Chapter 4 - THE BLUE DRESS AND THE MISSING RECEIPT
“You thought he destroyed it?”
Dante repeated Sabrina's words slowly.
She immediately shook her head.
“That's not what I meant.”
“Then explain.”
“Aaron said Nina had hidden something in her clothing. He told me to have the dress removed.”
“And you obeyed?”
Sabrina looked toward Nina.
“I didn't know what she had taken.”
“You knew enough to lock her in a room,” Nina said.
Sabrina's eyes filled with tears.
For the first time that evening, she looked genuinely frightened.
Not of Dante.
Of what Aaron might do next.
“I was trying to keep everything from falling apart,” she whispered.
Dante pointed toward the door.
“Stay here. Frank, have someone remain with her.”
Then he turned to me.
“Lucy, who handles the private laundry deliveries?”
“Marisol. But she's covering the banquet tonight.”
“Find her.”
I hurried downstairs.
Marisol Reyes had been the senior housekeeper for eleven years.
She was standing beside the service pantry, arranging silver coffee urns.
When I explained what had happened, her expression darkened.
“Someone requested an unscheduled pickup,” she said.
“When?”
“About forty minutes ago.”
“Was there a blue dress?”
“I didn't see the contents. The bags were sealed.”
She checked the collection sheet.
The pickup had been assigned to a private laundry service used by Aaron Vale's company.
But something seemed wrong.
The employee's signature was missing.
Instead, someone had written one word.
DISPOSAL.
Marisol frowned.
“That's not our normal procedure.”
We hurried toward the loading entrance.
A delivery van remained parked beside the service courtyard.
Its rear doors were open.
Two laundry bags lay on a rolling cart.
A young driver was checking his paperwork.
“Those bags belong to this household,” Marisol told him.
He looked confused.
“I was told to collect everything marked for disposal.”
“Who told you?”
“A man named Vale.”
My stomach tightened.
Marisol stepped forward.
“We need to inspect the clothing before it leaves.”
The driver hesitated.
Then he shrugged.
“Fine with me. I'm paid to transport it, not argue about it.”
Inside the first bag were tablecloths and discarded decorations.
The second contained torn blue silk.
Nina's dress had been cut apart.
Someone had removed the lining.
My heart sank.
Then I noticed a small piece of fabric caught beneath the cart's wheel.
It was part of a sleeve.
Attached to it was a narrow strip of pale-blue paper.
I bent down.
The paper had been folded three times.
Across the top were the words:
HARBOR RELIEF TRANSPORT — RECEIPT 9-144.
Below them was a payment amount.
$480,000.
The recipient was Crosscurrent Holdings.
Gabriel Rourke's company.
I looked at the date.
Then I looked again.
Something was terribly wrong.
The receipt described emergency transportation following a severe coastal storm.
But the payment had been processed almost three weeks before the storm happened.
“Marisol,” I whispered, “look at this.”
She examined it.
“That's impossible.”
“Unless the shipment wasn't real.”
We took the paper straight to Dante.
He studied the document under his desk lamp.
Nina recognized it immediately.
“That's the first one I found.”
“Why did you hide it in your dress?” Dante asked.
“Because Aaron saw me copying account numbers. I knew he would search my purse.”
She looked toward me.
“I had the seamstress loosen part of the sleeve lining last month. I slipped the receipt inside when Aaron took my phone.”
Dante raised his eyebrows.
“You suspected him that long?”
“I suspected somebody.”
She swallowed.
“I just didn't think Sabrina would help him.”
Sabrina remained silent near the window.
Dante turned to her.
“Did you know the storm-relief payments were fraudulent?”
“No.”
“Did you know your brother was moving money into Rourke's company?”
She looked down.
“I knew he had borrowed from Gabriel.”
“How much?”
“I thought it was less than a million.”
Nina shook her head.
“You thought?”
Sabrina's voice rose.
“Aaron told me he was going to lose everything! The company, the employees, our mother's care—everything!”
Dante stepped closer.
“And that justified kidnapping my sister?”
Sabrina began crying.
“I didn't know he would restrain her.”
Nina lifted her bruised wrists.
“You watched him take my phone.”
Sabrina had no answer.
Dante returned his attention to the receipt.
“Lucy, where exactly did you find this?”
“Under the laundry cart.”
“Was there anything else?”
I remembered a small black button caught in the torn fabric.
I reached into my apron pocket.
“I found this too.”
Nina frowned.
“That isn't from my dress.”
Dante took it.
The button bore a tiny silver crest.
A crest I'd seen on Aaron Vale's expensive overcoat.
Then Frank appeared.
“Boss, we recovered footage from the service corridor.”
He placed his tablet on the desk.
The video showed Aaron cutting Nina's dress beside the laundry cart.
He removed several papers.
Then another person entered the corridor.
Someone wearing an ivory jacket.
An elderly woman.
Evelyn Marchetti.
But Evelyn had been sitting with me in the study at that time.
The figure turned toward the camera.
May you like
And I realized the woman wasn't Evelyn.
It was someone deliberately dressed to look like her.
