Chapter 7 - THE FOURTH CHAIR
Valentino closed Duca House before sunset.
Nobody entered.
Nobody left.
Every guard surrendered personal devices.
Every employee was accounted for.
Becca watched the transformation with unease.
The warm photographs in the hallway now felt like evidence.
The home had not merely been watched.
It had been used.
Adrian sat in the library with Thomas and Marco.
Nobody trusted anybody.
Valentino stood at the window.
“Start again.”
Adrian rubbed his face.
“Elena came to me because she found irregularities in school transportation schedules.”
“Whose?”
“The girls’.”
Valentino turned.
“Explain.”
“Routes were being copied from the household security server. She believed somebody was tracking when the children left home.”
“And you didn’t tell me.”
“She thought the leak would disappear the moment you tightened security. Then we’d never identify who had access.”
Thomas slammed his palm down.
“My sister was playing detective with her children?”
Adrian snapped back.
“Your sister was trying to learn which person at this table had betrayed her.”
That silenced everyone.
Becca looked around.
“What did Elena discover?”
Adrian answered.
“The leak always occurred after the weekly household briefing.”
Valentino frowned.
“Those meetings happened here.”
“Yes.”
“Who attended?”
“Valentino. Marco. Elena. The chief housekeeper. Your scheduler. Me occasionally.”
“And Snake?”
Adrian looked toward the family room.
“At least once.”
The triplets were drawing quietly.
Becca lowered her voice.
“Who was the chief housekeeper?”
Valentino looked toward the ceiling.
“Mrs. Caruso.”
Becca had met her that morning.
Teresa Caruso.
Sixty-two.
Soft-spoken.
Widowed.
She had hugged the girls before breakfast and scolded Valentino for skipping eggs.
She had worked for the Duca family thirty-four years.
“No,” Valentino said immediately.
Adrian watched him.
“That’s what Elena said.”
Thomas looked grim.
“Then?”
“Then she found the copied schedules hidden in Teresa’s desk.”
Valentino shook his head.
“Teresa can barely use email.”
“Exactly.”
Becca understood.
“They were planted.”
Adrian nodded.
“Elena realized Snake wanted her to accuse Teresa.”
The pattern was becoming clear.
Every clue pointed just convincingly enough at someone close.
Adrian.
Thomas.
Marco.
Teresa.
Snake had survived because suspicion kept rotating.
“Who benefited?” Becca asked.
Valentino looked at her.
“From what?”
“From everybody mistrusting everybody else.”
Nobody answered.
Gia appeared in the doorway holding a drawing.
Four chairs around a table.
Three had people in them.
One chair was empty.
“Dinner,” she said.
Becca smiled.
“What dinner?”
Gia pointed upstairs.
“Old dinner.”
Valentino crouched.
“At home?”
Gia nodded.
“Mama mad.”
“Who sat here?”
She touched one figure.
“Mama.”
Another.
“Uncle Adrian.”
The third.
“Snake.”
Valentino pointed to the empty chair.
“Who was supposed to sit there?”
Gia looked at him.
“You.”
Adrian went pale.
Valentino slowly stood.
“What meeting?”
Adrian whispered, “The night before the crash.”
“You were in my house?”
“Elena asked me to come.”
“She planned to confront Snake here?”
“Yes.”
“And I was supposed to attend?”
“She wanted you to.”
“Why didn’t I?”
Nobody answered.
Then Marco did.
“You went to Philadelphia.”
Valentino turned.
Marco continued.
“Emergency negotiations. A warehouse labor dispute.”
Thomas looked at Adrian.
“Who told him to go?”
The question hung there.
Valentino remembered.
“My office.”
“Who specifically?”
He stared at nothing.
Then his face changed.
“My scheduler.”
Becca had heard the name that morning.
Claire Danton.
Valentino’s executive scheduler for twelve years.
She had retired six months after Elena died.
“Where is Claire?” he asked.
Marco answered slowly.
“She lives in Connecticut.”
They did not chase her.
They went through records first.
Becca insisted.
“Every time you rush at a person, Snake gets another chance to make that person look guilty.”
Valentino accepted the criticism.
That told her how much he had changed in forty-eight hours.
Claire’s calendar archive revealed the Philadelphia meeting had been requested by a Duca board member.
Victor Hale.
Valentino frowned.
Victor had died of a heart attack the year before Elena.
Dead end.
Then Becca noticed something.
“The request was entered at 2:14 a.m.”
“So?”
“Would a board member schedule his own emergency meeting at two in the morning?”
Marco checked.
“No. His assistant would.”
“And who approved Valentino’s travel?”
The screen showed one username.
CDANTON.
Claire.
Thomas leaned back.
“There’s your inside person.”
But Becca kept looking.
“Maybe.”
She searched Claire’s employment logs.
On the day after the crash, Claire had received a $200,000 bonus.
Valentino’s face hardened.
“I never approved that.”
Marco found the authorization.
Digital signature.
Valentino Duca.
Forged.
The money came from an executive contingency account controlled by—
Adrian Vale.
Adrian stood.
“I did not authorize it.”
Thomas laughed bitterly.
“Everyone says that.”
Before the argument could explode, Lila walked in carrying an old black appointment book she had taken from a cabinet.
“Lady book.”
Valentino recognized it.
“Elena’s.”
Several pages were blank.
Then Becca saw faint pressure marks.
Writing had been torn out.
She shaded the page gently with the side of a pencil.
Indented words appeared.
CLAIRE ISN’T TAKING THE MONEY.
SHE’S PAYING IT BACK.
Valentino stared.
Below it:
ASK HER ABOUT THE FOURTH CHAIR.
They drove to Connecticut.
Claire Danton opened the door herself.
She was seventy now.
Thin.
Silver-haired.
And wearing an oxygen tube.
When Valentino showed her Elena’s notebook, tears filled her eyes.
“I wondered how long it would take you.”
“Was Elena here before she died?”
“Yes.”
“Were you the fourth chair?”
Claire shook her head.
“No.”
“Who was?”
She looked past him toward the triplets waiting with Becca in the car.
Then closed her eyes.
“The person Elena believed was Snake never sat in that chair.”
Valentino’s jaw tightened.
“Why?”
“Because she discovered Snake wasn’t the person giving the orders.”
May you like
Claire opened the door wider.
“She discovered your wife had been investigating the wrong crime.”
