THE LAST FOUR PHOTOGRAPHS

I had placed my tiny camera on Luca’s bookshelf the morning before the engagement dinner. I was sure of it. I remembered moving a brass clock so the lens could see the desk.

But the first image on the card was older.

Noah checked its details twice. “It was taken on a different device and copied onto the card.”

“What does it show?” Brooks asked.

Luca opened it. Vanessa stood beside his desk, holding an envelope. The angle was lower than my camera’s. Someone else had been in the room taking the picture.

I looked closer. The photographer’s reflection appeared in the dark study window.

Mrs. Ellis.

When Brooks questioned her, she didn’t deny it.

“I saw Vanessa go into the study,” Mrs. Ellis said. “I took the picture because I wanted to show Luca. Then she told me she’d found letters Daniel had hidden in the desk. She said exposing him before the wedding would break Luca’s heart.”

“Why put the picture on Claire’s card?” Noah asked.

“I didn’t.”

Vanessa admitted that part. During the struggle in the closet, she had found my camera, removed its card, and copied Mrs. Ellis’s photograph onto it along with images from her own phone. She intended to tell Luca that I had been spying on him and making up a story from stolen pictures. She had accidentally left the final four photographs on the card when I got it back.

“The message on the document was mine,” Vanessa said. “I wrote it to push Daniel to finish before the wedding. I knew about the transfer. I knew it would hurt Luca’s company. I told myself Daniel would take the docks and Luca would still have everything else.”

“And Claire?” Brooks asked.

Vanessa looked at my bandage. “I put her name on the witness form. I thought I could scare her into signing.”

The room fell quiet.

I had imagined hearing Vanessa admit it. I thought I would feel triumphant. Instead, I felt tired and angry.

“You knew where Noah lived,” I said.

“I found his address in your file. I gave it to Daniel. I’m sorry.”

“You keep saying that.”

Vanessa lowered her eyes.

Later that afternoon, Brooks told us investigators had enough records to pursue the forged filing and the missing money. The bank had suspended the disputed transfer. Ruth’s preserved backup gave them the payment trail.

Luca walked me and Noah out of the station. The October wind had turned sharp.

“I can arrange another job for you,” he said. “Anywhere you want.”

“I’ll decide where I work,” I told him.

He nodded. “You should.”

My phone buzzed. A message from Mrs. Ellis said she had found one more envelope in the linen closet. It was addressed to Luca in his mother’s handwriting.