Chapter 5 - THE ORIGINAL NECKLACE WAS A VAULT
Norah barely slept.
At eight in the morning, she was back under the microscope.
The replica’s center ruby was solid synthetic corundum.
Beautiful.
Convincing.
Wrong.
If the original ruby had been hollowed, it required extraordinary craftsmanship.
Elias Varga could have done it.
Sebastian arrived carrying coffee.
Norah eyed it.
“Trying to bribe me?”
“No.”
“Poison me?”
“No.”
“Good.”
She took it.
Progress.
They reconstructed Elena’s likely plan.
Hide financial records in microfilm.
Seal inside a hollow gemstone.
Place back into the necklace.
Wear the evidence openly.
Nobody would search it.
Then move it to federal authorities when safe.
Instead, Elena died.
Isabella took the original.
Elias built the replica.
Salvatore hunted her.
Then silence.
Sebastian asked:
“If Isabella escaped, why never contact me?”
Norah looked at him.
“Maybe she couldn’t.”
He hated that answer.
Luca arrived with information on Adrian Moretti.
Retired cardiologist.
Palm Beach residence.
Still listed as medical consultant for a Romano foundation.
No criminal record.
No scandals.
But seventeen years earlier, he personally signed Elena’s death certificate.
Sebastian looked ready to board a plane immediately.
Norah stopped him.
“You go down there threatening him, he lies.”
“He may lie anyway.”
“Then give him a reason not to.”
“What reason?”
“Make him think you don’t know.”
They called Adrian.
Sebastian played grieving son.
Said new insurance questions had surfaced about Elena’s medical treatment.
Asked whether Adrian still had records.
Adrian’s response came too quickly.
“Those were destroyed years ago.”
Norah wrote on a paper:
ASK ABOUT MIGRAINE MEDICATION.
Sebastian did.
Silence.
Then Adrian said:
“Elena wasn’t taking prescription migraine medicine when she died.”
Julian had said she was.
That contradiction mattered.
Sebastian’s voice remained calm.
“What was she taking?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Interesting.”
Adrian became defensive.
“That was seventeen years ago.”
Sebastian thanked him and hung up.
Norah looked at Luca.
“Find pharmacy records.”
By evening, they had them.
Elena’s prescriptions came from Romano Family Pharmacy Services.
A private account.
One medication bottle had been refilled forty-eight hours before her death.
Prescriber:
Adrian Moretti.
Drug:
Propranolol.
Reasonable for migraines.
But batch records showed the prescription label number corresponded to something else in inventory.
Digoxin.
Potentially dangerous in the wrong dose.
Sebastian stared.
Norah asked:
“Could that kill someone?”
Luca had already called a toxicology consultant.
“Yes.”
Especially if manipulated.
Then another record surfaced.
Adrian ordered no autopsy.
No toxicology.
Immediate cremation.
Sebastian left the room.
Norah followed.
He stood in the hallway with both hands against the wall.
She said nothing.
After a minute:
“I should have known.”
“You were twenty-one.”
“I lived in that house.”
“That doesn’t make you responsible for a murder someone hid from you.”
He turned.
“This family has made an industry out of not knowing.”
Norah understood that sentence more than she wanted.
Then Luca called again.
He had found Adrian’s daughter.
Vivian Moretti.
She worked as a conservator.
Specialty:
Historic gemstones.
Norah went still.
“Where?”
“Chicago.”
“Where exactly?”
Luca looked at her.
“Laurent & Vale.”
Norah knew Vivian.
Everyone in the basement did.
May you like
Vivian had access to the necklace before Norah repaired it.
And according to security logs, Vivian had entered the vault alone the night before Sebastian collected it.
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