THE MIRROR THAT HEARD TOO MUCH — THE CASTELLANO BETRAYAL

Belini's heels stopped outside the study.

Emma sat straighter despite the pain in her back. Luca placed one finger against his lips, then moved the little recorder beneath a folded handkerchief. He did not pretend the door was locked.

“Luca?” Belini called. “I know you're in there.”

“Come in.”

She entered in the same crimson silk gown she had worn at dinner, her smile carefully arranged. It slipped when she saw Emma sitting beside the desk.

“I thought Dr. Harris sent her to bed.”

“He examined her,” Luca replied. “Now I'm speaking with her.”

Belini's eyes wandered to the mirror. Its narrow upper panel remained unscrewed.

“Why is that thing back here?”

“It's my study.”

She laughed softly, then looked at Emma. “You should rest, sweetheart.”

Emma said nothing. The word sounded especially cruel from Belini's mouth.

Luca stepped between them. “You told my guests she fell in the conservatory.”

“Because she said she had an accident.”

“An accident in this room?”

Belini paused. “I didn't know where she was.”

“You gave them a location.”

“Luca, I'm exhausted.”

“So is she. The difference is that someone hurt her.”

For a moment Emma expected Belini to deny everything. Instead, the woman studied Luca's expression and reached for a different explanation.

“The mirror tipped. I grabbed it. Emma lost her balance.”

“Then why threaten her wages?” Luca asked.

Belini's hand fell from the back of a chair.

Emma looked up. That detail had come from her private conversation with Luca. Now Belini knew she'd spoken.

“I said something unkind,” Belini admitted. “I was frightened of damaging an expensive antique.”

Luca watched her. “You can apologize tomorrow. Tonight you will leave Emma alone.”

Belini pressed her lips together. Then she nodded and went out.

Only after her footsteps had faded did Luca pick up his phone. Marco was waiting on the secured line.

“I've isolated the device,” Marco said. “The incoming signal wasn't ordinary audio. It was a remote instruction to erase its recordings.”

“Did it erase them?”

“No. I disconnected it first.”

Luca let out a quiet breath. “What survived?”

“Several days of conversations. And one transmission from four this afternoon.”

Emma's pulse rose.

Marco played a short recording. A man's voice crackled through the speaker: “Move it tonight. He mustn't find the second unit.”

A pause. Belini's voice followed, strained and unmistakable.

“The maid found the first one. I'll handle her.”

Emma stared at the floor. She had never heard her fear summarized so neatly.

Luca stopped the audio.

“Second unit?” he asked.

“Unknown location,” Marco replied. “But the two devices share the same control account.”

Luca looked around his study. All week he'd held meetings here, sometimes alone, sometimes with men he had trusted since his father's death. The mirror had hung where every visitor could see it.

“Search this room without damaging anything,” he told Marco. “Then check the adjoining rooms.”

Emma shifted painfully. “I can tell you where Belini walked when she thought I wasn't looking.”

“You've done enough.”

“Not if someone else gets hurt.”

Luca held her gaze. He had promised she wouldn't lose her job. He hadn't promised she would be safe if the person listening was as powerful as he suspected.

“All right,” he said. “Tell me.”

Emma remembered Belini's strange interest in the old brass lamp on Luca's desk. She had insisted on replacing its shade last Thursday, the same day the mirror appeared.

Marco examined the lamp's base. Beneath the felt stood a second black module, smaller than the first.

He lifted it carefully and frowned.

“This one isn't a microphone, boss.”

“What is it?”

“A signal receiver. Someone wanted to activate something in this room remotely.”

Luca looked at the desk drawer containing his revised will.