Chapter 7
The Marlowe held another surprise.
Suite 904 was connected to 906 through an internal door.
Room 906 had been empty when my men first entered.
Then they found the hidden lower drawer in the nightstand.
Inside were six Bellandi family photographs.
Mine.
Grant’s.
My father’s.
And Luca’s first hospital photograph.
That one made me stop.
I had never given it to Grant.
Claire had not.
Vanessa smiled faintly.
“You post too much inside your own house.”
I looked at her.
“Where did you get this?”
No answer.
Carlo knew.
I could see it.
“Speak.”
He exhaled.
“One of the maternity staff.”
Claire turned.
“Who?”
Carlo shook his head.
“I don’t know her name.”
That was a lie.
I waited.
Finally he said:
“Diane.”
Claire’s face changed.
I knew the name only vaguely.
Diane Keller had worked two overnight shifts during Luca’s first week home, then disappeared after Vanessa told me she had become unreliable.
Another caretaker removed.
Another person connected to the hotel.
“Why would she give you a photograph?”
Carlo looked at Grant.
Grant answered this time.
“She didn’t.”
Silence.
“We took it from her.”
Claire stared.
“What happened to Diane?”
“She left.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
Grant’s expression hardened.
“She became difficult.”
There it was again.
Difficult.
The word powerful people use when someone weaker refuses to cooperate.
I looked at Carlo.
“What did Diane see?”
He hesitated.
Then told me.
Vanessa meeting Grant in the nursery after midnight.
Grant placing Luca’s carrier beside the window.
Vanessa telling Diane to leave him there until I came.
The room had been cold that night.
I remembered it.
I also remembered walking in, finding Luca crying, and canceling a council dinner.
Exactly as they intended.
Diane objected.
By morning, she was gone.
Claire whispered:
“So I wasn’t the first.”
May you like
No.
She was simply the first one they failed to remove before I saw what was happening.
