Chapter 2 - THE TAILOR WHO LEFT A WARNING
Dominic ordered everyone except Beatrice and Leo out of the penthouse.
Then he called his physician.
Beatrice stopped him.
“Not the doctor who has treated you for ten years.”
Dominic stared.
“Why?”
“Because if your symptoms were being caused or aggravated deliberately, someone may have been giving him false information. Or he may know more than he's told you.”
His expression hardened.
“Dr. Julian Mercer has treated my family for twenty years.”
“That doesn't make him guilty.”
“Then why shouldn't I call him?”
“Because it doesn't make him innocent either.”
Leo looked offended.
Dominic, however, seemed to consider the distinction.
He placed the phone down.
“What do you need?”
“A clean container for the sample, photographs of the stitching, and an independent laboratory.”
“You were a tailor four hours ago.”
“I still am.”
Beatrice folded the mesh carefully.
“But my father was a materials scientist.”
Dominic narrowed his eyes.
“Name?”
“Dr. Samuel Whitcomb.”
Leo looked up sharply.
Dominic noticed.
“You know him?”
Leo hesitated.
“The scientist who disappeared after the West Harbor explosion?”
Beatrice's hands stopped moving.
“My father didn't disappear after the explosion.”
She looked at both men.
“He disappeared six days before it.”
Dominic stared.
The West Harbor explosion had killed fourteen dockworkers a decade earlier.
It had also killed Dominic's younger brother, Anthony.
That tragedy marked the beginning of his headaches.
And the beginning of a brutal conflict between the Russo family and its rivals.
Beatrice continued.
“My father was investigating materials used in industrial monitoring equipment. He believed someone had falsified safety reports at the harbor.”
Dominic's jaw tightened.
“What does that have to do with my jacket?”
“I don't know yet.”
She showed him the embroidered circles.
“But he used to draw this symbol in his notebooks. He called it the Three Rings.”
Dominic looked at Leo.
“Find everything we have on Whitcomb.”
Leo nodded.
Then Dominic turned toward Beatrice.
“Why did you take over Matteo's shop?”
She hesitated.
“Because he left it to me.”
“Why?”
“He was my father's friend.”
Dominic studied her.
“Matteo never mentioned you.”
“Perhaps he had a reason.”
For a moment, the room was quiet.
Then Dominic's phone rang.
The screen displayed DR. MERCER.
Beatrice felt cold.
Dominic answered without speaking.
Mercer's voice filled the room.
“Dominic, I heard you had a difficult afternoon. Are the headaches worse?”
Dominic looked at Beatrice.
“How did you hear that?”
A pause.
“Your staff called.”
Dominic's eyes moved toward Leo.
Leo shook his head.
Mercer continued.
“I can come over immediately.”
“No need.”
“Dominic, I insist.”
“I said no.”
He ended the call.
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Then Beatrice whispered:
“Someone told him.”
Dominic looked at the jacket.
For ten years, he had believed his pain was punishment for surviving the explosion that killed his brother.
Now he was beginning to wonder whether the pain had been arranged.
He turned toward Leo.
“Find out who called Mercer.”
Leo nodded.
“And Beatrice?”
She looked up.
Dominic's voice became quiet.
“You're not going back to that shop alone.”
Her expression hardened.
“I didn't ask for protection.”
“No.”
He looked at the copper mesh.
“But whoever put that in my collar may already know you found it.”
Beatrice glanced toward the windows.
May you like
For the first time, the penthouse seemed less like a fortress.
And more like a beautifully furnished trap.
