Chapter 4 - THE PRIEST AT SAINT AGNES
Father Gabriel Marinelli lived in two rooms above Saint Agnes rectory and answered the door wearing slippers.
He looked at Luca, then at Samuel Price, then at Olivia’s bruised face.
“I assume nobody came for confession.”
“No,” Luca said.
“Pity. You all look like you need it.”
The priest was eighty-four and sharper than everyone expected. He remembered Lucia immediately.
“She was stubborn.”
Luca almost smiled. “Yes.”
“She was right often enough to make the stubbornness irritating.”
They sat around a small dining table while snow gathered against the window.
Samuel placed the incomplete declaration before him.
Father Gabriel read the visible page and sighed.
“So the first page is gone.”
“You know what it said?” Luca asked.
“I witnessed it.”
Olivia leaned forward.
The priest folded his hands.
“Lucia discovered that Vittorio Hale had a son before his marriage. William Mercer. His mother kept her name, and Vittorio paid quietly for years.”
Luca frowned. “What does that have to do with Victoria?”
“Everything and nothing.”
Father Gabriel looked at the old declaration.
“Victoria knew William existed. They met as teenagers. She considered him family long before Vittorio publicly acknowledged nothing.”
“So Mercer is her half-brother.”
“Yes.”
Olivia thought of the wallet photograph in the lake house.
“Why hide it?”
“Because Lucia believed Vittorio used both children differently. Victoria for legitimacy. William for work that required distance.”
Luca’s jaw tightened.
“Work like breaking into Sofia’s house.”
Father Gabriel looked at him. “Apparently the tradition survived.”
Samuel asked about the missing first page.
The priest’s expression darkened.
“It explained why Lucia created the trust.”
Luca waited.
“Not merely to protect company shares.”
“Then what?”
“To protect evidence.”
Father Gabriel stood slowly and crossed to a narrow cabinet. From it, he removed an old brass key attached to a blue ribbon.
“Lucia left this with me.”
Luca looked at it.
“What does it open?”
“A deposit drawer beneath the parish archive.”
The drawer contained a cassette, two notarized affidavits, and a photograph of Marco DeLuca shaking hands with Vittorio Hale outside a construction site.
One affidavit belonged to a former Moretti accountant named Evelyn Ross.
She described being ordered by Marco to disguise Hale transfers as consulting fees.
The second belonged to a mechanic named Joseph Calder.
Olivia read his name twice.
He had worked for Hale Automotive the week Antonio died.
Calder’s statement did not accuse anyone of causing the crash. It said only that Antonio’s car arrived for routine work and that Marco visited the garage unexpectedly. The next morning, Calder discovered the brake service sheet had been replaced with a different copy.
He quit two days later.
“Is he alive?” Luca asked.
Father Gabriel nodded. “Milwaukee.”
Daniel wrote down the address.
Then the church door below slammed.
Footsteps climbed the stairs.
Victoria appeared in the rectory doorway.
She was still wearing the red dinner gown beneath a long black coat.
Marco stood behind her.
Olivia had seen Luca’s uncle only in photographs. Sixty-three, silver-haired, elegant, with Luca’s eyes and none of his warmth.
Victoria looked at Olivia first.
Of course she did.
“You.”
Olivia stood.
Victoria laughed. “This entire circus because a housekeeper wanted attention.”
Father Gabriel frowned. “Young woman, if you intend to insult someone in my dining room, at least remove your wet shoes.”
Victoria ignored him.
“She has been poisoning you against me all night.”
Luca’s voice stayed level. “Olivia told me what she saw.”
“She went through private belongings.”
“She found a forged necklace in the box you gave her.”
Victoria’s cheeks colored.
Marco stepped forward. “Luca, enough. Come home.”
“Did you give Mercer the vault key?”
Marco stopped.
Olivia saw the answer before he spoke.
“No.”
Luca looked at Daniel.
Daniel held up a photograph from the lake-house search.
The brass key carried an inventory tag bearing Marco’s initials.
Marco glanced at it, then at Victoria.
That was his mistake.
Luca noticed.
“So you are working together.”
Marco’s expression hardened. “I am trying to prevent you from destroying a strategic marriage over old family paranoia.”
“Paranoia?”
“Your mother was ill.”
Father Gabriel slammed one hand on the table.
The sound startled everyone.
“Lucia was dying,” he said. “She was not stupid.”
Marco looked away.
Victoria turned to Olivia again.
“This is what you wanted, isn’t it? A rich man defending you?”
Olivia felt heat climb her neck.
She had heard versions of that insult before. Women like Victoria always believed poverty could explain every motive.
Olivia touched the bruise on her cheek.
“No.”
Her voice was quiet.
“I wanted you to stop lying about why I was hurt.”
The room went silent.
Luca looked at her.
Not rescuing.
Listening.
Olivia continued. “Everything after that was your choice.”
Marco tried to regain control by speaking like a board chairman instead of an uncle. He said old affidavits proved nothing. He said Lucia had mistrusted half the city by the end of her illness. He said the wedding represented stability and that Luca was risking employees, lenders, and partners because a maid had overheard a private conversation. That word again. Maid. Small enough to dismiss. Useful enough to clean up what richer people left behind. Olivia felt the insult land differently now. Earlier, she would have lowered her eyes. Instead she asked Marco why Victoria had used Luca’s forged signature to enter the vault. Marco said he did not know. She asked why his initials were attached to Mercer’s key. He said old inventory tags were unreliable. She asked why he had visited Hale Automotive before Antonio’s accident. Marco told Luca to control his staff. Luca answered, “She asked you a question.” Marco’s face changed. Father Gabriel poured coffee for everyone except Victoria, who refused the cup. The old priest seemed almost amused by the collapse of social hierarchy in his kitchen. A housekeeper questioned a board chairman. A former mob-linked executive sat beneath a picture of Saint Joseph. A bride in a silk gown stood dripping snow onto linoleum. Nothing about the scene respected the order Victoria preferred. Samuel explained that the affidavits could justify a formal forensic review even if they proved no crime themselves. Daniel said the original company archives could be locked before Marco reached them. Luca ordered it done. Marco accused him of paranoia again. Olivia noticed Victoria checking her phone repeatedly. Each time the screen lit, the same unread message remained at the top from a contact saved only as W. William. When Victoria finally opened it, Olivia saw only three words before the screen turned away. CALDER IS TALKING. She told Luca. Victoria called her a liar. Father Gabriel said quietly, “Then show us the phone.” Victoria refused. That refusal said more than any confession could have. Olivia kept watching because details mattered, and Luca kept listening because every small contradiction now carried the weight of a larger betrayal. Neither of them trusted easy answers anymore, especially when Vanessa had spent so much time arranging what everyone else was supposed to believe. Olivia kept watching because details mattered, and Luca kept listening because every small contradiction now carried the weight of a larger betrayal. Neither of them trusted easy answers anymore, especially when Vanessa had spent so much time arranging what everyone else was supposed to believe. Olivia kept watching because details mattered, and Luca kept listening because every small contradiction now carried the weight of a larger betrayal. Neither of them trusted easy answers anymore, especially when Vanessa had spent so much time arranging what everyone else was supposed to believe. Olivia kept watching because details mattered, and Luca kept listening because every small contradiction now carried the weight of a larger betrayal. Neither of them trusted easy answers anymore, especially when Vanessa had spent so much time arranging what everyone else was supposed to believe. Olivia kept watching because details mattered, and Luca kept listening because every small contradiction now carried the weight of a larger betrayal. Neither of them trusted easy answers anymore, especially when Vanessa had spent so much time arranging what everyone else was supposed to believe. Olivia kept watching because details mattered, and Luca kept listening because every small contradiction now carried the weight of a larger betrayal. Neither of them trusted easy answers anymore, especially when Vanessa had spent so much time arranging what everyone else was supposed to believe. Olivia
Daniel’s phone rang.
He listened for ten seconds.
Then his face changed.
“Boss, our Milwaukee team reached Joseph Calder’s address.”
Luca stood.
“And?”
“The apartment was empty.”
Victoria exhaled too quickly.
Olivia heard it.
Daniel continued.
“But a neighbor saw him leave twenty minutes ago with a man matching Mercer’s description.”
Marco swore under his breath.
Luca looked at Victoria.
“Did William take him?”
She said nothing.
Father Gabriel slowly turned the blue-ribbon key between his fingers.
Then Olivia’s phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
She opened the message.
A photograph appeared.
Joseph Calder sat in the passenger seat of a car.
May you like
Below it were six words.
STOP DIGGING OR HE DISAPPEARS TOO.
