Chapter 3 - THE VOICE BEHIND THE DOOR
Melissa Grant was brought into the mansion through the service entrance at 11:07 p.m. Anna knew the exact time because she had been staring at the grandfather clock in the west hall for so long that every minute had begun to feel personal.
Her mother was safe.
That was the only fact that mattered. Two of Luca’s security men had reached the apartment building before the second unknown vehicle appeared. Mrs. Mitchell had been confused, irritated, and deeply suspicious of the two enormous men in dark coats who asked her to pack an overnight bag.
Then Anna called.
Her mother listened.
And for once in her life, did not argue. She was on her way to the Moretti estate now. Anna sat in a chair near the study door with her sling resting across her lap.
Luca had insisted she stay out of the security room.
“You’re injured,” he had said.
“I’m also the person in those photographs.”
“Exactly.”
She had not understood the logic.
“You think that makes me less interested?”
“No. It makes me less willing to let you sit in a room with the woman who helped threaten your mother.”
So Anna waited.
She hated waiting.
At 11:15, the study door opened.
Daniel stepped out.
“Boss wants you.”
Anna stood.
Inside, Melissa sat in the chair David Collins had occupied less than an hour earlier. Without the careful makeup and professional black clothing Anna remembered from the bridal suite, Melissa looked younger. Maybe thirty-two. Her mascara had run beneath both eyes.
She was terrified.
Luca stood near the fireplace.
On the desk lay the photographs taken outside Anna’s mother’s apartment.
“Sit,” Luca told Anna.
She did.
Melissa stared at her sling.
“I’m sorry.”
Anna’s response came faster than expected.
“Did you take those pictures?”
“No.”
“Did you send the texts?”
“No.”
“Did you know somebody would?”
Melissa’s mouth opened.
Closed.
Anna felt anger push past fear.
“My mother is sixty-three years old. She has a heart condition. Somebody photographed her through her apartment windows.”
“I didn’t know.”
“Then why were the photographs in your car?”
Melissa looked at Luca.
He did not rescue her.
Finally she whispered, “Because he put them there.”
Daniel leaned forward.
“Who?”
Melissa rubbed both hands over her face.
“The man who was with me.”
“The passenger who ran?”
She nodded.
“Name.”
“I only know him as Mr. Cross.”
Luca became still.
Anna noticed immediately.
Daniel did too.
“Adrian Cross?” Luca asked.
Melissa looked up.
“You know him?”
Luca’s voice changed.
“My attorney.”
Anna felt the answer in her stomach. The man Vanessa had been speaking to during the photography session had sounded educated. Controlled. Older than David. She remembered the words through the half-closed door.
Make them darker.
No, not that dark.
After Saturday it needs to look believable.
And another voice.
Male.
Low.
Impatient.
If Luca starts asking questions, the maid becomes the problem. Anna had thought the voice came from Vanessa’s phone. Now she heard it again in memory.
“Mr. Moretti.”
Luca looked at her.
“I heard him.”
“Cross?”
“I think so.”
Melissa turned toward Anna.
“You’ve met him?”
“No.”
“Then how would you know?”
Anna swallowed.
“The call. In the bridal suite.”
Luca stepped closer.
“What exactly did you hear?”
“I told you Vanessa was arguing with the makeup artist. Before I knocked, I also heard a man talking. I assumed he was on the phone.”
“What did he say?”
Anna closed her eyes.
The memory had been tangled with pain and panic.
She forced it apart.
“He said the photographs were only useful if they matched the statement.”
Luca’s face hardened.
“What else?”
“He said something about timing. About the wedding.”
Melissa began crying quietly.
Daniel looked at her.
“You want to start helping now?”
She nodded.
“Then tell us everything.”
Melissa drew a shaky breath.
“Vanessa contacted me through my agency. She said it was a makeup trial. When I arrived, she locked the bedroom door and told me the real job.”
“Creating injuries,” Luca said.
“Yes.”
“Why did you agree?”
“Money.”
At least she did not lie.
“She offered eight thousand dollars. I’m behind on my studio rent. My father’s business failed last year. I told myself it was just makeup.”
Anna’s jaw tightened.
Melissa noticed.
“I know how that sounds.”
“It sounds accurate.”
Melissa lowered her eyes.
Daniel pointed toward the photographs.
“And Cross?”
“He arrived after me. Not through the gate.”
Luca frowned.
“How?”
“I don’t know. He was already upstairs when Vanessa brought me into the suite.”
Daniel’s expression sharpened.
“No gate log.”
Luca looked at him.
“Which means he entered with someone else or used an internal access code.”
Daniel immediately reached for his phone.
“Checking.”
Melissa continued.
“He kept telling Vanessa the images had to match specific injuries.”
“What injuries?” Luca asked.
“Left cheek. Right wrist. Upper chest. One side of the ribs.”
The exact places mentioned in the future statement.
Luca looked toward the desk.
“Did he have the statement with him?”
“Yes.”
“Paper or digital?”
“Printed.”
“Did Vanessa sign it in front of you?”
Melissa hesitated.
“Yes.”
Silence.
Anna watched Luca absorb the betrayal differently now.
Vanessa had lied.
Threatened staff.
Created false evidence.
But Adrian Cross had been Luca’s attorney for twelve years. Anna knew because his name appeared constantly on estate deliveries and confidential envelopes. Trust was rare in Luca’s world.
That made betrayal expensive.
“Where is the statement now?” Daniel asked.
“Cross took the original.”
“Evelyn Shaw has a copy.”
Melissa nodded.
“He emailed it.”
Luca looked at her sharply.
“How do you know?”
“Because Vanessa made him do it while I was there. She said she wanted proof he couldn’t back out.”
“Back out of what?”
Melissa’s breathing quickened.
“I don’t know the whole plan.”
“Tell me the part you do know.”
She looked at the floor.
“Vanessa said Saturday was the last clean chance.”
“For what?”
“To get access to something in this house.”
Luca’s eyes narrowed.
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel’s phone vibrated.
He read the screen.
Then looked at Luca.
“Cross’s access code was used at the east service gate at 3:19 this afternoon.”
Luca’s face emptied.
“Who issued him a gate code?”
“You did. Three years ago.”
A long silence followed.
Daniel continued.
“It was never canceled.”
Luca looked toward the dark windows.
“My attorney has been entering my property without being logged as a visitor.”
“Yes.”
“How many times?”
“Working on it.”
Anna felt suddenly exposed.
The mansion had cameras, guards, gates, electronic locks. Yet one trusted code had turned all of that into decoration.
Luca’s phone rang.
This time he answered immediately.
“Moretti.”
A woman’s voice spoke.
Anna could faintly hear it.
Luca looked at Daniel.
“Put her through the front gate.”
He ended the call.
“Evelyn Shaw is here.”
Daniel frowned.
“Now?”
“She says she has something she refuses to send electronically.”
Melissa began shaking her head.
“No.”
Luca looked at her.
“What?”
“I don’t want to be here when she comes in.”
“Why?”
“Because if Cross knows she came here—”
“You think he doesn’t?”
Melissa stopped.
That was the problem.
They no longer knew what he knew. Evelyn Shaw arrived eleven minutes later. She was not what Anna expected.
No expensive coat.
No television-perfect hair.
Just a gray wool jacket, flat boots, and a leather satchel heavy enough to pull one shoulder lower than the other. She entered the study and looked at each person once. Her gaze lingered on Anna’s sling.
Then on Melissa.
“You’re the makeup artist.”
Melissa turned away.
Evelyn looked at Luca.
“I came because your name is attached to a story I was prepared to publish Sunday.”
“Prepared?”
“I’m reconsidering.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t like being used.”
She opened her satchel and removed a thick white envelope.
“I received the photographs at 8:42 tonight.”
David stood in the adjoining room with Daniel’s assistant. At those words, he pushed the door open.
“I didn’t send them.”
Evelyn glanced at him.
“I know.”
“How?”
“The files you took are high-resolution RAW images. What I received were edited JPEG copies stripped of most metadata.”
David frowned.
“Then someone copied them.”
“Yes.”
Evelyn turned back to Luca.
“The statement arrived from an encrypted address. But whoever sent it made a mistake.”
She placed the envelope on the desk.
Luca did not touch it.
“What mistake?”
“They also sent me a draft two days ago.”
Vanessa had been planning this longer than Anna realized.
Evelyn continued.
“The draft included tracked-change comments from the original document.”
Luca’s eyes sharpened.
“Whose comments?”
Evelyn slid a printed page from the envelope. In the right margin were editing bubbles. Anna could not read them from her chair.
Luca could.
His expression changed.
“Adrian Cross.”
Evelyn nodded.
“His name appears in the document metadata too.”
Melissa made a small sound.
David cursed under his breath.
Daniel was already moving.
“I’ll get a team to his house.”
“No,” Luca said.
Daniel stopped.
Luca looked at Evelyn.
“Did you contact him?”
“No.”
“Vanessa?”
“No.”
“Anyone else?”
“I called you.”
“Why?”
Evelyn’s gaze was direct.
“Because the statement describes injuries that had supposedly happened tomorrow. Then tonight I received photos that looked professionally staged.”
She glanced at Melissa.
“I’ve covered enough real abuse to know exactly how disgusting that is.”
Melissa lowered her face.
Evelyn continued.
“And because the draft contains a paragraph that was removed from the final version.”
Luca picked up the paper.
“What paragraph?”
She handed him another page.
He read.
Then read it again.
Anna watched his face become colder.
“What does it say?” Daniel asked.
Luca looked toward him.
“It says Vanessa feared for her life because I discovered she had copied confidential documents from my study.”
Daniel went still.
Evelyn nodded.
“That sentence disappears from the final statement.”
“Why?”
“Probably because it admits there were documents.”
Luca’s eyes moved toward the study walls.
His desk.
The locked cabinet.
The safe behind the framed painting.
“What documents?”
Evelyn shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
Anna’s memory moved.
The afternoon.
The bridal suite.
Vanessa grabbing her arm.
The photographer.
The makeup.
But before that—
Anna sat straighter.
Pain flared through her shoulder.
Luca noticed.
“What?”
She looked toward him.
“This morning.”
“What happened this morning?”
“Vanessa asked me to clean your study.”
Luca frowned.
“That’s not unusual.”
“No. But she told me not to touch the papers in the blue folder beside your desk.”
Daniel looked at Luca.
“There was no blue folder when I came in tonight,” Anna continued.
Luca walked to the desk.
He opened the top drawer.
Then the second.
Nothing.
“What was in it?” Anna asked.
He did not answer.
His face had changed.
Daniel understood before she did.
“Boss?”
Luca looked up.
“The shipping acquisition.”
Evelyn frowned.
“What?”
“Confidential bids. Property options. Banking commitments. Everything related to the Calumet terminal deal.”
Daniel swore.
“If Cross and Bellini have that—”
“They know exactly what we’re offering.”
“And what the landowners agreed to.”
“And which banks are exposed.”
Anna looked between them.
She did not understand the full financial significance.
She understood enough.
Someone had not merely been preparing to accuse Luca. They had been stealing from him.
The doorbell sounded downstairs.
Everyone looked toward the hall.
Daniel’s phone rang a second later.
He answered.
His expression became confused.
Then wary.
“What?”
He listened.
Looked at Luca.
“Boss, Adrian Cross is at the front gate.”
Nobody spoke.
Daniel continued.
“He says his phone was stolen three hours ago and someone has been using his name.”
Luca’s eyes narrowed.
Evelyn folded her arms.
Melissa stopped breathing.
Anna felt the hairs lift on her arms. Then the security monitor on Luca’s desk lit up. A camera feed showed the front gate.
A black sedan waited beneath the stone entrance. Beside it stood a tall man in a navy overcoat.
Gray hair.
Silver glasses.
Anna had never met him.
Not face to face.
But when the gate speaker opened, his voice filled the study.
“Luca, let me in. We have a serious problem.”
Anna went completely still.
The room disappeared.
She was back outside Vanessa’s bridal suite. Her hand on the towel cart.
Her shoulder not yet injured.
A man’s voice speaking behind the door. Make the bruises match the statement.
She looked at Luca.
“That’s him.”
He turned.
Anna’s heart pounded.
“That’s the voice I heard this afternoon.”
On the monitor, Adrian Cross looked directly into the security camera. Then he said something that made even Daniel pause.
“Luca, whatever Vanessa told you, don’t believe her.”
Cross leaned closer to the speaker.
“She’s trying to make it look like I planned this.”
Anna stared at the screen.
Luca did not blink.
May you like
Then Cross added:
“And if you found the photographs, we are already too late.”
