Chapter 4 - THE BRACELET THAT WAS NEVER MISSINGThe attack changed the story.
By evening, television stations were reporting that shots had been fired into a Manhattan restaurant while Dominic DeLuca was inside.
Nobody mentioned Maya.
Dominic insisted on keeping it that way.
For once, Maya agreed.
She spent the night in a guest suite at Dominic’s Manhattan townhouse because returning to her apartment suddenly seemed irresponsible.
Tasha stayed with her.
At three in the morning, neither woman could sleep.
“So,” Tasha said from the sofa, “your dead mother had a secret identity, you might be related to a mob boss, your necklace may contain criminal evidence, and someone shot at you.”
Maya stared at the ceiling.
“That summarizes the week.”
“And it’s Tuesday.”
“Technically Wednesday.”
“Even worse.”
Maya closed her eyes.
She kept thinking about Vanessa.
Not because Maya believed Vanessa had arranged the shooting.
Vanessa was cruel.
The gunmen had been professional.
Different species of danger.
But something about the engagement party bothered Maya.
Vanessa had stared at the locket after Dominic recognized it.
Then the restaurant attack occurred less than twenty-four hours later.
“What if someone at the party heard us?” Maya asked.
Tasha sat up.
“Two hundred people heard you.”
“Exactly.”
Maya grabbed her phone.
She searched Vanessa Caldwell.
Photographs filled the screen.
Galas.
Vacations.
Charity dinners.
She searched Vanessa’s father, Richard Caldwell.
CEO of Caldwell Maritime Holdings.
Shipping.
Maya stopped.
“Tasha.”
“What?”
“Dominic said the old conspiracy involved shipping routes.”
“So?”
“Vanessa’s father owns a shipping company.”
Tasha stared.
“Okay. That’s creepy.”
Maya searched old articles.
Caldwell Maritime had existed for decades.
In the 1990s, it operated under a different name.
Atlantic Meridian Freight.
Maya’s pulse quickened.
She opened another article.
One of the early investors was Thomas DeLuca.
Dominic’s father.
“Oh my God.”
At eight the next morning, Maya confronted Dominic in his study.
He listened without interrupting.
When she finished, his expression said she had found something he already knew.
“You knew.”
“I suspected.”
“You could have told me.”
“I intended to when I had proof.”
“You have a terrible habit of deciding what everyone else deserves to know.”
“Yes.”
The answer caught her off guard.
Dominic leaned against the desk.
“It’s one of the reasons your mother stopped trusting me.”
Maya crossed her arms.
“Tell me everything about Richard Caldwell.”
“He was twenty-six when Michael Sullivan died. Junior executive at Atlantic Meridian. Brilliant with numbers. Invisible socially.”
“Did Michael investigate him?”
“Not officially.”
“But?”
“Michael mentioned a ledger.”
“What ledger?”
“A second accounting system. Payments hidden through shell companies. He believed someone was diverting containers and bribing customs officials.”
Maya stared.
“And Richard worked in accounting.”
“Yes.”
“Why was he never investigated?”
“Because the man everyone suspected died six months later.”
“Convenient.”
“Very.”
Dominic walked toward a cabinet and opened it.
Inside were old files.
He removed one.
“Richard inherited several major contracts after that death. Within eight years, he controlled the company.”
Maya sat slowly.
“Could he have killed Michael?”
Dominic’s eyes hardened.
“Yes.”
The word carried thirty years of anger.
Before Maya could respond, Dominic’s phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
Then looked at her.
“What?”
He ended the call.
“Vanessa was released on bail.”
“Okay.”
“She disappeared.”
Maya stood.
“What do you mean disappeared?”
“She never arrived at the Caldwell estate. Her phone is off. Her attorney can’t reach her.”
“You think her father hid her?”
“I think someone doesn’t want her talking.”
Maya remembered the ballroom.
Vanessa’s panic when the security footage played.
Her father’s financial troubles.
The missing bracelet.
Something clicked.
“Dominic.”
“Yes?”
“The bracelet.”
“What about it?”
“Why stage the theft?”
“To humiliate you.”
“Maybe.”
Maya paced.
“But why me? She had twenty employees she hated. Why accuse the one person wearing this locket?”
Dominic’s expression changed.
Maya continued.
“She saw me upstairs before the party. She asked about my necklace.”
Dominic straightened.
“You never mentioned that.”
“I forgot. She said it looked old. Asked if it was valuable.”
“What did you say?”
“I told her it belonged to my mother.”
“And then?”
“She touched it.”
Dominic went very still.
“She touched the locket?”
“Yes.”
“Did she open it?”
“No. I pulled away.”
He swore quietly.
Maya understood.
“The bracelet wasn’t the point.”
“No.”
“She wanted me searched.”
Dominic nodded.
“She wanted someone to take the locket from you without explaining why.”
Maya felt sick.
The public whipping had seemed like spontaneous cruelty.
What if it wasn’t?
What if Vanessa had been told to manufacture a reason to search Maya?
“Why would Vanessa know about a necklace my mother had thirty years ago?”
Dominic was already calling someone.
“Because someone told her.”
The mystery shifted.
Maya had entered the Caldwell estate by accident.
A catering agency assigned employees based on availability.
At least, that was what she had believed.
Dominic ordered his people to investigate the staffing agency.
Three hours later, they found the first answer.
Maya had not been randomly assigned.
Someone specifically requested her.
The request came from a Caldwell household administrator.
That administrator claimed Vanessa made the request.
Maya stared at Dominic across the study.
“She knew I was coming.”
“Yes.”
“Before I arrived.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
His phone rang again.
This time, the call lasted longer.
Dominic’s expression grew progressively darker.
When he hung up, Maya asked, “What now?”
“They found Vanessa.”
“Where?”
“In her car.”
Maya felt dread tighten her chest.
“Is she alive?”
“Yes.”
Dominic’s answer surprised her.
“She drove to a police station in Stamford.”
“Why?”
“To turn herself in.”
“She already was arrested.”
“Not for you.”
Maya stared.
Dominic continued.
“Vanessa claims she has information about crimes committed by her father.”
The room became silent.
“She wants protection,” Dominic said. “Federal protection.”
Maya almost laughed at the absurdity.
Twenty-four hours earlier Vanessa had attacked her in front of two hundred people.
Now Vanessa was apparently terrified of someone else.
“What did she tell police?”
“Not much yet.”
Dominic looked out the window.
“But she asked for one person.”
“Who?”
Dominic turned.
“You.”
Maya blinked.
“Absolutely not.”
“She says she’ll only explain what she knows if you’re there.”
“Why?”
“She didn’t say.”
“I’m not going.”
Dominic nodded.
“Good.”
Maya narrowed her eyes.
“You agree?”
“Vanessa is dangerous.”
“So are you.”
“Yes.”
Again, no defensiveness.
Maya hated how difficult that made him to argue with.
Her phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
She opened the message.
A photograph appeared.
Maya froze.
It showed Vanessa sitting inside an interrogation room.
She was pale.
Crying.
Beneath the photograph was one sentence.
ASK HER WHAT HER FATHER DID TO ELEANOR BENNETT.
Maya showed Dominic.
Every trace of emotion left his face.
“Who sent that?”
“No number ID.”
He grabbed his phone.
Maya read the message again.
Her hands began to tremble.
Not Eleanor DeLuca.
Eleanor Bennett.
Whoever sent the message knew both lives.
Maya lifted her gaze.
“I’m going.”
“No.”
“You said people controlling information destroyed your family once.”
“Maya—”
“You don’t get to repeat it.”
Dominic stared at her.
She picked up her coat.
“If Vanessa knows what happened to my mother, I’m hearing it.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
Then he reached for his jacket.
“Fine.”
“You don’t have to come.”
“Yes,” he said quietly.
“I do.”
At the police station, Vanessa sat behind reinforced glass.
Her makeup was gone.
Her expensive clothes had been replaced with gray detention clothing.
She looked smaller.
Human.
Maya hated that.
It would have been easier if monsters always looked like monsters.
Vanessa lifted her eyes.
When she saw Maya, she began crying.
Maya sat across from her.
“You wanted me here.”
Vanessa nodded.
“Then talk.”
Vanessa looked toward the officers.
Then at Dominic standing behind Maya.
Her face turned white.
“He can’t hear this.”
Dominic didn’t move.
Maya said, “He stays.”
“No.”
Vanessa leaned toward the glass.
“If he hears what I’m about to say, he’ll kill my father.”
Dominic’s voice came coldly from behind Maya.
“That depends entirely on what you say.”
Vanessa closed her eyes.
Maya picked up the telephone beside the glass.
Vanessa did the same.
“You arranged for me to work that party.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“My father told me to.”
Maya’s fingers tightened around the receiver.
“Why?”
“He showed me a photograph of you three weeks ago.”
“Where did he get it?”
“I don’t know.”
“What did he want?”
Vanessa began shaking.
“The locket.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. I swear.”
Maya stared.
“Then what do you know?”
Vanessa looked directly at her.
“My father knew your mother.”
Dominic stepped closer.
Vanessa’s voice dropped.
“He told me Eleanor Bennett ruined his life.”
Maya’s skin went cold.
“What did he do to her?”
Vanessa started crying harder.
“He found her.”
“When?”
“Years after she disappeared.”
Maya stopped breathing.
“When?”
May you like
Vanessa swallowed.
“Three days before your mother’s car accident.”
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