Chapter 5 - THE MECHANIC SAID VANESSA NEVER ASKED HIM TO TOUCH THE CAR
Gerard Pike’s statement destroyed one lie and created another.
Antonio paid him.
No question.
Gerard admitted cutting the brake line.
He claimed he was told the car would be empty when it was moved from one garage to another.
“I thought they wanted an insurance problem,” he said.
Nobody believed that fully.
But then investigators showed him Teresa’s photograph.
His face changed.
“I didn’t know she would drive it.”
“Who told you the schedule?”
“Antonio.”
“Anyone else?”
Gerard shook his head.
“Vanessa Bellini?”
“No.”
“Salvatore Bellini?”
“No.”
So Vanessa had participated in fraud.
Medication manipulation.
The proxy scheme.
But the evidence did not place her inside the sabotage plan.
That mattered.
People should answer for what they did.
Not what would make the story simpler.
Then Gerard said something else.
“Antonio told me the brakes didn’t even need to fully fail.”
“What does that mean?”
“He said the goal was to scare someone.”
“Who?”
“Matteo.”
Everyone looked at Luca’s cousin.
Gerard continued.
“Antonio said his son was getting weak.”
Matteo’s face emptied.
The accident was partly a warning to him.
Antonio knew Matteo had agreed to help Teresa.
He sabotaged the car expecting a survivable crash.
Powerful people love believing they can control the degree of catastrophe.
They are usually wrong.
Teresa suffered brain trauma.
Matteo almost died.
Then Antonio’s men removed Matteo from the car so the police would never know he had been there.
Why?
Because his presence would reveal Teresa had been investigating.
Everything fit.
Then another problem exploded.
Security found a diamond brooch in my employee locker.
Mrs. Moretti’s.
Vanessa had reported it missing weeks earlier.
My stomach dropped.
“I didn’t take that.”
Vanessa folded her arms.
“Of course.”
Luca looked at me.
For one terrifying second, I wondered whether power would choose convenience again.
Then he said:
“Nobody touches Claire.”
Not:
She is innocent.
Important difference.
“Preserve the locker. Preserve the cameras. Call the investigators.”
Vanessa’s face tightened.
“Luca, honestly—”
“Evidence first.”
I almost looked at him differently.
Almost.
Security footage showed the staff corridor.
At 4:17 that afternoon, before dinner, head housekeeper Mrs. Dwyer entered my locker room carrying towels.
She remained inside four minutes.
She left without the towels.
Investigators questioned her.
Within an hour, she broke.
Vanessa had asked her to place the brooch there.
Why?
“If Claire became a problem.”
I stared at Vanessa.
She looked exhausted.
Not remorseful.
Mrs. Dwyer continued.
“Miss Bellini said the girl was getting too attached to Mrs. Moretti.”
Too attached.
Meaning listening.
Meaning communication.
Meaning dangerous.
Luca turned toward Vanessa.
“You planned to frame her before tonight.”
Vanessa said nothing.
That answered.
Then Mrs. Dwyer revealed one more thing.
Vanessa had asked her two weeks earlier:
“Does Claire understand everything my future mother-in-law does with her hands?”
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The plan to remove me had started before Teresa announced she was afraid.
Vanessa already suspected the maid could understand the one witness she needed everyone else to dismiss.
