CHAPTER SIX The Queen Under Suspicion
No one spoke.
The rain drummed against the marble courtyard, filling the silence with a steady rhythm that somehow made everything feel even more unreal.
Daniel Ross remained on his knees.
Blood mixed with rainwater beneath him.
His shaking finger was still raised.
Pointing...
Not at Vanessa.
At Sophia Moretti.
The eighty-year-old matriarch stood perfectly still beneath her umbrella.
Her silver hair framed a face that had intimidated presidents, judges, and billionaires for decades.
For the first time since I had entered the Moretti household three years earlier...
I saw uncertainty in her eyes.
Not fear.
Recognition.
Alessandro's gaze moved slowly between Daniel and his grandmother.
"Explain."
Daniel swallowed hard.
"I... I don't know her name."
He coughed violently.
"But..."
He pointed again.
"That's the woman Michael told me about."
Sophia frowned.
"I've never seen this man."
Daniel laughed bitterly.
"Of course you haven't."
He looked at Alessandro.
"People like us don't get invited into mansions."
The sentence carried an uncomfortable truth.
Workers repaired walls.
Installed wires.
Fixed elevators.
Then disappeared.
The wealthy rarely remembered their faces.
Alessandro crouched in front of Daniel.
"You have one chance."
His voice remained controlled.
"If you lie..."
Daniel interrupted immediately.
"I'm already dead."
The words silenced everyone.
"I escaped."
He glanced toward the broken estate gate.
"They won't let me live long enough to testify."
"Who won't?"
Daniel hesitated.
His eyes scanned the crowd.
Judges.
Business leaders.
Politicians.
Security officers.
Then he whispered,
"The Committee."
A ripple spread through the guests.
Several older men exchanged uneasy glances.
"What committee?"
Daniel shook his head.
"I don't know their real names."
"You've worked for them?"
"No."
"I transported things."
"What things?"
He looked toward the blue suitcase.
"Evidence."
The word hung in the air.
Evidence?
Not money.
Not weapons.
Evidence.
The family lawyer stepped closer.
"What kind of evidence?"
Daniel looked exhausted.
"Videos."
"Documents."
"DNA samples."
My stomach tightened.
DNA.
Vanessa instinctively took one step backward.
Tiny.
Almost invisible.
But Alessandro noticed.
He always noticed.
Daniel continued.
"Michael wasn't an electrician."
Several guards looked at one another.
"He was a courier."
"Like me."
"He moved things people weren't supposed to find."
The murdered contractor...
Had never been hired to repair electrical wiring.
He had been planted inside the estate.
Alessandro's voice sharpened.
"What was in the suitcase tonight?"
Daniel closed his eyes.
"I don't know."
"You don't know?"
"We were never allowed to look."
"Who gave it to Michael?"
Daniel answered almost immediately.
"A woman."
Every head turned toward Vanessa.
Daniel shook his head.
"Not her."
Again.
Not Vanessa.
He struggled to breathe.
"Older."
"Wore pearls."
Sophia slowly removed the pearl necklace from around her neck.
"This?"
Daniel stared.
"No."
He frowned.
"The other one."
Confusion rippled through the crowd.
Another older woman?
Who?
There had only been one elderly woman in the ballroom...
Hadn't there?
I tried to remember.
Something bothered me.
When the guests first arrived...
Hadn't there been another gray-haired woman greeting them near the entrance?
Or had I imagined it?
Suddenly, the family butler Antonio spoke.
His voice was hesitant.
"There was..."
Everyone looked at him.
"A florist."
"What?"
"A florist arrived late this afternoon."
He frowned, trying to remember.
"She was older."
"White hair."
"Wore pearls."
Vanessa looked genuinely confused.
"I never saw a florist."
Antonio nodded.
"Because she left before the party."
Alessandro's eyes narrowed.
"Who approved her entry?"
Antonio looked toward the security team.
"Captain Bellini."
Marco.
All eyes shifted toward the former head of security.
Marco's jaw tightened.
"Routine delivery."
"You verified her identity?"
"Yes."
"Where are the records?"
Marco hesitated.
Then answered quietly.
"The system deleted them."
Deleted.
Not missing.
Deleted.
Alessandro's expression darkened.
"Convenient."
Marco said nothing.
A forensic technician approached at a jog.
"Mr. Moretti."
"What?"
"We finished examining Michael Graves."
"And?"
The technician held up a sealed evidence bag.
Inside...
A tiny silver key.
It looked ordinary.
Except for one detail.
A number engraved into its side.
C-17.
"What does it open?"
"No idea."
Daniel saw the key.
His face turned white.
"No..."
He whispered.
"They didn't find it."
Everyone stared.
"You know this key?"
Daniel nodded frantically.
"Burn it."
"What?"
"Burn it!"
His panic exploded.
"You don't understand!"
"If they know you have that key..."
He looked directly at Alessandro.
"...they'll kill every person in this family."
Lightning split the sky.
The thunder arrived almost instantly.
Emma buried her face against my shoulder again.
Then she whispered something so quietly I almost missed it.
"Mama..."
"What is it?"
"I've seen that key."
Every hair on my body stood upright.
"You have?"
She nodded.
"In the music room."
I stared at her.
"The piano man had one."
"Piano man?"
She smiled.
"The nice old man."
"There isn't a pianist here."
"Yes there is."
She looked confused.
"He played for me yesterday."
I froze.
Yesterday?
The quartet hired for tonight had only arrived this afternoon.
"There was no pianist yesterday."
Emma insisted.
"He gave me candy."
My blood ran cold.
I had never allowed strangers to give Emma candy.
Unless...
Unless I hadn't seen it happen.
Alessandro overheard.
He knelt beside Emma.
"The piano man."
She nodded.
"He said I was a brave little girl."
"When did he say that?"
"After he talked to Grandma."
Again.
Grandma.
But this time...
Emma wasn't pointing toward Sophia.
She pointed toward me.
I blinked.
"Me?"
Emma smiled innocently.
"No."
She giggled.
"The other Grandma."
She pointed past my shoulder.
Very slowly...
I turned around.
Standing beneath the mansion's covered veranda...
Half-hidden in the shadows...
An elderly woman in a soaked gray coat watched us silently.
White hair.
Pearl earrings.
Gentle smile.
She shouldn't have been there.
None of the security guards had noticed her.
The moment our eyes met...
She tipped her head ever so slightly.
Then she whispered four words that only I could hear.
"She's telling the truth."
Before I could react...
The old woman stepped backward into the darkness.
By the time the guards reached the veranda...
She had vanished.
Leaving behind only one thing.
A single fresh white lily.
And wrapped around its stem...
Was a luggage tag.
Stamped with the exact same code engraved on the silver key.
May you like
C-17.
End of Chapter Six
