THE MIRROR THAT HEARD TOO MUCH — THE CASTELLANO BETRAYAL

Marco took the accusation personally.

“I've protected this house for twelve years,” he said. “If someone on my team is selling your conversations, I'll find them.”

Luca handed him an archived security roster. “Find the weakness. Don't decide who's guilty before you have evidence.”

They began with the Thursday delivery. The antique mirror had entered through the service gate, where shipments were screened by a guard named Paul Drennan. The manifest identified the item as furniture, with no record of electronic inspection.

Paul had taken three days' leave immediately afterward.

“That could be coincidence,” Luca said.

Marco shook his head. “His leave wasn't approved. Somebody entered it afterward.”

Emma sat in a small office near the security room with Dr. Harris's prescribed rest schedule beside her. She had asked to speak because she remembered hearing two voices in the study before Belini pushed her.

“The man wasn't giving orders to Belini,” Emma said. “He was telling her what he'd overheard.”

“What exactly did he say?” Marco asked.

“Something about the medical file. And then, 'The guard has already cleared it.'”

Marco stopped writing.

Emma added, “Belini said, 'I thought you were handling him.' She sounded upset.”

Luca considered the phrasing. “Handling whom?”

“I don't know.”

Marco opened the audio archive. They listened to a short exchange recorded just before Emma's injury.

A male voice said, “Drennan cleared the mirror. The second piece is already inside.”

Belini replied, “That was not what I authorized.”

The next sound was the scrape of wood. Then Emma's cry of pain.

Luca closed his eyes briefly. The recording supported Emma's account. It also suggested Belini had been losing control of the scheme before the injury.

“Can you recognize that voice?” he asked Marco.

Marco listened twice more.

“Not from our guards,” he said. “But I can search the visitor logs.”

A little later, Paul Drennan appeared at the estate with his attorney. Marco had asked him to come voluntarily, promising he would not be questioned without counsel.

Paul admitted accepting money from Adriana's firm to skip the normal inspection.

“I was told it was a wedding surprise,” he said. “I didn't know there were devices in it.”

“Who told you?” Luca asked.

“A woman from Russo Strategic. And a man who came with her.”

“Describe him.”

Paul described someone in his early fifties with silver hair, a narrow jaw, and a distinctive limp.

Luca knew the description.

“Vittorio Russo.”

Paul nodded. “That's him.”

The missing link seemed obvious now. Vittorio had financed the installation, used Belini to gain access, and persuaded a guard to ignore the delivery.

But one question remained.

How had he obtained Luca's retired authorization code?

Marco traced its reactivation to a terminal in the security office. The terminal had been used at 6:41 a.m., before the day shift began.

Only one person had signed in that morning.

Marco himself.

He stared at the screen.

“I wasn't here at six forty-one.”

Luca studied the entry. “Then someone used your credentials.”

Emma glanced toward the office door. She remembered Paul describing the man with the limp. On Thursday morning, she had seen him near the staff entrance, speaking to someone carrying a security jacket.

“The person with him was a woman,” she said.

Marco's face tightened. “What did she look like?”