The Mafia Boss Watched His Maid for Eight Days. On the Ninth, His Mother Finally Ate.

Rafael locked down the mansion. He reviewed every camera that had worked during the blackout. One showed a woman in a nurse’s uniform entering the east hall just before the lights failed.

“She isn’t on today’s schedule,” he said.

Isabela recognized her. “That’s Carla. She brought Helena’s meals the first few nights I was here.”

The staffing agency had no record of a nurse named Carla.

Dante found Helena in the sitting room, wrapped in a blanket. “Do you remember her?”

Helena looked at the image on Rafael’s phone. Her fingers tightened around the blanket.

“She was there when I fell.”

“What happened?”

“I heard her arguing with Vicente about money. I went downstairs. Someone grabbed my arm.” Helena’s voice shook. “I pulled away. That’s when I fell.”

Dante knelt beside her. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I did. The next morning. The nurse said I’d dreamed it, and Vicente said you were away. Then they gave me medication. Every time I tried to explain, I couldn’t get the words out.”

Dante looked at Rafael. “Get her medical records. All of them.”

Isabela thought of Helena’s untouched meals and the way she had struggled to stay awake each afternoon.

Carla had been coming into the mansion for weeks. Isabela had seen her twice in the laundry room, though nurses had no reason to be there.

They found the laundry room door open.

Inside, a shelf had been moved away from the wall. Behind it was a narrow service passage leading to the old part of the house. Rafael checked the floor. Fresh dirt marked the tiles.

“She can come and go without using the main hall,” he said.

A phone began to ring inside the passage. Dante found it beneath a loose board. On the screen was a message from Vicente:

SANTOS HAS THE COPIES. BRING ME THE NOTEBOOK FIRST.

Carla answered with a text while they watched.

I HAVE THE GIRL.