Chapter 7 - The Dance of Liars)
Vincent recovered before the last piece of porcelain stopped moving.
"What sleepy man?" he asked.
Daniel watched his face. "The intruder who gave Maria the map."
Sofia pointed at Vincent's jacket. "He smelled like trees and smoke. Like you."
Vincent removed a dark green handkerchief from his pocket. The scent of cedar and tobacco filled the room. "Half the men in this house use the same tailor's cologne. I give bottles to my captains at Christmas."
"Who received one this year?" Daniel asked.
"Twenty men. Including Rocco."
It was a reasonable explanation. In Daniel's world, reasonable explanations were often the most carefully manufactured.
He ordered Vincent confined to the mansion. Vincent did not resist, but the hurt in his eyes looked real.
"Your father suspected me whenever he was afraid," he said. "I hoped you would become a different man."
"I did. My father would have shot you before asking about the cologne."
"Progress, then."
The charity gala scheduled for that evening should have been canceled. Daniel decided to hold it anyway. Two hundred judges, businessmen, politicians, artists, and criminals would enter the mansion under cameras. If the Crow's Crown had spent years hiding behind respectable faces, Daniel wanted those faces gathered in one room.
Maria thought the plan was reckless.
"They already breached your security twice."
"Then tonight they will believe they can do it again."
"With Sofia upstairs?"
"Sofia will be in the panic room with Mrs. Bell."
"No room is safe when the enemy helped build the house."
Daniel studied her. "Come to the gala. Stay beside me."
"As your maid?"
"As Matteo's widow."
Maria looked away. "We never married."
"He gave you the Moretti ring. For my brother, that was more binding than a priest."
"Your council will not see it that way."
"My council sees things the way I tell them to."
She almost smiled. "There is the monster everyone knows."
That night, the mansion glowed above the gardens like a palace built from gold. A quartet played in the ballroom. Champagne moved beneath chandeliers. Every guest surrendered a phone and passed through metal detectors, yet Daniel knew at least six weapons had entered because he had authorized four of them.
Maria descended the staircase in a dark red gown Mrs. Bell found in a locked wardrobe. Her hair fell over one shoulder. The silver ring hung openly at her throat.
Conversation thinned as people recognized it.
Daniel met her at the bottom step. "You look terrified."
"I am wearing shoes designed by an enemy of women."
"Good. Fear makes people attentive."
He offered his arm. After a moment, she took it.
Vincent watched from across the ballroom. Though officially confined, he stood beneath direct guard so Daniel could observe who approached him. Several captains greeted him. Councilman Leo Mancini did not.
A pale woman in diamonds came toward Daniel. Celeste Vescari controlled three construction unions and hated the Morettis with elegance.
"Daniel," she said, kissing the air beside his cheek. "You always keep the most interesting relatives hidden."
Her gaze rested on Maria's ring.
"Have we met?" Maria asked.
"No. But I met your daughter."
Daniel's hand closed around Celeste's wrist before she could lift her glass.
"Explain."
Celeste looked amused. "Five years ago, Matteo showed me an ultrasound picture during negotiations. He was so proud he forgot we were enemies. He said the baby would be a girl. He asked whether I knew a doctor who could make a family disappear safely."
Maria's eyes filled. "What did you tell him?"
"I gave him a name. Two weeks later, the doctor drowned in six inches of bathwater. I understood the warning."
"Who knew you helped him?" Daniel asked.
"Matteo. Me. The man beside him."
"Who?"
Celeste glanced toward Vincent. "Ask your counselor why he followed Matteo to my office."
The quartet shifted into a waltz. Daniel led Maria onto the dance floor, not for pleasure but because the moving crowd gave them privacy.
"Did Matteo ever mention Celeste?" he asked.
"Once. He said a woman with ice in her veins had shown him more mercy than his own blood."
Daniel guided her through a turn. "You believe her?"
"I believe Matteo."
"That is becoming inconvenient."
"Truth usually is."
Above Maria's shoulder, Daniel saw Leo Mancini slip through the terrace doors. Leo was not supposed to leave the ballroom. Daniel signaled a guard and changed direction with the dance.
"Keep moving," he told Maria.
"Why?"
"Because every liar in the room is watching us."
A waiter offered them champagne. Maria reached for one glass. Daniel caught her hand.
The waiter had a pale line at his wrist where a tattoo had recently been removed.
Daniel struck the tray upward. Glasses flew. The waiter drew a ceramic blade and lunged at Maria.
She twisted aside. Daniel caught the man's arm, broke it across his shoulder, and drove him into the floor. Guests screamed and scattered. Guards closed the ballroom doors.
The waiter began laughing.
"The child drinks chocolate at eight," he said. "She is already dead."
Maria ran.
Daniel followed her upstairs. They reached the panic room to find Mrs. Bell unconscious in the corridor and both guards missing. The steel door stood open.
Inside, a cup of hot chocolate waited on the table.
Sofia was gone.
Then Daniel heard a giggle beneath the desk.
Sofia crawled out with Mr. Buttons. "Mrs. Bell told me not to drink it because the wrong man brought it."
Maria dropped to her knees and pulled her close.
Daniel examined the cup. A bitter-almond odor rose from the chocolate.
May you like
On the underside of the tray, written in black ink, was another message.
YOU SAVED THE CHILD. NOW CHOOSE WHICH BROTHER TO BURY.
