Chapter 4 - THE THING THEY WANTED
“The necklace,” Elena said.
Everyone turned.
“When I changed her, the chain caught on my sleeve. I took it off so it wouldn't pull against her neck.”
She reached into her coat and opened her fist.
The little lion lay in her palm.
Lorenzo's face hardened.
“Her mother had that made.”
Vittorio had already left. Elena was suddenly glad he wasn't there to see it.
Bell held out an evidence bag.
“May I?”
Lorenzo hesitated.
Elena dropped the pendant into the bag herself.
“This isn't a family souvenir anymore.”
At noon, the doctor told them Lucia was responding to treatment. She had a serious infection and had been dangerously cold and dehydrated when she arrived. She would remain in the hospital.
Elena gripped the back of a chair until the room stopped tilting.
Lorenzo noticed.
“When did you eat?”
“I don't remember.”
He disappeared and returned with a sandwich from a vending machine.
No assistant. No silver tray.
She accepted it.
They sat beside Lucia's crib while the machines made small, steady sounds. Lorenzo stroked his daughter's hand with one finger.
“I hired people to keep her safe.”
“Someone still had to listen.”
He looked at her, wounded because she was right.
Elena's phone rang.
Mr. Vale.
“You've created quite a situation,” he said. “Report tomorrow at six. We'll discuss whether you still have a position.”
“A baby almost died behind your hotel.”
“Which is precisely why employees should avoid speaking to reporters or police without consulting management.”
She looked across the crib at Lorenzo.
“Police?” she repeated. “Why would you worry about police?”
Vale hung up.
Elena handed the phone to Bell when she returned. Then she described the van again, including a faded blue square on its side.
Bell wrote it down.
Nico, standing behind Lorenzo, swore softly.
“What?” Elena demanded.
“Our laundry contractor uses those vans,” he said. “At the Moretti residences. And the Chatzsworth.”
Lorenzo rose so abruptly his chair scraped the floor.
Before he could speak, Bell's phone rang.
She listened, her gaze moving toward the hospital door.
Then she said, “They found the nanny.”
Elena felt her sandwich turn to stone in her stomach.
May you like
“Is she alive?”
“Yes,” Bell said. “And she says someone told her to take the baby to your hotel.”
