Chapter 3
Julian laughed.
Not nervously.
Contemptuously.
“You’re going to build another theory out of that?”
Cesare watched him.
Julian gestured toward Avice.
“She was supposed to hand Vanessa flowers near the staircase.”
Vanessa recovered immediately.
“For the donor photographs.”
Her smile returned.
“Something sweet.”
Then she looked at Avice.
“Although apparently asking her to stand still for thirty seconds was too ambitious.”
Avice lowered her eyes.
Vanessa continued.
“She runs.”
“She interrupts.”
“She sticks her hands into things.”
Her mouth curled.
“And somehow everyone calls it adorable because she has the Lombardi name.”
Cesare did not raise his voice.
“Enough.”
Vanessa turned toward him.
“You want enough?”
Her arrogance sharpened.
“I’ve had six months of that child touching my stomach in public.”
Avice looked confused.
Vanessa pointed toward her.
“Six months of people asking whether she’s excited about the baby.”
A bitter laugh.
“As though my pregnancy existed to entertain your granddaughter.”
Cesare stood.
Vanessa did not back away.
“Now she finds something private and I’m the criminal?”
Her eyes hardened.
“Maybe the real problem is that nobody in this house knows how to tell Avice she is not the center of it.”
Cesare’s face went still.
Then one of the gala photographers approached cautiously.
“Mr. Lombardi.”
Cesare turned.
The man swallowed.
“I was asked to place a camera near the west staircase.”
Julian’s head snapped toward him.
Cesare noticed.
“By who?”
The photographer looked uncomfortable.
“Mr. Julian.”
Julian exhaled sharply.
“For the flower presentation.”
The photographer nodded uncertainly.
“But…”
Cesare waited.
“He wanted the camera fixed.”
“What do you mean?”
“Not handheld.”
The man pointed.
“Low angle. Facing the third stair.”
Vanessa’s breathing changed.
Avice looked toward the staircase.
Cesare did too.
One specific step.
One specific camera.
One specific child told to stand there.
His eyes returned to Julian.
“What was supposed to happen?”
Julian smiled.
“Flowers.”
Cesare stared at him.
Julian’s smile thinned.
“What?”
“You've asked that three times.”
A cold shrug.
“The answer doesn't become darker because you dislike me.”
The photographer spoke again.
“There was also a cloth marker.”
Julian’s expression changed.
Cesare turned.
“What cloth?”
“A red one.”
Avice immediately pointed toward Edmund.
“He had it.”
Every eye moved.
Edmund stood perfectly straight.
Even bruised, he looked severe.
Offended.
He slowly unfolded the service cloth still tucked across one arm.
White.
“Children invent details when rewarded for attention.”
Avice shrank slightly.
Edmund looked directly at her.
His voice became crueler.
“You should have stayed where you were placed.”
Cesare’s eyes hardened.
Edmund continued.
“You were given one simple instruction.”
His lip curled.
“Stand near the staircase and hold flowers.”
Avice whispered:
“You told me to run.”
Silence.
Edmund’s face changed.
Only slightly.
Cesare heard.
“So did I.”
Edmund looked toward him.
Avice continued.
“You said Vanessa would call me.”
Vanessa immediately snapped:
“She’s lying.”
Avice flinched.
Vanessa stepped forward.
“Look at her.”
She pointed.
“Every time someone questions her, she makes the story bigger.”
Cesare’s gaze turned cold.
Vanessa kept going.
“First the belly.”
“Then Julian.”
“Now Edmund.”
A sneer.
“By midnight perhaps she’ll accuse the chandelier.”
Avice’s eyes filled.
Cesare looked down.
She was still holding something else in her cardigan pocket.
“Show me.”
Avice hesitated.
Then removed a small folded square of red cloth.
The photographer stared.
“That’s the marker.”
Edmund stopped breathing.
Cesare looked at the child.
“Where did you get it?”
Avice pointed toward the west staircase.
“Under the step.”
Julian’s jaw tightened.
Cesare unfolded it.
One corner was sticky.
Dark red.
Not blood.
Something syrupy.
Vanessa saw it.
Her face hardened.
Cesare looked toward her.
Then toward Julian.
May you like
The flower presentation had not been designed simply to photograph Avice.
Something red had been prepared before she ever reached the stairs.
