Chapter 2
The panel beneath the piano bench was empty.
Whatever had once been hidden there was gone.
Dante’s attorney, Rebecca Sloan, arrived forty minutes later.
She had represented his legitimate businesses for eleven years and possessed the useful habit of being unimpressed by the Moretti name.
She examined the bench, heard Maria’s account, then immediately stopped Dante from turning the entire house upside down.
“We preserve first.”
“I want to know what was inside.”
“So do I.”
Rebecca looked toward Adrian.
“But if something was removed, we document the condition before twenty people handle it.”
Dante hated procedural patience.
Grace had loved it.
That thought irritated him for reasons he did not examine.
The reception guests were released after giving names and contact information.
Adrian and Victoria were separated.
Lily went upstairs with Maria.
Before Maria left, Dante asked her to sit with him for five minutes.
“When did Grace tell you about the bench?”
Maria thought carefully.
“About two months before the accident.”
“Exactly what did she say?”
“She asked whether I thought the piano should stay in the family if anything happened to her.”
Dante’s expression tightened.
Grace had died when another driver crossed the median during heavy rain.
The driver survived and had been convicted.
There had never been meaningful suspicion that Grace’s death was connected to the family.
“What did you say?”
“That Lily should have it someday.”
“And Grace?”
“She laughed. Then she said, ‘Then don’t let Adrian throw the bench away before she’s old enough to reach the pedals.’”
“At the time, did that sound serious?”
“No.”
Maria looked ashamed.
“I thought she was joking.”
“Why Adrian?”
“She didn’t explain.”
Dante sat back.
“What else?”
Maria hesitated.
“She had started locking the music room.”
That was unusual.
Grace had barely locked anything inside her own home.
“When?”
“Near the end.”
“And Adrian came here often?”
“He’s family.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Maria looked at him.
“Yes.”
Dante understood what she meant.
Adrian had been at the estate constantly.
Business meetings.
Dinners.
Sunday lunches.
Nobody recorded every family visit.
Nobody questioned a Moretti walking through a Moretti house.
That night Rebecca asked Victoria the simplest version of the same question.
Had she ever met Grace Moretti?
Victoria answered no.
Had she ever been inside the estate before Dante introduced her there eight months ago?
No.
Had Adrian known Victoria before Dante met her?
“Socially,” Victoria said.
Adrian gave almost the same answer.
Dante read both statements afterward.
“Socially means what?”
Rebecca shrugged.
“It means two people with lawyers have agreed not to use the word strangers.”
Dante looked toward the ceiling.
Above them, Lily was finally asleep.
He thought of Victoria playing the complete melody.
Then of her grabbing a three-year-old hard enough to make the child cry because she had recognized it.
May you like
The song bothered him.
Victoria’s reaction bothered him more.
