Chapter 7 - The Message Clara’s Mother Left Behind
“My mother knew you.”
Clara’s words echoed through the empty hospital room.
Rico shook his head.
“I never met Rebecca Vance.”
“Then why would she leave you a warning?”
Dante searched the room while Clara examined the note.
The handwriting was Rebecca’s. Clara had seen it on birthday cards, grocery lists, and school permission slips for twenty-four years.
Her mother had written this.
There was no question.
Rico looked toward Leo.
“How did Elena get this?”
Leo could not explain.
Then Dante discovered a camera mounted behind a ventilation panel.
“Someone’s been watching this room.”
Rico’s eyes sharpened.
“Can you pull the footage?”
Dante removed the memory card.
Minutes later they watched the recordings on his laptop.
For several days the room appeared ordinary.
Nurses entered.
A doctor checked equipment.
Then footage from the previous night appeared.
A wheelchair entered the frame.
Clara gripped the edge of the desk.
Elena Moretti was alive.
Thin.
Pale.
But unquestionably alive.
Rico stopped breathing.
Elena looked directly toward the hidden camera as if she knew it existed.
A nurse leaned down.
Elena slipped something into the nurse’s pocket.
The nurse turned.
Clara gasped.
It was Mrs. Bell.
The woman from Il Destino.
Seconds later another man entered.
Salvatore Moretti.
Rico’s face became stone.
On-screen, Salvatore leaned toward Elena.
They could not hear the conversation.
But Elena’s reaction was obvious.
Fear.
Then she pointed desperately toward the camera.
Toward Rico.
Salvatore noticed.
He walked directly toward the lens.
Before the recording ended, he held up a handwritten sign.
Rico paused the video.
The message contained one sentence:
IF RICO FINDS HER, LEO DIES.
Leo could not read the words.
Clara silently pulled him into her arms.
Rico stared at his uncle’s face.
Then Dante’s phone rang.
He answered.
His expression immediately changed.
“What?”
He listened.
Then looked at Rico.
“Boss, somebody just entered your house.”
Rico stood.
“Who?”
Dante swallowed.
“According to the security camera…”
May you like
He turned the screen around.
Elena Moretti was standing inside Rico’s living room.
