Chapter 3 - NERO REMEMBERED THE FACE
The dog was not starving because Evelyn was gone.
He was starving because the person connected to her disappearance was still near him.
That possibility changed the room.
Jared ordered everyone except Miles out.
I immediately objected.
“Don’t change everything around him.”
Jared looked at me.
“He may be identifying a killer.”
“He’s also exhausted, dehydrated, and stressed. Turn this into an interrogation room and you’ll lose him.”
Jared’s jaw tightened.
Then he surprised me.
“Fine.”
He sat on the floor.
New York’s most feared man simply lowered himself onto expensive marble beside his dying dog.
No performance.
No pride.
Nero looked at him but didn’t move.
I gave Nero another bite.
He ate.
Then another.
Jared watched as if each swallow mattered more than a million-dollar transaction.
“What happened the night Evelyn disappeared?” I asked.
Jared stared at the floor.
“She came here.”
“Nero was with her?”
“Yes.”
“She was upset?”
“Terrified.”
That word sounded unnatural coming from him.
“She said somebody inside the family had been moving money through companies she didn’t recognize. She thought they were preparing something.”
“What?”
“She wouldn’t say.”
“Why?”
“She didn’t trust my phones.”
Miles looked away.
I noticed.
“So she left?”
“At 9:40.”
“With Nero?”
“Yes.”
“At 10:17, her car went through a barrier near the river.”
“Nero?”
“Found six blocks away the next morning.”
Alive.
Wet.
Blood on his collar that didn’t belong to him.
No body had ever been recovered.
No witness.
No clear explanation for how Nero escaped the vehicle.
I looked toward the door Dominic had used.
“Nero growled at your uncle.”
Jared’s eyes hardened.
“I noticed.”
“Did Dominic see Evelyn that night?”
“He says no.”
“What do you say?”
“I stopped trusting what people say a long time ago.”
I almost told him that explained a lot about his face.
Instead, I asked to see photographs of everyone who had been in the penthouse the week before Evelyn vanished.
Miles assembled them on a tablet.
House staff.
Drivers.
Security.
Family.
Business associates.
I placed the screen several feet from Nero.
One face at a time.
Most got no reaction.
A few caused his eyes to move.
Dominic’s photograph appeared.
Nero’s ears flattened.
His breathing changed.
Then he tried to stand.
His legs failed.
He growled anyway.
Jared became completely still.
“Again.”
“No.”
“Willa—”
“He reacted. Don’t torment him.”
Jared looked at me.
Nobody spoke to him that way.
Apparently I had started a habit.
I reached for Nero’s collar again.
The hidden silver plate had left a slight bulge in the leather.
But there was another uneven section farther back.
“Hold him.”
Jared supported Nero’s head while I carefully opened the stitching.
A tiny plastic object fell into my palm.
A memory card.
Miles whispered, “Jesus.”
We inserted it into the laptop.
One audio file.
Twenty-four minutes long.
Recorded the night Evelyn disappeared.
At first there was only traffic.
Then Evelyn’s voice.
“Nero, stay.”
A man answered.
“You should have left this alone.”
Jared stood so quickly the laptop nearly fell.
He knew the voice.
So did Miles.
I didn’t.
“Who is that?”
Neither man answered.
The recording continued.
Evelyn said:
“If Jared finds out what you did to our father, he’ll destroy you.”
Then the man laughed.
Jared’s face lost all color.
I looked at him.
“Who is it?”
May you like
His answer came like a sentence he didn’t want to say.
“My uncle Dominic.”
