closer at the drawing.

The gray-haired man in the picture wasn’t just taking a key from the woman in the red dress.

He was holding something else in his other hand.

A silver bracelet.

Thick, heavily engraved, and distinctly shaped like a serpent.

My breath caught.

Because I recognized that bracelet.

Vanessa wore it every single day. She had told me it was a family heirloom from her grandmother. But tonight, for the first time in eleven months, her wrist was bare.

“Mrs. Bellini,” I said, my voice trembling but loud enough for everyone to hear. “Where is your grandmother’s bracelet?”

Vanessa spun toward me, her eyes flashing with pure hatred.

“Keep your mouth shut, Hannah. This doesn’t concern a maid.”

“Answer her,” Luca commanded.

Vanessa swallowed hard. “It’s at the jeweler. Being polished for the wedding.”

Teresa shook her head.

“No it isn’t.”

The old woman slowly reached into the pocket of her cardigan.

And pulled out a heavy, silver serpent bracelet.

Vanessa gasped, instinctively grabbing her own empty wrist.

“Where did you get that?” Vanessa demanded, dropping all pretense of sweetness.

Teresa looked at her with tears in her eyes.

“Michael gave it to me just before dinner.”

Luca walked over to his mother and took the bracelet.

“Why did Michael have Vanessa’s bracelet?”

Teresa’s voice cracked.

“Because he found it in Leo’s bedroom. Right next to the broken window.”

The library went dead silent.

Leo’s bedroom wasn’t at the mansion. It was at Michael’s house, ten miles away.

If Vanessa’s bracelet was in Leo’s room beside a broken window, it meant she had been there.

“You took him,” Luca said softly.

Vanessa backed into the wall. “Luca, listen to me. Michael is trying to frame me! He wants the estate! He planted that bracelet to make you turn against me before we sign the marriage papers tomorrow!”

But Luca was already looking at the inside of the silver bracelet.

He held it up to the light.

“There’s something engraved inside here,” Luca said.

He squinted, reading the small text.

“Property of Sunset Pines.”

My stomach dropped.

Sunset Pines wasn’t a jewelry store.

It was a highly secure, private psychiatric facility on the outskirts of Chicago.

Luca looked at the gray-haired man.

“You’re not an evaluator,” Luca said, the realization settling over him like a dark cloud. “You’re the admissions director at Sunset Pines.”

The man didn’t answer.

He just tightened his grip on his briefcase.

Luca turned back to Vanessa.

“You weren’t planning to have my mother evaluated tonight.”

Vanessa began to cry, shaking her head.

“You were planning to have her committed,” Luca finished.

“She needs help, Luca!” Vanessa suddenly screamed, her mask finally shattering. “She wanders the halls at night! She forgets things! She’s a liability to the business! I was trying to protect our future!”

“By kidnapping my nephew?”

“I didn’t take Leo!” Vanessa shrieked.

I looked at the silver safety deposit key still resting on the desk.

“Mr. Moretti,” I whispered.

Luca looked at me.

“If Michael left you the key to his safety deposit box,” I said slowly, “it means whatever proves Vanessa’s guilt is locked inside it. And Michael knew he couldn’t get to the bank himself.”

Luca stared at the key.

Then he looked at Vanessa.

“If my nephew isn’t returned to this house in exactly one hour,” Luca said, “there won’t be a wedding tomorrow. There will be a funeral.”

Vanessa sobbed, sliding down the wall.

But as she covered her face, a small, black object fell out of the pocket of her red dress and clattered onto the hardwood floor.

It was a heavy, iron key.

But not to a bank vault.

It was an antique skeleton key.

And there was only one door in the entire Moretti mansion that still used a lock like that.

The old wine cellar in the basement.

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