Chapter 2 - Three People He Trusted

Stefano woke eleven hours after surgery with a tube in his arm, a monitor beside his bed, and Nero asleep across the threshold like a black stone placed there by God.

Alice was still in the hospital.

She had tried to leave twice.

Both times, Danny had stopped her with the same sentence.

"Five minutes. I only need five more minutes."

The second five minutes had become two hours.

When Stefano opened his eyes, Danny was standing near the window, Carmine was on the phone in the hallway, and Alice sat in a chair with her shoes off and her head tipped against the wall.

Nero raised his head first.

His tail struck the floor once.

Alice woke immediately.

Stefano looked at the dog, then at her.

"You."

His voice was raw.

Alice stood and slipped her shoes back on.

"Unfortunately."

Danny turned.

"Boss?"

Stefano's eyes moved to him.

"Why is she here?"

"Because she may have saved your life twice."

Alice folded her arms.

"Once. I stopped somebody from making the situation worse. That's not the same thing."

Stefano stared at her for several seconds.

"Voss?"

Danny's face tightened.

"Outside the unit. I told security not to let him near you."

Stefano's expression changed.

It was small.

A narrowing of the eyes.

A stillness in his jaw.

Alice recognized it as fear disguised as calculation.

"What happened?" he asked.

Danny looked toward Alice.

She answered.

"Your surgeon found a drug in your blood that shouldn't have been there."

"What drug?"

"Clonidine, according to the preliminary tox screen. Enough to crash your pressure when you were already losing blood."

Stefano blinked slowly.

"I don't take clonidine."

"I know."

"How?"

"Your chart."

He almost smiled.

"Of course."

Alice stepped closer to the bed.

"Dr. Voss tried to give you a sedative in the ambulance. The vial had a second label placed over the original one. I photographed it."

Stefano's eyes went to Danny.

"Where is the vial?"

"Hollis sealed it after Alice objected. Hospital security has it."

"Get it."

"Already requested."

Stefano looked back at Alice.

"You grabbed Voss's wrist?"

"Yes."

"People don't usually grab Leonard Voss."

"People usually aren't watching him push the wrong dose into a hypotensive patient."

Stefano breathed carefully.

Pain moved across his face.

"How much did you know about me before last night?"

"That depends which version you're asking about."

Danny gave her a warning look.

Stefano noticed.

"Let her answer."

Alice shrugged.

"I knew you owned Marquetti Maritime, three hotels, a private equity firm, and enough waterfront property to make city council members suddenly discover manners."

"Anything else?"

"I knew people were afraid of you."

"Are you?"

She looked at him.

"Yes."

Danny's eyebrows rose.

Stefano seemed surprised by the honesty.

Alice continued.

"Fear isn't the same thing as obedience."

For the first time since waking, Stefano's mouth moved into something close to amusement.

Then the door opened.

Carmine entered without waiting for permission.

He stopped when he saw Stefano awake.

Relief crossed his face so quickly that Alice almost believed it.

"Thank God."

He approached the bed.

Nero stood.

Carmine stopped.

"Nero."

The dog did not growl.

He simply placed himself between Carmine and the bed.

Carmine's face hardened.

"Move him."

Stefano watched the dog.

"No."

Carmine frowned.

"Stefano, we need to talk."

"We are talking."

"Privately."

Stefano looked toward Alice.

"She stays."

Alice immediately shook her head.

"I don't."

"You do."

"I'm not on your payroll."

"Neither is Nero."

The dog remained in front of Carmine.

Danny turned his face to hide a smile.

Alice exhaled.

"Five minutes."

Stefano looked satisfied.

Carmine did not.

He lowered his voice.

"The police think the explosion came from a gas line in the west wing."

"No, they don't."

Carmine paused.

"Excuse me?"

"They told the press they think it came from a gas line."

Stefano's voice became colder.

"That is different."

Carmine glanced at Danny.

Danny said nothing.

Stefano continued.

"The west wing hasn't had active gas service in six years."

Alice looked at him.

"Then someone wanted an explosion."

"Yes."

Carmine's jaw tightened.

"That doesn't mean the poisoning is connected."

Alice spoke before she could stop herself.

"It would be an extraordinary coincidence."

Carmine turned to her.

"No one asked you."

Stefano did not raise his voice.

"I did."

Carmine looked back at him.

For several seconds, uncle and nephew stared at each other.

Alice suddenly understood that Carmine was family.

Not biologically, perhaps.

But in the only way that mattered inside that room.

History.

Permission.

Access.

Stefano broke the silence.

"Who was with me before the explosion?"

Carmine answered immediately.

"Danny. Me. Voss came by earlier. Bianca brought dinner. Two staff members were in the kitchen."

Danny shook his head.

"Bianca left at eight."

"What time was the blast?" Alice asked.

"Nine forty-three," Danny said.

Stefano closed his eyes.

"Voss left around nine."

Carmine nodded.

"You were in the study after that."

"With you."

"For fifteen minutes."

"And after?"

Carmine's expression sharpened.

"You know where I was."

"Tell me."

"In the wine room, checking the inventory for the charity dinner."

Danny looked at him.

"Alone?"

Carmine turned.

"You questioning me now?"

"I'm building a timeline."

"You've known me twenty-two years."

"Then the question should be easy."

Carmine's nostrils flared.

Alice watched Stefano.

He was not looking at Carmine.

He was looking at Danny.

"Where were you?"

"Security room until nine thirty-four."

"Camera logs?"

"Gone."

Carmine laughed once without humor.

"Convenient."

Danny's face did not change.

"The system lost power seven minutes before the explosion."

"Using whose credentials?" Stefano asked.

Danny hesitated.

Alice felt the room shift.

"Mine."

Carmine stared at him.

"Of course."

Danny turned toward him.

"Say it."

"Your credentials shut down the cameras. Your team controlled the gates. You knew the building plans."

Danny stepped closer.

"You think I put him on the floor?"

"I think we shouldn't pretend loyalty is evidence."

Nero growled.

Not at Danny.

At Carmine.

Everyone stopped.

Alice watched the dog.

His body was angled toward Carmine, but his eyes were on Carmine's right hand.

The older man wore a leather glove.

Only one.

His left hand was bare.

Alice frowned.

"Why are you wearing that?"

Carmine looked down.

"Cut myself on glass."

"Show me."

He stared at her.

"Absolutely not."

Stefano's voice became quiet.

"Show her."

Carmine's face darkened.

"This is absurd."

"Then end the absurdity."

Slowly, Carmine removed the glove.

A bandage wrapped his palm.

Alice stepped closer.

"Who treated it?"

"Voss."

"When?"

"Last night."

"Before or after the explosion?"

Carmine hesitated.

"Before."

Alice looked at Danny.

Danny's eyes had narrowed.

Stefano asked, "Where?"

"In the study."

Alice felt something cold move through her.

"What was Dr. Voss carrying?"

Carmine shrugged.

"His case."

"Leather?"

"Yes."

"The same case he brought into the ambulance?"

"I suppose."

Alice went to her bag.

She pulled out her phone and opened the photograph.

The leather case appeared in the corner of the image.

Brown.

Old.

A brass clasp near the handle.

She zoomed in.

There was a pale smear along the edge.

Powder, maybe.

Or plaster dust.

She showed it to Danny.

"The west wing walls. What are they made of?"

"Old lime plaster under the paneling."

Carmine's eyes flicked toward the photograph.

Alice saw it.

So did Stefano.

"Voss was in the west wing," Stefano said.

Carmine answered too quickly.

"No."

The room went still.

Stefano's voice dropped.

"I didn't ask."

Carmine's mouth closed.

Alice looked at him.

"How do you know?"

Carmine recovered.

"Because I saw him leave through the main hall."

"At nine?"

"Yes."

Danny checked his phone.

"The gate log shows his car leaving at nine twelve."

Alice shook her head.

"That proves his car left."

Stefano's eyes moved toward her.

"You think he stayed."

"I think a man with twenty years of access knows how to make people assume he left."

Carmine stepped back.

"This is becoming theater."

Alice turned to him.

"Then why are you sweating?"

His face changed.

Danny moved between them before Carmine could answer.

Stefano lifted one hand weakly.

"Enough."

Everyone stopped.

He looked at Carmine.

"Bring me the names of every person who had access to the west wing yesterday."

Then Danny.

"Get the raw security backup. Not the local server. The off-site archive."

Danny nodded.

Stefano looked at Alice last.

"And you."

"No."

He blinked.

"I hadn't asked yet."

"I know what you're going to ask."

"Do you?"

"You want me to stay."

"Correct."

"I'm a nurse."

"Exactly."

"I'm not an investigator."

"You noticed a false label, a dosage error, a behavioral pattern in my dog, and plaster dust in a photograph while everyone around me was busy being loyal."

Alice stared at him.

"That is not a job description."

"It can be."

"I have a job."

Danny coughed.

Alice looked at him.

"What?"

He gave her an apologetic expression.

"Your agency called."

Her stomach dropped.

"Why?"

"The hospital filed an incident report."

"For stopping an unsafe medication?"

"For photographing controlled medication and interfering with a private physician."

Alice laughed.

It came out sharp.

"Of course they did."

Stefano's face went cold.

"Who filed it?"

"Voss," Danny said.

Alice looked toward the hallway.

"You have got to be kidding me."

Stefano reached for the bed rail and pushed himself higher despite the pain.

"Call the agency."

Alice pointed at him.

"No."

His eyebrows rose.

"You don't get to fix this by terrifying somebody."

"I wasn't going to terrify them."

Danny looked away.

Alice stared at Stefano.

"You were absolutely going to terrify them."

He considered that.

"Perhaps a little."

"No."

"Fine."

"Fine?"

"I won't call."

She didn't trust him.

"Promise."

The room became silent.

Carmine looked almost offended on Stefano's behalf.

Danny looked fascinated.

Stefano stared at Alice as though no one had demanded a promise from him in years.

Finally he said, "I promise."

Alice nodded.

"Good."

Then her phone rang.

Unknown number.

She almost ignored it.

Something made her answer.

"Hello?"

A man's voice spoke softly.

"Miss Brennan?"

"Yes."

"You took photographs in the ambulance."

Alice looked at Danny.

"Who is this?"

The voice continued.

"Delete them."

Her pulse accelerated.

"Why?"

"Because you survived last night by accident."

The line went dead.

Alice slowly lowered the phone.

Danny was already moving.

"What happened?"

She told him.

Stefano's face became perfectly still.

"Give Danny the number."

"It was blocked."

"He can still work with it."

Carmine stepped toward the door.

"This proves nothing except that somebody is trying to frighten her."

Alice looked at him.

"That's usually why people make threats."

Carmine ignored her.

Stefano watched his uncle leave.

Nero remained standing until the door closed.

Then the dog relaxed.

Alice noticed.

She looked at Stefano.

He had noticed too.

"Does Nero dislike Carmine?" she asked.

Stefano's answer came slowly.

"No."

Danny turned from his phone.

"He never has."

Alice looked at the closed door.

"Then something changed."

Stefano's gaze remained fixed on it.

"Or someone did."

A nurse entered with a clear evidence bag.

Inside was the vial from the ambulance.

Danny signed for it.

Alice stepped closer.

The label was worse under the room's bright light.

The upper sticker had been placed crookedly over the manufacturer's print.

Stefano watched her examine it.

"What do you see?"

Alice turned the vial in the bag.

Then stopped.

Beneath the replacement label, a fragment of the original text remained visible.

Two letters.

An expiration date.

And a handwritten black dot near the base.

She felt her stomach tighten.

"What?"

Danny leaned closer.

Alice pointed.

"That black dot."

Stefano frowned.

"So?"

"I saw the same mark once before."

"Where?"

Alice looked at him.

"In Dr. Voss's private emergency kit at the mansion."

Danny's expression sharpened.

"You saw his kit?"

"When I first went through the doors. It was open beside one of the doctors."

Stefano's face became unreadable.

Alice continued.

"There were four vials lined up inside. Each had a small black dot at the bottom."

Carmine's earlier words returned to her.

Voss had treated his cut before the explosion.

Voss had been in the study.

Voss's car had left.

Maybe Voss had not.

Stefano spoke softly.

"Three people knew the combination to the medical cabinet in my study."

Alice already knew the answer.

"Voss."

"Yes."

"Danny."

"Yes."

"And Carmine."

Stefano looked toward the door.

"Yes."

Nero rose again.

This time, he was not looking at the hallway.

He was looking at the evidence bag.

The dog approached it, sniffed once, and recoiled.

Alice froze.

"What?"

Danny asked.

She crouched beside Nero.

The dog sniffed her hand, then the bag again.

His ears went back.

Alice looked at Stefano.

"Was Nero in the study before the explosion?"

"All evening."

"Then he may have smelled whatever was on that vial before."

Danny shook his head.

"A dog isn't a witness."

"No."

Alice stood.

"But he remembers something."

Stefano's eyes moved from Nero to the bag.

Then he said the sentence that changed the investigation.

"My father died with Nero beside him."

Alice went still.

Danny looked at Stefano.

"You never told her."

"I never told anyone outside the family."

Alice felt the weight of the room press inward.

"How did he die?"

Stefano's voice was flat.

"Heart failure."

"When?"

"Six years ago."

"Was Dr. Voss there?"

A long silence followed.

May you like

[COMPLETED] She waited ten years for her fiancé, but the night she marri...

[COMPLETED] Five Years After My Mafia Husband Chose Another Woman, He Me...

[COMPLETED] I CALLED MY HUSBAND 18 TIMES WHILE OUR SON WAS DYING. EIGHT...

Stefano finally answered.

"He pronounced him dead."