Chapter 6 - THE HOUSE WITH NO RAMPS
“Forty-eight million?” Maya said.
Evelyn set the phone down.
“From a holding account tied to the Moretti family trust.
The receiving company is overseas.”
Luca gave a bitter laugh.
“She spent twelve years telling me my care was expensive.”
“We’ll seek an immediate restriction on the transfer,” Evelyn said.
“But we need the underlying records.”
“They’re at the house.”
“Do you know where?”
“My father’s study.
There’s a safe behind the lower cabinet.”
Maya looked at him.
“I cleaned that room.
There’s no safe.”
“There is if you remove the back panel.”
He wrote down the combination.
Evelyn shook her head.
“You’re not sending her in there alone.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
She arranged access with the household manager and requested that an officer accompany them.
By late afternoon, Maya returned to the estate with Evelyn and Detective Harris.
Vivienne was gone.
So was Nate.
The house looked different without Luca in it.
Beautiful.
Silent.
Built around a man who couldn’t reach half of it.
At the entrance to the west terrace, Maya stopped.
Three marble steps led down to the garden.
She remembered Luca once asking whether they could install a ramp.
Vivienne had kissed his forehead.
The contractors said it would damage the foundation, darling.
Now Maya saw an unopened box in the service corridor.
A portable threshold ramp.
Ordered four years earlier.
Never used.
In the study, Harris photographed the cabinet before Evelyn opened the safe.
Inside were insurance documents, trust records, two passports, and a leather folder marked RIVER STREET.
Maya’s chest tightened.
Evelyn handed the folder to Harris.
He opened it on the desk.
Daniel’s name appeared on the first page.
Then a photograph of the loading platform.
Then an inspection report dated nine days before it collapsed.
UNSAFE FOR CONTINUED OPERATION.
Maya gripped the edge of the desk.
“They knew.”
Harris turned the page.
A handwritten instruction was attached.
Keep the line running until the quarter closes.
Initials sat beneath it.
A.M.
“Adrian Moretti,” Evelyn said.
Luca’s uncle.
The company’s acting chairman.
A sound came from the hall.
Nate stood in the doorway.
His face was bruised.
One sleeve had been torn at the shoulder.
Harris moved between him and Maya.
“Hands where I can see them.”
Nate raised both hands.
“I didn’t come to fight.”
He looked at the open folder.
“Whatever’s in there isn’t the worst of it.”
May you like
Then he placed a small brass key on the desk.
“Ask Bell what happened before the accident.”
