Chapter 15 - Eleven Years Ago
Samuel Pierce was seventy-one and retired in Florida.
By noon, Detective Grant had learned he was not in Florida.
He had flown into Providence three days before the breakfast poisoning and checked into a hotel under his own name.
“Not much of a fugitive,” Marco said.
“Because he doesn’t think anyone knows,” Grant replied.
Victor finally told the story he had carried for eleven years.
As a resident, he had reviewed Alessandro Sr.’s final bloodwork and noticed results that did not fit a natural heart attack. He brought the concern to Pierce, who dismissed him. Victor then told Enzo.
Enzo threatened to destroy his career and expose the affair that produced him.
“You stayed quiet,” Alessandro said.
“Yes.”
“You let me bury my father believing something that might not be true.”
Victor’s eyes filled. “Yes.”
Alessandro wanted to hit him.
Instead he walked outside.
Emma and Maria had returned to the estate only to collect their things. Maria had made it clear they would not stay.
Emma sat on the front steps sewing Rosie’s torn sleeve with crooked stitches.
Alessandro sat beside her.
“Are you mad?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“At me?”
“No.”
“Good.”
He watched her struggle with the needle.
“I kept quiet about something important once,” he said.
Emma looked at him. “Why?”
“Because telling the truth would have embarrassed my family.”
“Did keeping quiet make it better?”
“No.”
“Then that was dumb.”
He laughed despite himself. “Very.”
Maria opened the door. “Emma, five minutes.”
The child stood, then hesitated.
“Mr. Romano?”
“Yes?”
“You still didn’t ask why Rosie was in the fountain.”
Alessandro frowned.
“I assumed Carlo threw her there to scare you.”
Emma shook her head.
“No. Miss Isabella did.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Rosie had this in her pocket after.”
Emma reached into the doll’s dress and pulled out a tiny brass key.
“I didn’t tell anybody,” she said. “Miss Isabella whispered that if something happened to her, Rosie knew where the truth was.”
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The key was stamped with a number.
214.
