Chapter 7 - The Second Box)
The second box had never been in the locker when Sebastian opened it.
The warehouse records said otherwise.
Two containers had been transferred from Unit 417 when Harbor Union Storage closed.
One black document case.
One narrow cedar box.
The cedar box was missing.
Security footage showed that it had been removed six months earlier by someone carrying identification in Anna Caradonna's name.
Anna had been dead for nearly five years.
Elisa stared at the grainy photograph.
The woman at the desk wore sunglasses and a scarf.
She was not Anna.
"Lucinda," Leo said.
Sebastian looked at him.
"You can't tell that."
"I can."
"How?"
"Her ring."
He pointed.
On the woman's right hand was a large rectangular stone.
Lucinda wore the same ring almost every day.
Thomas enlarged the image.
Leo was right.
Sebastian leaned back.
"So Lucinda already has whatever was in the second box."
Elisa asked, "Why didn't she take the first one too?"
Thomas answered.
"Maybe she couldn't open it."
"The key," Leo said.
Anna had hidden the key behind her wedding portrait.
Lucinda had found the storage location but not the key.
She had apparently convinced the warehouse to release one container using forged credentials.
The second box must not have been locked the same way.
Sebastian folded his arms.
"What was inside?"
Nobody knew.
Then Elisa remembered Anna's letter.
Lucinda knows where Martin is.
Ask her about Blackwater Point.
"Maybe the second box had information about Martin."
Sebastian nodded slowly.
"If Lucinda found it, she could have warned him."
"Or Preston."
Thomas checked the photographs from the recovered box again.
The image of Martin Vale contained a marina sign in the background.
Only part of the lettering was visible.
Elisa zoomed in.
Blackwater Marine Services.
They had their connection.
Sebastian called a private investigator in Maine.
By evening, they had an address.
Martin Vale had not died in Portugal.
He lived under the name Michael Voss in a small coastal house twelve miles from Blackwater Point.
The investigator sent a recent photograph.
Same face.
Older.
Gray hair.
Alive.
Sebastian looked at it for a long time.
Then he called Martin.
The number rang four times.
A man answered.
"Hello?"
"Martin."
Silence.
Sebastian continued.
"It's Sebastian Caradonna."
The call ended.
They called again.
No answer.
Twenty minutes later, the investigator watching Martin's house reported movement.
Martin loaded a bag into his truck.
He was leaving.
Sebastian said, "Stop him."
Thomas shook his head.
"We don't have authority."
"Then follow him."
The truck traveled south.
At 9:40 p.m., it entered a private marina.
Blackwater Point.
Martin boarded a small motorboat.
The investigator could not follow without being noticed.
Then Sebastian's phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
Martin Vale's voice came through.
"Leave this alone."
"You helped steal from my family."
"You don't understand what happened."
"Explain it."
"I can't."
"You can."
Martin breathed heavily.
"Your father should have let it go."
Sebastian's expression changed.
"What does that mean?"
No answer.
"My father discovered the accounts before he died."
"Yes."
"Did Preston threaten him?"
Silence.
"Martin."
"I never touched your father."
"That wasn't the question."
The line crackled.
Then Martin whispered, "Matteo wasn't supposed to be in the office that night."
Sebastian stood completely still.
Elisa saw his face.
"What night?"
Martin continued.
"The night he had the stroke."
Sebastian felt the room shrink around him.
"Who was with him?"
Martin did not answer.
"Who was with my father?"
A second voice sounded faintly in the background.
Female.
"Give me the phone."
Lucinda.
Sebastian recognized her instantly.
The line disconnected.
He turned toward Elisa.
Lucinda was supposed to be upstairs in the mansion.
Thomas checked the security feed.
Her bedroom was empty.
Her car was gone.
Sebastian looked toward the ballroom.
The wedding was forty-eight hours away.
May you like
The vase still stood beneath the floral arch.
And Lucinda Hale was driving north to meet a man everyone had believed dead.
