Chapter 4
I didn't charge at him.
There were only two exits from the refrigerated area. He was closer to the service elevator and might be armed. I ran for the red lever on the wall and pulled the fire alarm.
The bells went off at once. The service elevator stopped and its doors sprang open. The man cursed, abandoned the body bag, and ran for the emergency stairs.
I hit the internal lockdown button and called security from the hallway phone. By the time anyone reached me, he'd escaped through the loading dock. He left behind a uniform stolen from a locker and a forged transport order.
Vivian's remains were still there.
The rib sample in the safe hadn't been found.
Police sealed off the basement. The security cameras had lost their feed ten minutes before the outage. A guard said someone used my supervisor's access card to open a side door, though my supervisor was at a conference out of state.
Everything had been carefully arranged. Yet whoever did it hadn't quite managed to take the body.
It felt like a warning.
My phone rang while I gave the detective my statement in the hall.
Dario.
The detective nodded for me to answer and put the call on speaker.
"Your man failed," I said.
"If he were mine, the body would be gone."
"You expect me to believe that?"
"No. I want you to believe I'm not the only one who wants those remains to disappear."
There was a soft clink, a glass being set down. Wherever he was, it was quiet. I could almost hear a piano.
"My brother knows the remains were found," he said. "So do a few older members of the family who'd rather leave the past buried. If you won't agree to my terms, they'll handle it themselves."
"Including my family?"
He paused. "If you work with me, I can keep them safe."
"You had people watch my daughter. And you call that protection?"
"At least my people only take pictures."
The detective wrote a note and held it up: ask where to meet.
"I want to know what happened that night," I said. "All of it, not the parts you decide to tell me."
"Will you change the report?"
"I want the truth first."
Dario chuckled. "Seventeen years have improved your negotiating skills."
"Meet me tonight."
"Tomorrow night."
"I won't wait another day for you."
Silence.
"I'll send you an address," he said at last. "Come alone. Don't let me find any cops."
After the call, the detective objected. They could monitor me and put officers nearby, but he wouldn't let me walk unprepared onto private Bellandi property.
"He's approached my daughter twice, and someone tried to steal Vivian's remains," I said. "Sitting here won't turn the next threat into evidence."
"You're not a police officer."
"I'm the only person he'll talk to."
He couldn't deny it.
When Graham arrived, the basement was still in chaos. He crossed the police line and pulled me against him. His hand pressed so hard against the back of my head it almost hurt.
"Where's Sophie?" I asked.
"My sister took her somewhere Dario doesn't know about."
"He knew what time school ended."
"Then we'll move her again." He let go of me, worry giving way to anger. "Did you agree to meet him?"
I didn't answer.
"Audrey."
"It's the quickest way to get him talking."
"It's the quickest way for him to take you away."
"The police will be close."
"His family got a man with forged papers into this building. You think they won't notice a few police cars parked down the road?"
People were all around us. Graham lowered his voice, though he couldn't keep the fear out of it.
"You're not examining a body this time. You're going back to the man who abandoned you seventeen years ago."
"I know what I'm doing."
"I don't." He looked at me. "Until yesterday, I didn't even know why you cried every May fourteenth."
I had no answer to that.
The birthday decorations were still up when we got home. Twelve unlit candles lay beside the cake. The slice Dario had cut had dried out.
Graham threw it and the rest of the cake in the trash.
"If you have to go, I'm coming with you," he said.
"He won't talk."
"Then don't go."
"Vivian waited underground for seventeen years."
"You're my wife." His voice roughened. "Sophie asked me today if you were going to disappear like that woman. I didn't know what to tell her."
I went to him and held him.
"I won't disappear."
"You can't promise that."
"Then we have to make Dario think there's trouble between us."
Graham eased back. "What do you mean?"
"He's been testing me all night. He brings up the things that mattered most to me back then to see if he can still get to me. If he thinks I'm angry with you for keeping things from me, afraid you won't understand me, and still in need of him, he may let his guard down."
"You want him to believe our marriage is falling apart."
"I want him to see it." I slipped off my wedding band and put it in Graham's palm.
His face looked worse than it had in the basement.
"It's an act," I said.
"I know."
But his knuckles went white around the ring.
I texted Dario from my phone.
You owe me seventeen years of truth. Tell me tonight and I'll change the report.
Less than a minute later, he sent an address by the lake. Then a photograph appeared.
An old engagement ring I'd assumed was long gone lay in a black velvet box.
Another text followed.
Remember this ring?