Chapter 11 - The Cuff Link
Matteo denied ever entering the warehouse.
Detective Ward ordered him detained while the cuff link was tested.
“It was taken from my room,” Matteo said.
“When?” Ward asked.
“I don’t know.”
“You supervise the estate surveillance.”
“The system was compromised.”
“Convenient.”
Alejandro watched from the other side of the interview-room glass.
Matteo sat straight-backed, his face calm despite the accusation. He had been at Alejandro’s side during the rescue, the archive search, and the pursuit of Sofia.
That made him either loyal or exceptionally convincing.
Mara reviewed weeks of security footage from Matteo’s bedroom corridor. A camera had gone offline for exactly nine minutes three days earlier.
During those nine minutes, Sofia had attended a meeting in the foundation offices.
Adrian had been at a charity luncheon.
Elena had taken Emma to an allergy clinic.
Dr. Shah had been inside the estate.
The doctor listened without interrupting as Alejandro questioned her.
“You knew about the allergy,” he said.
“I diagnosed it.”
“You had access to Matteo’s private floor.”
“I have medical access to every residential floor.”
“You could have taken the cuff link.”
“I could have. I did not.”
“Your card was copied and used by Celia.”
“Because someone entered my office while I was treating your aunt last month.”
“Who?”
Dr. Shah thought carefully.
“Sofia came in twice. Adrian once. Matteo every week.”
“Anyone else?”
“Your aunt’s private nurse.”
Alejandro frowned. “My aunt does not have a private nurse.”
Dr. Shah’s expression changed.
“An older woman in a navy uniform. She said she had been assigned by the family office.”
“No one was assigned.”
Mara searched the visitor logs.
No nurse had entered under that description.
Emma, sitting with Elena in the adjoining family room, heard the conversation through the open door.
“The orange lady wore blue,” she said.
Alejandro turned.
“What orange lady?”
“The lady who smelled like oranges.”
“The woman in the study?”
Emma nodded.
“Her red dress opened here.”
Emma pointed near her collar.
“Blue was under it.”
A reversible garment.
The intruder might have removed the red gown after leaving the study and continued through the estate wearing a navy medical uniform.
The same woman could have entered Matteo’s room, stolen the cuff link, copied Dr. Shah’s access card, and disguised herself as Sofia.
“What did she look like without Sofia’s face?” Alejandro asked.
Emma squeezed the stuffed bunny.
“I didn’t see.”
“Did you hear her voice?”
“She said a number.”
“What number?”
Emma closed her eyes.
“Seven… one… red… bird.”
Mara searched the recovered archive files.
A directory appeared.
71 REDBIRD.
It contained a personnel record for a former intelligence contractor named Evelyn Voss. She specialized in physical disguise, biometric fraud, and covert entry.
Her current location was unknown.
A photograph showed a woman in her late fifties with pale hair and a narrow scar beside her mouth.
Alejandro recognized her.
She had worked in the Moretti mansion when he was a child.
Everyone had called her Mrs. Voss.
She had served as his mother’s private secretary.
Official records claimed she died fifteen years earlier.
Mara enlarged another document.
Evelyn Voss had been listed as an authorized agent of the Red Archive.
Her title was not the Patron.
It was Keeper.
Alejandro understood.
Sofia and Adrian moved the money.
Evelyn protected the operation.
The Patron stood above all three.
Detective Ward received a message from the forensic laboratory.
The cuff link contained Sofia’s fingerprints, Adrian’s fingerprints, and traces of stage adhesive identical to the material found inside Beatrice’s shoe.
It had been planted.
Matteo was released.
Before leaving the interview room, he stopped beside Alejandro.
“You doubted me.”
“I doubted everyone.”
“Perhaps you should.”
Matteo handed him a folded paper recovered from inside the cuff link’s case.
The message had been written by Evelyn Voss.
May you like
YOU SURVIVED THE FIRST GLASS.
THE CHILD WILL NOT SURVIVE THE SECOND.
