Chapter 7 - VINCENT'S OLD LOYALTY
Vincent did not deny it.
Not immediately.
That told me enough.
"Start talking."
"Your father asked for medical summaries."
"Whose?"
"Elena's. Ethan's."
"Why?"
"He said he was updating family emergency planning."
"You gave him my son's allergy records?"
"Years ago."
"Without asking me?"
"Vittorio signed my checks."
That sentence almost ended our friendship.
"After he died, I stopped."
"Did anyone else ask?"
"Who?"
"Martin Vale."
My CFO.
Another trusted man.
Another room turning rotten.
Vincent said Martin requested Ethan's current medical restrictions three months earlier for "insurance compliance."
"Did you give them?"
"Yes."
"You gave private medical information to finance?"
"He had authorization from the family office."
"Whose?"
"Yours."
Forgery again.
Torres asked about the camera deletion.
Vincent insisted he did not do it.
Then she checked his phone.
A message from an unknown number arrived during the party.
TURN OFF COLD STORAGE CAMERAS FOR SEVEN MINUTES OR MAYA GETS THE VIDEO.
Vincent's daughter was named Maya.
Not Detective Torres.
His twenty-two-year-old daughter.
"What video?"
His face broke.
"She had a drug problem last year. She got clean. Somebody has footage of her buying pills."
"So you killed the cameras."
Rage rose so fast I had to step away.
"You didn't ask what they were doing?"
"They said they needed privacy to remove something from the kitchen."
"My son was in that kitchen."
"I didn't know."
"That's not a defense."
"I know."
Torres confiscated his phone.
Vincent whispered, "I'll resign."
"No."
"You'll stay until police are done with you."
I hated how cold my voice sounded.
The little girl had drawn a picture.
A man.
A silver box.
A black ring.
And something beside his head.
Three red lines.
Sophia said, "She keeps saying the man had red on his ear."
Lily touched her own ear.
"Little red snake."
I didn't.
May you like
I knew one man who wore a red coiled-wire earpiece at private events.
Martin Vale's personal bodyguard.
