Chapter 14 - Daniel's StoryDaniel had driven Luca for fifteen years.
He had attended Sofia's funeral.
He had taught Marco how to change a tire.
He knew Vincent's private schedules.
He knew the lake house.
The townhouse.
The office tower.
The security systems.
And he knew exactly where Emma had been since leaving the hospital.
Luca did not want to believe Adrian.
Emma could see that immediately.
Daniel stood in Vincent's library while Detective Hayes questioned him.
"Did you disable the townhouse cameras?"
"No."
"Could you?"
"Yes."
"Did you know how to disable Vincent's system?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I oversee family security."
Hayes nodded.
"Did Marco trust you?"
Daniel looked toward Luca.
"Yes."
"Did he speak to you before he died?"
Daniel hesitated.
Luca noticed.
"When?"
Daniel looked at him.
"The day before."
Luca stared.
"You never told me."
"Marco asked me not to."
"What did he say?"
Daniel looked tired.
"He asked whether I'd ever seen Adrian meeting Connor."
"And?"
"I had."
"Where?"
"Blue Harbor."
Emma frowned.
"The company?"
"The lake property."
Luca looked confused.
"Blue Harbor owns a cabin?"
Daniel nodded.
"Your father bought it years ago."
"Adrian used it."
"Connor did too."
Hayes wrote quickly.
"Did Marco go there?"
Daniel looked at Luca.
"Yes."
"When?"
"The night he died."
The room became silent.
Luca stepped closer.
"You told us Marco was driving to my lake house."
"He was."
"After Blue Harbor."
"Yes."
"You knew?"
"Yes."
Luca's anger rose.
"You let me spend three months wondering what happened."
Daniel's voice remained steady.
"Marco asked me to keep quiet until I knew who could be trusted."
"I was his brother."
"And you were running the company he was investigating."
The sentence struck Luca harder than any accusation.
Emma watched him step backward.
Daniel continued.
"Marco wasn't afraid of you."
"He was afraid you'd protect the family before you protected the truth."
Luca looked away.
Hayes asked the next question.
"Why does Adrian say you're framing him?"
Daniel shook his head.
"Because Adrian lies."
"Did you leave the photograph at the townhouse?"
"No."
"Did you write the note?"
"No."
"Can you prove it?"
"No."
Emma stood.
"Where were you when the townhouse cameras went down?"
Daniel looked at her.
"Driving you there."
That was true.
Emma remembered.
He had been in the car with them during part of the system outage.
Hayes checked the timeline.
"Seven of the eleven minutes."
Daniel nodded.
"Someone could have programmed it."
"Yes."
"Could you?"
"Yes."
Luca looked frustrated.
"Everything points both ways."
Daniel reached slowly into his wallet.
Hayes watched him.
He removed a folded piece of paper.
"Marco gave me this."
Luca stared.
"When?"
"The day before he died."
Daniel handed it to him.
Marco's handwriting covered one side.
If anything happens to me, don't let Luca destroy himself trying to fix it.
Beneath that was a sequence of numbers.
Hayes looked at them.
"What is that?"
Daniel shook his head.
"I don't know."
Emma studied the numbers.
Four groups.
She thought about Marco.
Dates.
Times.
Numbers.
The recorder code had been 0917.
"What if it's not one number?"
She rearranged them mentally.
"September seventeenth."
Luca looked at her.
"The ultrasound."
Emma nodded.
"Eight forty-one."
"That's the time."
She remembered because Marco had photographed the clock after hearing Grace's heartbeat.
Luca stared at the note.
"So?"
Emma turned it over.
Nothing.
Hayes held it toward the light.
A faint indentation appeared.
Someone had written on a page above it.
They shaded the paper carefully with graphite.
Letters emerged.
BLUE HARBOR.
CABIN.
FLOOR.
Luca looked at Daniel.
"You knew?"
Daniel shook his head.
"No."
Hayes stood.
"Nobody goes anywhere until I get a warrant."
Luca nodded.
Emma looked toward the dark window.
For the first time, she felt they were close.
Close to whatever Marco had hidden.
Close to the truth.
That should have felt comforting.
Instead, she remembered Connor's first warning.
Ask Luca what Marco was doing the night he died.
Marco had gone to Blue Harbor.
Then toward Luca.
May you like
He had discovered something.
And someone had made sure he never arrived.
Related Stories
