Chương 4 - The Engagement Was a Key
By Monday morning, Evan Mercer had disappeared.
Not dramatically.
His apartment remained furnished.
His passport had not been used.
His car sat in its garage.
But his phone was off, his office had not seen him, and his attorney informed Detective Torres that Evan would answer questions only through counsel.
Clare returned to work anyway.
Luca objected exactly once.
“You can take time.”
“I can.”
“You should.”
“That sounded suspiciously like an order.”
He looked at her.
She looked back.
Luca returned to his paperwork.
“Welcome back.”
The office staff sensed something had happened but knew better than to ask.
At eleven, Clare discovered a white envelope on her keyboard.
Her pulse jumped.
She called security before touching it.
Inside was a handwritten note.
ASK LUCA WHAT HAPPENED TO THOMAS BENNETT.
Clare read it twice.
Then a third time.
Her father had died when she was seventeen.
Thomas Bennett had been a city building inspector in Brooklyn. According to everything Clare knew, he had been killed in a hit-and-run accident after leaving work.
She carried the note directly into Luca’s office.
His reaction terrified her.
He recognized the name.
“Sit down.”
“No.”
“Clare.”
“Why do you know my father’s name?”
Luca closed the office door.
She watched his face carefully.
“I knew who he was before I hired you.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“You what?”
“Your résumé reached me through human resources. When I saw your surname and emergency-contact history, I recognized it.”
“Why?”
Luca walked toward the window.
“My father knew yours.”
Clare stopped breathing.
Luca’s father, Vittorio Duca, had been dead for six years. Publicly, he had been a construction magnate.
Privately, newspapers had spent decades attaching words like organized crime to his name.
“My father was an inspector.”
“Yes.”
“Was he taking bribes?”
“No.”
The answer came immediately.
Luca turned.
“Your father was one of the few inspectors who refused them.”
Clare’s throat tightened.
“What happened?”
“Twenty years ago, Duca Construction was involved in projects with people my father should never have trusted. Thomas discovered falsified safety certificates at a residential development in Queens.”
Clare remembered the accident.
A building collapse.
Three workers killed.
Her father had spent weeks angry before his death, though he never told his family why.
“He was going to testify,” Luca continued.
“Against your father?”
“Against several contractors. Possibly against mine.”
Clare stared at him.
“And then he died.”
“Yes.”
“Was it an accident?”
Luca did not answer quickly enough.
Clare backed away.
“Oh my God.”
“I don’t know.”
“You knew this for four years?”
“I knew there were questions.”
“And you hired me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Initially?”
His honesty hurt before he even spoke.
“I wanted to know whether you knew anything.”
Clare slapped him.
The sound cracked through the office.
Neither moved.
Outside the glass wall, several employees abruptly became fascinated by their computers.
Luca touched his cheek.
Clare’s hand shook.
“You investigated me.”
“Yes.”
“You let me trust you.”
“Yes.”
“You let me sit outside this office for four years while knowing my father might have been murdered because of your family.”
“I did.”
Her eyes burned.
“Why?”
“Because six weeks after you started working here, I learned you knew nothing about it.”
“That doesn’t answer me.”
“No.”
“Then answer me.”
Luca looked at her.
“Because I liked having you here.”
She laughed bitterly.
“That’s supposed to help?”
“No.”
“Did you ever plan to tell me?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“I don’t know.”
“Convenient.”
“Cowardly.”
That stopped her.
Luca did not defend himself.
“I should have told you years ago.”
Clare grabbed her purse.
“I’m leaving.”
He stepped aside immediately.
Not blocking her mattered.
She reached the door.
“Clare.”
She stopped without turning.
“My father kept records. After he died, I found references to Thomas Bennett. I spent years trying to determine what happened.”
“And?”
“I never proved Vittorio ordered anything.”
She finally faced him.
“That isn’t the same as proving he didn’t.”
“No.”
“Did you destroy anything?”
“Never.”
“Hide anything?”
Luca hesitated.
Clare’s expression collapsed.
“What did you hide?”
“A ledger.”
“Where?”
“In a private archive.”
“What’s in it?”
“I don’t know. It’s encrypted.”
She stared at him.
“You expect me to believe Luca Duca has possessed an encrypted ledger for six years and couldn’t open it?”
“I could have.”
“Then why didn’t you?”
“Because the encryption key died with my father.”
Clare wiped tears from her face angrily.
“I want it.”
“It’s yours to see.”
“No conditions?”
“None.”
She opened the door.
Luca’s phone rang.
Marco.
Luca answered.
His face changed.
“What?”
Clare waited.
Marco spoke for almost thirty seconds.
Luca ended the call.
“What happened?” Clare asked.
“The archive.”
Her stomach dropped.
“What about it?”
“Someone broke into the storage facility twenty minutes ago.”
“The ledger?”
“Gone.”
Clare stared at him.
Then her phone vibrated.
A message from Evan.
Only a photograph.
The diamond engagement ring sat on top of an old black ledger.
May you like
Beneath it was one sentence.
Your father died because he learned what Luca is still hiding.
