Chapter 6 - THE RED COAT
The silence in the room was absolute until a sharp, rhythmic knock sounded at the door.
Luca drew his weapon and moved to the entrance. He checked the security monitor built into the wall. It was Marco, his head of security, flanked by two heavily armed guards.
Luca unlocked the door and pulled Marco inside, shutting it quickly.
“Boss,” Marco said, taking in the scene—the terrified maid, the sleeping child, the packed duffel bag. “What’s going on?”
“My father and Vanessa are planning a hit on me, and they’re framing Nora for Salvatore Bellini’s murder to tie up loose ends,” Luca said, his voice flat, devoid of emotion.
Marco didn’t flinch. He just nodded. Loyalty in the Moretti family was rare, but Marco had been raised by Luca’s mother. He belonged to Luca, not Vittorio.
“What do you need?” Marco asked.
“I need you to stay in this room,” Luca ordered. “You guard the child. If anyone other than me tries to come through that door, you shoot them. I don’t care if it’s Vanessa. I don’t care if it’s my father.”
Marco unholstered his sidearm and took a position by the bed. “Understood.”
Luca turned to Nora. “You’re coming with me.”
Nora didn’t argue. She grabbed her sweater and followed Luca out into the dimly lit hallway.
“Where are we going?” she whispered as they moved swiftly through the shadows of the estate.
“To find proof,” Luca said. “Vanessa is confident because she thinks she controls all the evidence. She took your phone. She planted the watch. She thinks she holds all the cards. But she made a mistake.”
“What mistake?”
“She didn’t kill you in the kitchen.”
Luca stopped near the entrance to the staff wing. He looked down at Nora.
“Think about the kitchen, Nora. Go back to that moment. She forced your hand onto the hot pan to make you drop your phone. But did you drop anything else?”
Nora squeezed her eyes shut, her mind flashing back to the searing pain, the smell of burning skin, Vanessa’s cold laughter.
“I… I don’t know,” Nora stammered. “It happened so fast.”
“Think,” Luca pressed gently, his hands resting on her shoulders. “You took the photo. She grabbed you. You dropped the phone. What happened next?”
Nora’s eyes snapped open. “The prep counter.”
“What about it?”
“When she slammed my hand down, I fell forward. My left hand hit the prep counter. There was a bowl of keys and spare drives we use for the inventory systems.” Nora’s breathing quickened. “Vanessa was yelling at the guard to take my phone. I… I grabbed something off the counter. I didn’t even know what it was. I just wanted something to throw at her if she tried to hurt me again.”
“What did you grab?”
“A small USB drive. It had a piece of red tape on it.”
Luca’s heart hammered against his ribs. The red tape. That was his father’s personal encryption drive. The one he used for offshore accounts and private contracts.
“Where is it now?” Luca asked, his voice tight with urgency.
“I didn’t throw it.” Nora looked at her left hand. “When the guard grabbed me to throw me out of the kitchen, I shoved my hand into a coat hanging by the service door to brace myself. I think… I think I dropped it in the pocket.”
“Whose coat?”
“I don’t know. It was just a heavy red wool coat. It always hangs in the mudroom near the back exit.”
“Vanessa’s riding coat,” Luca realized.
Vanessa rode horses every morning. She always left her red wool coat in the mudroom. In her panic, Nora had accidentally slipped the most incriminating piece of evidence into the enemy’s own pocket.
“Come on,” Luca said, grabbing her uninjured hand.
They moved quickly through the labyrinth of the servant’s corridors until they reached the mudroom at the back of the estate. The room smelled of damp earth and leather boots.
Hanging on a brass hook at the far end of the room was a heavy red wool coat.
Nora ran to it. She reached her left hand into the deep right pocket.
Her face fell.
She pulled her hand out. It was empty.
“It’s not here,” she whispered, panic rising in her throat. “Luca, it’s gone.”
Luca cursed under his breath. He stepped forward and reached into the left pocket. His fingers brushed against something hard and cold.
He pulled it out.
It wasn’t a USB drive.
It was a blindingly bright cascade of diamonds.
Luca stared at the heavy platinum and diamond necklace in his hand. It was the Bellini family heirloom necklace. The one Vanessa was supposed to wear at the wedding.
“Why is her necklace in the coat?” Nora asked, confused.
Before Luca could answer, the wail of police sirens pierced the night air. The sound grew louder, multiplying, echoing off the stone walls of the estate. Red and blue lights began flashing through the frosted glass windows of the mudroom door.
Luca looked at the necklace, then at Nora, the trap finally making complete sense.
“She didn’t just frame you for murder,” Luca said, his voice laced with cold dread. “She called the police to arrest you for grand larceny.”
“What?”
“If the police arrest you for stealing this necklace, you get put in a holding cell downtown.” Luca’s eyes hardened. “And my father owns half the guards in that precinct. You wouldn’t survive the night.”
Heavy pounding sounded at the main gates outside. Voices shouted over megaphones.
“Chicago Police Department! Open the gates!”
Nora backed away from the coat, her chest heaving. “Luca… they’re going to take me.”
“No, they’re not.”
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Luca shoved the diamond necklace deep into his own jacket pocket. He grabbed Nora’s hand, pulling her toward the narrow staircase that led down to the wine cellar.
“We have three minutes before they breach the doors,” Luca said. “Move.”
