Chapter 3
The missing book was not part of the evening auction.
That made it worse.
The Bellaforte Psalter had remained in the Carbone library for eighty-six years.
Hand-painted vellum.
Fifteenth century.
Insured value just under four million dollars.
Charlotte stood over the open vault inventory.
Her hands trembled.
“It was here Friday.”
Adriano’s eyes moved across the shelves.
“When was it physically checked?”
“Friday morning.”
“After that?”
“Only digital seals.”
Damian leaned against the table.
“You're making a missing manuscript part of a kidnapping now?”
Adriano glanced at him.
“You seem very interested in keeping those separate.”
Damian’s jaw shifted.
Adriano saw it.
The vault logs showed three authorized entries since Friday.
Charlotte.
Senior conservator Martin Hale.
Damian.
Damian smiled.
“I sit on the library operations committee.”
“That gives you access.”
“It gives me a reason to be there.”
“Those are different things.”
The room went quiet.
Charlotte searched restoration intake records.
One archival transport box had left the vault Saturday afternoon.
Listed as empty.
Destination:
Off-site humidity testing.
The receiving company had no record of it.
Adriano looked toward Damian.
Damian’s confidence held.
Barely.
Then Ava appeared at the reading-room doorway with a female bodyguard.
Adriano’s expression changed immediately.
“You should be with Theo.”
Ava hugged her cardigan around herself.
“He’s drawing.”
She looked toward Bernadette.
Then at the black handbag.
Her breathing became quick.
Adriano crouched.
“What is it?”
Ava whispered something too softly.
He leaned closer.
“The red book.”
Adriano stayed still.
“What red book?”
Ava pointed toward Damian.
“He put it in a box.”
Damian’s face changed.
Bernadette closed her eyes.
Ava continued in the simple fragments of a three-year-old.
Two days earlier, she had followed Theo into the restoration gallery while adults prepared the auction.
They saw Damian lift a red-covered book from a padded cradle.
A man put it into a gray archival box.
Theo asked whether he could touch it.
Damian shouted.
Ava ran.
Theo stayed.
Adriano’s gaze sharpened.
“What happened after?”
Ava looked confused.
“Uncle Damian gave Theo candy.”
Bernadette’s breathing stopped for a beat.
Adriano looked at her.
Then back at Ava.
“What did Theo say?”
Ava thought.
“He said he’d tell Daddy about the red book.”
There it was.
Theo was not chosen at random.
He had seen the missing manuscript being moved.
But Ava added one more detail before Adriano could stand.
“Grandma Bernie heard him.”
Bernadette’s eyes opened.
May you like
Ava pointed toward her.
“She said she’d make him forget.”
