Chapter 3 - WHAT VANESSA WANTED
I called Noah. It rang once, then went to voicemail.
Luca held out his hand. “Let me see.”
I kept the phone against my chest. “He’s twenty-two. He has nothing to do with this.”
“Someone went to your home tonight. Let me help him.”
I showed him the messages.
Marcus called Noah’s number while Luca spoke to the guards at the gate. No one had signed out. Vanessa was still upstairs. Daniel hadn’t been on the property since dinner began.
“Who knew about your brother?” Luca asked.
“Vanessa.”
“How?”
I stared at my bandage. “She looked through my employment file.”
In the linen closet, Vanessa had demanded the memory card. When I refused, she caught my wrist and bent my fingers back until I dropped the sheets. She found the camera but not the card. I had slipped it into my other hand.
“She told me Noah would lose his job if I didn’t give it to her,” I said. “I thought she was bluffing.”
Marcus’s phone rang. He listened, then looked at Luca. “The building manager checked her apartment. The door’s open. Noah isn’t there.”
My legs went weak.
“I want to go,” I said.
“We’re going,” Luca answered.
As we reached the main staircase, Vanessa appeared above us in her red gown.
“Going somewhere?” she asked.
Luca looked up. “Claire’s brother is missing.”
Vanessa’s hand tightened around the railing. “That’s awful.”
“What did you take from my study?”
Her eyes flicked to Marcus. “We’re doing this in front of the staff?”
“Answer me.”
“A contract. Daniel thought there was a mistake in it.”
“Daniel has my number.”
Vanessa came down two steps. “You’ve been working yourself to death. I was trying to help.”
“With what?”
She said nothing.
Luca turned away. Vanessa called after him, “You don’t know what’s on that card.”
I stopped.
Neither Luca nor Marcus had mentioned the card in front of her.
Luca looked back. “I know what you did to Claire.”
Vanessa’s face hardened. For one moment, the charming woman from dinner vanished.
“If you go to that apartment,” she said, “ask Claire what her brother does for a living.”
I faced her. “He repairs computers.”
“Yes,” Vanessa said. “He does.”
May you like
Marcus’s phone buzzed. He read the screen.
“Noah’s employer says he left at eight tonight,” he told me. “With Daniel Cross.”
