Chương 7 - The Stitch My Father Used
Vanessa’s messages were useful.
They were also incomplete.
“You deleted things,” I said.
She looked at me.
“How would you know?”
“The conversation jumps from Tuesday to tonight.
You’re engaged to Luca.
Adrian has been arranging the paperwork.
He didn’t stop talking to you for three days.”
Luca held out his hand.
“Give Marco the phone.”
Vanessa hesitated.
Then she did.
I asked to check the sitting room.
The chair had come from there.
If someone expected me to notice it, maybe the device wasn’t the only thing they had prepared.
Marco came with me.
On the wall hung a framed photograph of Luca’s father.
Beside it stood a cabinet containing watches, cuff links, and old family keepsakes.
I stopped at a dark suit displayed behind glass.
“That belonged to his father,” Marco said.
“Luca had it brought from storage last month.”
I leaned closer.
The lining near the jacket pocket had been repaired with a small cross-stitch.
My father used that stitch.
My mother hated it.
Said it was ugly but stubborn.
“Open the cabinet.”
Marco looked uncertain.
I called Luca.
He came down and unlocked it himself.
“Careful,” he said as I lifted the jacket.
“I know how to hold a suit.”
The words came out sharper than I intended.
He let go.
Inside the lining, a tiny ridge pressed against my fingers.
I asked for seam scissors.
The kitchen staff brought a pair.
For once, nobody told me to hurry.
I cut three stitches.
A small memory card slid into my palm.
My mother had thought the whole suit disappeared.
It had simply gone back into the Moretti house.
My father must have removed the card before Adrian retrieved the recording device.
Luca stared at it.
“How long has that been there?”
“Eleven years.”
Marco brought a laptop that wasn’t connected to the house network.
He copied the card before opening anything.
There were four audio files.
The first held traffic noise.
The second was my father asking someone to leave the shop.
The third began with Adrian’s voice.
“You saw inventory being moved.
That’s all you saw.”
Then my father.
“I saw the back door chained.”
My stomach twisted.
Adrian answered.
“You have a wife and a daughter, Daniel.”
Luca went completely still.
The fourth file would not play.
A damaged file warning filled the screen.
Marco tried a second copy.
Same result.
Then his radio crackled.
A guard reported movement at the front gate.
An unmarked sedan had stopped outside.
The driver lowered his window.
May you like
Victor Bellini leaned out.
“Tell Grace,” he said, “her father didn’t keep the only copy.”
