Chapter 4 - The Chapel Beneath the Garden
The safe room was not really a room.
It was a hidden place behind the library wall, with no windows and a steel door thicker than my arm. Mama sat on a couch, holding me in her lap while guards came and went outside.
But I couldn’t stop thinking about Alejandro walking into the smoke.
“Is he okay?” I asked.
Mama didn’t answer right away.
“I don’t know, sweetheart.”
That scared me more than anything.
Mama always knew things. She knew when rain was coming because her knees hurt. She knew when milk was bad. She knew when I had a fever before I even felt warm.
If Mama didn’t know whether Alejandro was okay, then maybe nobody did.
A few minutes later, Dr. Romano came into the safe room.
“He’s alive,” he said.
Mama exhaled so hard she almost laughed.
“He shouldn’t be moving,” the doctor muttered. “But apparently, no one has ever successfully told Alejandro Moretti what he should do.”
“Where is he?” Mama asked.
“The chapel.”
I looked up. “The little church?”
Dr. Romano nodded. “Underneath it.”
Mama stared at him. “There’s something under the chapel?”
“There are many things under this estate,” he said carefully.
I didn’t like the way he said it.
Then the steel door opened again.
Alejandro stood there.
His shirt was stained with soot. His hair was messy. His face was still pale. But he was alive.
In one hand, he held an old metal box.
In the other, he held something small and silver.
A key.
Mama stood immediately. “You should be in bed.”
Alejandro gave the tiniest hint of a smile. “You sound like Dr. Romano.”
“That is not a compliment.”
“It was meant as one.”
Dr. Romano rolled his eyes.
Alejandro set the metal box on the table. “Bellini was gone when we arrived. But he left this.”
Vincenzo opened the box.
Inside were papers, photographs, and a small black hard drive.
“What is it?” Mama asked.
“Proof,” Alejandro said. “Records of Bellini selling information about my business to rival families. Names. Payments. Dates.”
“And the camera footage?” Vincenzo asked.
Alejandro’s smile disappeared. “Gone.”
My stomach felt funny.
“The red light camera?” I asked.
Alejandro looked at me. “Gone.”
“Maybe it saw him take it.”
Vincenzo blinked.
Mama looked down at me. “What do you mean?”
I climbed off the couch and pointed at the metal box. “The camera was in the bookshelf. Mr. Bellini knew it was there because Marco looked at it. But maybe Mr. Bellini didn’t know there was another camera.”
Alejandro studied me carefully.
“Another camera where?”
I thought hard.
When I had entered the study, I remembered the firelight. The broken glass. Mr. Moretti on the floor.
And something else.
A shiny black button near the ceiling.
“The eagle,” I said.
Everyone turned.
Above the study fireplace was a giant carved wooden eagle, wings spread wide.
“It had a little eye,” I explained. “It looked at the desk.”
Vincenzo’s face changed.
“There was a backup camera,” he said.
Alejandro looked at him sharply. “Was?”
Vincenzo hesitated.
“There was one installed years ago. Only your father knew about it.”
Alejandro turned toward the door. “Get it.”
Vincenzo ran.
A few minutes later, he returned holding a small memory card between his fingers.
“It’s intact.”
The room went quiet.
They played it on a laptop.
The video showed Marco poisoning the decanter.
But it also showed something else.
Before Marco entered, Bellini had come into the study with another man.
A man with gray hair, a navy suit, and a scar along his jaw.
Mama gasped.
“No,” she whispered.
Alejandro watched the screen without blinking.
“Who is that?” I asked.
Mama looked sick.
“That’s Detective Harris,” she said. “He’s the police officer who came here last month after the break-in.”
Vincenzo swore under his breath.
Alejandro’s voice became ice. “Bellini has the police.”
The screen kept playing.
Bellini and Detective Harris stood by the bar. Harris handed Bellini an envelope. Bellini gave him a thick bundle of cash.
Then Harris said something that made Mama grip my shoulder.
“Once Moretti is dead, I’ll take care of the maid and the kid. They saw nothing.”
I started crying then.
Not loud.
Just quiet tears.
Mama held me close.
Alejandro shut the laptop.
His hands shook, but his voice did not.
“No one touches them,” he said.
Then he looked at Mama.
“You were right to want to leave.”
Mama said nothing.
“But leaving won’t make Bellini stop,” Alejandro continued. “He will come after you because you are witnesses.”
“What do you want us to do?” Mama asked.
Alejandro looked at the little metal key in his hand.
May you like
“I want you to help me end this tonight.”
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