Chapter 3 - THE DOCTOR’S COAT
Dr. Ricci did not reach for the button.
That frightened Sophia more than if he had.
He simply looked at the object in her palm.
Then he smiled.
“A button proves I’ve been in this cellar.”
Marco’s hand moved beneath his jacket.
“Have you?”
Ricci sighed.
“For thirty years. Lorenzo’s father kept wine down here.”
“Tonight,” Marco said.
“No.”
Lorenzo’s voice remained weak but steady.
“Then why is part of your coat beneath my chair?”
“I could ask the maid.”
Sophia stared at him.
“What?”
Ricci looked almost apologetic.
“You’re the one holding it.”
Emma moved behind Sophia’s skirt.
The implication hit like ice water.
Marco stepped between them.
“Careful, Doctor.”
“I am being careful.”
“No,” Lorenzo said. “You’re being stupid.”
Ricci looked at him.
Something old passed between the two men.
History.
Trust.
Maybe grief.
Lorenzo spoke quietly.
“If Sophia wanted to frame you, she wouldn’t use an object her three-year-old found while chasing a cat.”
Ricci’s mouth tightened.
“The button could have been here for months.”
“It has fresh thread,” Marco said.
“Then test it.”
“We will.”
Ricci closed his medical bag.
Lorenzo noticed.
“You’re leaving?”
“You clearly no longer trust my treatment.”
“Sit down.”
Ricci didn’t.
Marco drew his weapon but kept it pointed at the floor.
Emma gasped.
Sophia immediately covered her eyes.
“No weapons around my daughter.”
Everyone looked at her.
Even Lorenzo.
Marco holstered it without argument.
“Sorry.”
Ricci gave a thin smile.
“How civilized.”
Then Lorenzo suddenly slumped.
“Boss?”
Sophia grabbed him.
His body felt heavier than before.
Ricci immediately moved forward.
“His pulse.”
Marco blocked him.
“Don’t.”
“He may be bleeding internally.”
“You said he wasn’t.”
“I said the wound didn’t appear immediately fatal.”
Lorenzo’s eyelids fluttered.
Sophia felt his wrist.
She wasn’t a nurse, but she knew enough to realize something was wrong.
“His pulse is slowing.”
Ricci opened his bag.
“Move.”
Marco hesitated.
Sophia didn’t.
“Save him.”
Ricci looked at her.
“If you want him alive, let me work.”
Marco reluctantly stepped aside.
The doctor injected something into Lorenzo’s IV line.
Within seconds, Lorenzo’s breathing became steadier.
Marco watched every movement.
“What was that?”
“Atropine.”
“Show me the vial.”
Ricci handed it over.
Marco photographed the label.
Lorenzo opened his eyes again.
He looked directly at Ricci.
“Still here?”
“Against my better judgment.”
“Good.”
Lorenzo’s gaze shifted toward Sophia.
“Pocket watch.”
“What?”
“My watch.”
The broken steel watch lay beneath the chair.
Sophia picked it up.
The glass had shattered.
The hands were frozen at 10:14.
“There’s a compartment.”
Marco took it.
“Where?”
“Back.”
He pressed the release.
A tiny memory card fell into his palm.
Ricci stopped moving.
Again, less than a second.
Again, Sophia saw it.
“What’s on it?” she asked.
Lorenzo answered without taking his eyes off Ricci.
“My study records audio whenever the safe opens without my fingerprint.”
Marco stared.
“Why didn’t I know that?”
“Because then it wouldn’t be secret.”
Despite the tension, Sophia almost smiled.
Marco inserted the card into his phone.
There were four audio files.
The last was timestamped 9:57 p.m.
He played it.
Static.
A door opening.
Lorenzo’s voice.
“You’re early.”
Then another voice.
Distorted by distance.
Too muffled to identify.
“You shouldn’t have asked about the port accounts.”
Lorenzo replied, “You shouldn’t have stolen from me.”
A chair scraped.
Then a third voice.
“I’m sorry, Lorenzo.”
Sophia’s skin prickled.
That voice was clearer.
Dr. Ricci’s.
Everyone looked at him.
Ricci did not deny it.
Instead, he closed his eyes.
“Play the rest.”
Marco did.
Lorenzo on the recording sounded surprised.
“Enzo?”
Then a thud.
Glass breaking.
Someone breathing hard.
The unidentified man spoke again.
“Get him downstairs.”
The recording ended.
Emma began quietly crying.
Sophia picked her up.
Ricci looked at Lorenzo.
“I can explain.”
“I would enjoy that.”
“I was there.”
“Obviously.”
“But I did not order this.”
“Who did?”
Ricci looked toward Emma.
“Not in front of the child.”
Sophia’s voice turned cold.
“She found him tied to a chair. I think we’re past protecting her from knowing something bad happened.”
Ricci rubbed both hands over his face.
“I was summoned to the estate at nine forty.”
“By whom?”
“Vincent.”
Marco stiffened.
“He said Lorenzo had collapsed.”
Lorenzo frowned.
“I was standing when you entered.”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn’t you leave?”
“Because there were two men behind me.”
“Names.”
“I don’t know them.”
Marco scoffed.
“Convenient.”
Ricci looked at him.
“They took my phone. They threatened my daughter.”
Sophia blinked.
Ricci’s daughter lived in Rome.
At least that was what the household believed.
“They forced me to inject Lorenzo with a sedative.”
Lorenzo’s face hardened.
“You drugged me.”
“Yes.”
“Then stood there while they dragged me downstairs?”
Ricci looked sick.
“Yes.”
“And the button?”
“I followed them. One of the men shoved me against the wine rack. It must have torn off.”
It was plausible.
That was the problem.
Sophia wanted evil to look obvious.
Ricci looked afraid.
Ashamed.
Human.
Marco’s phone vibrated.
He checked the screen.
“Vincent is coming downstairs.”
Everyone froze.
“How?” Sophia whispered.
“He must have noticed the pantry lock.”
Lorenzo struggled upright.
“Move me to the storm room.”
Ricci grabbed the medical bag.
Marco stared at him.
“You come too.”
Emma pointed toward the stairs.
“Someone there.”
A shadow appeared beneath the door.
Then Vincent Romano’s voice came through the wood.
“Sophia?”
Nobody answered.
“Sophia, I know you’re down there.”
His tone was calm.
Almost gentle.
“Open the door.”
Marco motioned everyone toward the hidden room.
Vincent tried the handle again.
“Sophia.”
A pause.
Then he said the one thing that stopped her.
“If Lorenzo is alive, do not let Ricci give him another injection.”
The cellar went silent.
Dr. Ricci turned pale.
Vincent continued through the locked door.
“The doctor is not here to save him.”
Marco looked from Vincent’s shadow to Ricci.
Lorenzo whispered one word.
“Why?”
Vincent answered as if he had heard him.
“Because I found the vial he used on your father the night he died.”
Dr. Ricci moved first.
May you like
He reached into his medical bag.
And Emma screamed.
