Chapter 2 - Anna’s Real Name
Bruno watched Anna carefully.
Not because he expected her to lie.
Because he already knew she would.
Desmond quietly closed the study door behind them.
Anna glanced toward the adjoining room where Lucy slept.
“Lucy found that?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“That’s what I intend to discover.”
Anna stared at the photograph.
Bruno pushed it closer.
“Who is Ellen Hart?”
Her fingers tightened around her apron.
“My mother.”
Silence.
Even Desmond shifted.
Bruno had prepared himself for several possibilities.
That was not one of them.
“Your mother?”
Anna nodded.
“My full name is Anna Hart Nolan.”
Bruno looked from her to the photograph.
Now he saw it.
The eyes.
The shape of the mouth.
That crooked almost-smile.
“How long have you known who my father was?”
“Since I was seventeen.”
“And you came into my house without telling me?”
“I came here because I needed work.”
“That isn't an answer.”
“It’s the truth.”
Bruno leaned against his desk.
“Those are different things.”
Anna finally looked angry.
It was subtle, but unmistakable.
“You want the entire truth?”
“Yes.”
“My mother spent twenty-five years being afraid of your family.”
Bruno’s expression hardened.
“Why?”
“She never told me everything.”
“Convenient.”
“She was terrified.”
“Of my father?”
Anna hesitated.
“No.”
That answer changed the room.
“Then who?”
Anna looked at Desmond.
Bruno understood.
“Anything said in front of me can be said in front of him.”
Anna gave a humorless laugh.
“That is exactly the kind of sentence your father used to say.”
Desmond looked uncomfortable.
Bruno did not.
“Who was she afraid of?”
“Someone inside this house.”
A knock interrupted them.
One of the guards entered.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“We found something.”
He placed a small steel tool on the desk.
A lock pick.
“Where?”
“East hallway. Behind the curtain near the study.”
Anna went still.
Bruno noticed.
“You recognize it?”
“No.”
Too fast.
Bruno stepped closer.
“Anna.”
She swallowed.
“My mother owned one like it.”
Desmond stared at her.
“Your mother was a locksmith?”
“No. She was a bookkeeper who learned very quickly that men with secrets rarely give women keys.”
Bruno almost smiled despite himself.
Almost.
“Where is Ellen now?”
Anna's eyes lowered.
“She died four months ago.”
Something inside Bruno shifted.
He remembered Ellen only faintly.
A woman laughing in the kitchen.
A peppermint offered to a lonely nine-year-old boy.
His father telling him never to bother her while she worked.
“When did you start working here?”
“Three months ago.”
One month after Ellen died.
Not coincidence.
Bruno picked up the photograph.
“You came looking for this.”
“No.”
“The ledger?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
Anna remained silent.
Bruno waited.
He was good at waiting.
Eventually people filled silence because they feared what another person might put inside it.
Anna did.
“My mother left me a letter.”
“What did it say?”
“That if anything ever happened to her, I should find something Vittorio Castellano hid.”
Bruno felt the first real pulse of anger.
“You entered my home under false pretenses to search my father's belongings.”
“I entered your home because my daughter and I had nowhere else to go.”
“And then?”
“And then I realized the things my mother told me might be true.”
“What things?”
“That your father wasn’t the monster everyone believed.”
Bruno said nothing.
“And,” Anna continued, “that someone close to him was.”
Desmond folded his arms.
“Name.”
“She never gave me one.”
Bruno looked at the photograph again.
“Why would Lucy call my ledger yours?”
Anna frowned.
“She shouldn't even know what it is.”
A tiny voice came from behind them.
“Because Grandma gave it to Mommy.”
They turned.
Lucy stood in the doorway clutching her rabbit.
Anna went pale.
“Lucy?”
The little girl rubbed one eye.
“Grandma's brown book.”
Bruno crouched.
“Lucy, where did you find this book?”
She pointed beneath his desk.
“In the little door.”
“How did you open it?”
Lucy looked confused.
“It was open.”
Bruno and Desmond exchanged glances.
Someone had opened the compartment before Lucy entered.
“Did you see anyone in here?”
Lucy nodded.
Anna dropped to her knees.
“Who, sweetheart?”
“The old man.”
Bruno felt the hairs on his arms rise.
“What old man?”
“The one who gave me candy.”
Anna looked horrified.
“Nobody is supposed to give you candy.”
Lucy thought about that.
“He said it was okay because he knows Mr. Bruno.”
“What did he look like?”
“White hair.”
Bruno knew too many men with white hair.
“Anything else?”
Lucy touched her cheek.
“He has a line here.”
A scar.
Desmond’s expression changed.
Bruno caught it.
“You know him.”
Desmond did not answer immediately.
“Possibly.”
“Name.”
“Salvatore DeLuca.”
Bruno straightened.
His father's oldest friend.
His godfather.
A man who had been inside the Castellano organization for forty years.
And the third person who knew about the compartment.
Bruno’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
Nobody spoke.
Then a distorted male voice said:
“You should have left the past buried.”
Bruno’s eyes moved toward Anna and Lucy.
“Who is this?”
“You have something that belongs to me.”
The line went dead.
Desmond was already moving.
“Trace it.”
Bruno handed him the phone.
Then he looked at Anna.
“What exactly did your mother tell you?”
Anna hesitated.
Finally she reached beneath her uniform collar and pulled out a thin necklace.
A tiny silver key hung from it.
Bruno stared.
“My mother told me,” Anna whispered, “that if Vittorio Castellano’s ledger was ever opened again, this key would tell us why he died.”
Bruno’s breathing stopped.
His father had supposedly suffered a heart attack.
Anna looked him directly in the eyes.
“Bruno, your father didn't die naturally.”
A crash sounded downstairs.
Then the estate alarm began screaming.
Desmond drew his weapon and moved toward the door.
Bruno grabbed Anna's wrist.
“Take Lucy into the bathroom. Lock it.”
“What’s happening?”
Another crash.
Then footsteps.
Men shouting.
May you like
Bruno looked at the silver key hanging against Anna's chest.
“Someone just realized we found what they’ve been trying to hide for nine years.”
