Chapter 6 - A CRACK IN THE LION
Lorenzo didn't look at Elena.
“What makes you think she found it?” he asked.
“The camera showed her carrying the baby. Surely she removed the wet things.”
It was a reasonable answer.
Too ready, Elena thought.
“We're still looking,” Lorenzo said.
When the call ended, he stared at the dark screen.
“He raised me after my father died.”
“That doesn't answer the question.”
“No,” he said. “It doesn't.”
Bell took the pendant to an examiner. Beneath the lion was a fitted backing, almost invisible until magnified. Inside lay a tiny memory card.
By morning, Bell had returned with a laptop and a warning.
“What we found could reach beyond your daughter's kidnapping.”
Lorenzo's eyes stayed on the screen.
“Open it.”
Folders appeared. Payment records. Photographed invoices. A short video labeled FOR LORENZO.
His wife filled the screen.
Sofia looked exhausted. Alive, but exhausted. Elena recognized the way Lorenzo stopped breathing.
“If you're watching this, you finally looked closely at something I gave you,” Sofia said.
A sad smile. Then it vanished.
“Vittorio is moving money through the relief fund. The invoices are fake. Some of the payments go to men on your security payroll.”
Lorenzo leaned forward.
“I copied enough to show you where to look. I tried talking to you. You told me your uncle handled those accounts.”
Her voice broke on the last word.
“I don't know how to make you hear me when he gets there first.”
The recording ended.
No dramatic accusation about her death. No final threat. Just a woman who had wanted her husband to listen.
“She died from complications after Lucia was born,” Lorenzo said quietly. “The doctors did everything.”
Elena waited.
“I kept this in a drawer. On Lucia's six-month birthday, I put it on her for a photograph. Rosa left it on.”
“And Vittorio saw the photograph,” Bell said.
Lorenzo nodded.
“The necklace was Sofia's. He had asked about it after she died. Said she borrowed a family piece.”
Bell closed the file.
“These are leads. We need original records and independent confirmation.”
“You'll get them.”
“Even the payments you authorized?”
Lorenzo's expression changed.
Elena saw the answer before he spoke.
Some of the darkness in those folders belonged to him.
Then Nico hurried in with a message sent to Lorenzo's private number.
May you like
A photograph of the dumpster.
Below it: ASK YOUR RIVALS WHAT THEY DID TO YOUR LITTLE GIRL.
