Chapter 3 - THE KEY THAT OPENED THE WRONG ROOM
By morning, Alessia had learned three things about Dante Moretti.
He hated being lied to.
He remembered everything.
And when someone used his name without permission, his anger became quieter.
That last discovery frightened her most.
They sat in the study while Rocco explained the security breach.
Dante's private authorization code had disabled the camera.
Only four people possessed that code.
Dante.
Rocco.
Lorenzo Bellini.
And Mrs. Conte.
Alessia looked toward the door.
"So someone inside the household helped him."
Dante nodded.
"Possibly."
"Then why am I still working here?"
He looked surprised.
"Would you prefer to leave?"
"I'd prefer to know whether the person who framed me is going to do something worse."
Dante leaned back.
"That's reasonable."
He placed the folded note on the desk.
ASK ABOUT MARIA.
"My sister died when she was twenty-one," he said.
Alessia sat quietly.
"Her name was Maria Moretti."
"What happened?"
"Officially, an automobile accident."
"Unofficially?"
Dante examined her.
"You ask difficult questions."
"Nobody else seems willing to."
For the first time, he smiled.
Then the expression disappeared.
"Maria was studying architecture. She wanted to convert abandoned industrial buildings into affordable housing."
Alessia listened.
"She discovered irregularities in one of our redevelopment projects."
"Financial irregularities?"
"Missing payments. Contractors receiving money for work they never completed. Families displaced without receiving the compensation they were promised."
Alessia thought of Evelyn Shaw.
They're not numbers. They're people.
"Did she confront Bellini?"
Dante's jaw tightened.
"Yes."
"And then she died?"
He said nothing.
The answer was enough.
---
That afternoon, Alessia returned to her duties.
Dante had offered her paid leave.
She refused.
"I need to know what's happening in this house," she said.
He frowned.
"That's not your responsibility."
"Neither was being accused of theft."
He accepted the point.
But Alessia wasn't returning to work simply because she wanted answers.
She had something she hadn't told him.
The small housekeeping key.
It opened the staff corridors.
The linen room.
The maintenance storage closet.
And one door nobody seemed to remember.
A narrow door behind the east-wing staircase.
Three weeks earlier, Alessia had discovered that the lock was worn.
The key turned halfway.
She had assumed it was an old service entrance.
Now she wondered.
---
At four o'clock, she approached the east wing carrying a basket of towels.
The corridor was empty.
She checked both directions.
Then inserted the key.
It turned.
The door opened.
Inside was a narrow staircase leading downward.
The air smelled of dust and old paint.
Alessia hesitated.
Then descended.
At the bottom stood another door.
Unlike the first, it was unlocked.
She pushed it open.
A small office appeared.
Metal filing cabinets lined the walls.
A desk stood beneath a covered window.
And on the desk lay dozens of envelopes.
Every envelope carried a former employee's name.
Alessia recognized some.
A gardener dismissed in February.
A cook who supposedly moved to Florida.
A chauffeur who vanished after asking about missing overtime payments.
She opened one envelope.
Inside was a signed resignation letter.
But the signature looked wrong.
Alessia knew because she had watched the gardener sign delivery receipts for months.
His handwriting was large and uneven.
The signature on the resignation letter was small and perfectly controlled.
Forged.
She opened another envelope.
Another suspicious signature.
Then another.
Her heart accelerated.
Someone had been manufacturing resignations.
But why?
---
At the back of the office stood a locked cabinet.
A label on its door read:
M.M. — PRIVATE.
Maria Moretti.
Alessia reached toward it.
Then heard footsteps.
She froze.
Someone was descending the stairs.
A woman's voice called out.
"Miss Romano?"
Mrs. Conte.
Alessia looked toward the doorway.
There was nowhere to hide.
The footsteps grew closer.
Then another voice answered.
"She's with me."
Dante.
Alessia nearly collapsed from relief.
He appeared in the doorway beside Mrs. Conte.
His eyes moved over the office.
The letters.
The cabinets.
The dust-covered desk.
Then he looked at Alessia.
"How did you get in here?"
She held up the silver key.
He stared at it.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Dante turned toward Mrs. Conte.
"Why does a housekeeping key open a restricted records room?"
Mrs. Conte's face lost color.
"I don't know."
Dante looked at the envelopes.
"Then perhaps you can explain why my former employees' resignation letters are stored beneath a locked staircase."
Mrs. Conte swallowed.
Alessia stepped closer.
"Mr. Moretti, I think someone has been firing people who discovered something they weren't supposed to see."
Dante looked toward the locked cabinet.
The initials of his dead sister stared back at him.
May you like
And for the first time, Alessia saw him afraid of what he might find.
---
