Chapter 9 - The Sixth Dog
Nobody moved.
Victor’s expression did not change.
That made Grace more nervous.
Luca stood.
“Victor.”
The security chief looked at the screen.
Then at Luca.
“You think it’s me.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t need to.”
Grace watched both men.
Victor had served Luca for twenty-two years.
He had protected the estate.
Managed the cameras.
Controlled access.
Possessed the technical capability to conceal movement.
But twenty-two years ago he would have been a junior employee, not a financial mastermind.
Grace asked, “Did you know Samuel?”
Victor looked at her.
“Yes.”
“How well?”
“Well enough.”
“That is not an answer.”
Victor removed his radio.
Placed it on the table.
Then his security badge.
Luca’s expression hardened.
“What are you doing?”
“If my presence compromises your judgment, I resign until this is resolved.”
Luca stared.
“Sit down.”
“Sir—”
“Sit.”
Victor obeyed.
Grace replayed Samuel’s line mentally.
Luca has trusted him with his life for more than twenty years.
Him.
A man.
Inside the house.
But perhaps Samuel had not meant Victor.
“Who else?” Grace asked.
Luca looked at her.
“Who else has been here twenty years?”
Teresa answered from behind them.
“Many.”
“Someone Luca trusts with his life.”
Teresa frowned.
“Dr. Warren.”
Luca looked toward her.
Grace asked, “Who?”
“My family physician.”
“Lives here?”
“No.”
“Inside Moretti House doesn’t necessarily mean lives here.”
Vincent spoke.
“Carlo Benedetti.”
Luca’s face changed.
Grace noticed.
“Who is Carlo?”
“My father’s closest friend.”
“Still around?”
“He chairs the Moretti foundation.”
“Twenty years?”
“Thirty-eight.”
Vincent nodded slowly.
“Antonio trusted Carlo more than he trusted me.”
Grace looked at Samuel on the frozen screen.
“We are treating Dad’s sentence like a direct accusation. Maybe it wasn’t.”
Luca sat.
“What else could it mean?”
“He said the person was inside the house. Maybe he meant the organization.”
Victor nodded.
“And trusted with his life could refer to medical, financial or security roles.”
Vincent said, “Marcus Hale handled insurance.”
Grace looked at him.
“Life insurance?”
“Among other things.”
Another possibility.
Too many.
Victor’s phone rang.
He glanced at it.
“Security control.”
Luca gestured.
“Answer.”
Victor listened.
His expression changed.
“What?”
He stood.
“One of the dogs is missing.”
Grace immediately looked down.
Titan remained beside her.
“Which?”
“Bruno.”
The sixth dog.
The youngest?
No.
Grace remembered Bruno from the courtyard.
Gray around the muzzle.
Large.
Quiet.
He had remained farther back than Titan.
“How?”
Victor grabbed his radio.
“The kennel handler says five dogs returned after evening exercise.”
“Where was Bruno last seen?”
“West garden.”
Grace stood.
Titan stood with her.
Victor began issuing instructions.
Luca said, “Grace stays here.”
Grace stared.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“You really haven’t learned much about me.”
“There may be someone moving through the grounds.”
“Which is exactly why the dog may matter.”
Titan moved toward the hallway.
Grace followed.
Luca cursed quietly and followed her.
Searchlights swept the gardens.
Handlers called Bruno’s name.
No response.
The Moretti estate sprawled across dozens of acres.
Formal gardens.
Guest houses.
Garages.
An old chapel.
Wooded trails.
Grace had seen only a fraction.
Titan moved with purpose.
She held a flashlight but let him lead.
Victor followed several yards behind.
Luca beside him.
Vincent had been ordered to remain indoors.
Grace noticed Titan occasionally lowered his nose to the ground.
“Is he tracking Bruno?”
Victor nodded.
“Looks like it.”
They crossed a hedge.
Reached an unused service road.
Titan stopped.
A torn piece of cloth hung from a branch.
Victor examined it.
Dark blue.
Uniform fabric.
“Security?”
“Yes.”
“Whose?”
“No identifier.”
Titan continued.
The trail ended beside an abandoned greenhouse.
Its glass walls were cracked.
The door stood slightly open.
Grace’s skin prickled.
Luca moved ahead.
Victor stopped him.
“I go first.”
The moment was strange after Samuel’s accusation.
Luca looked at him.
Then nodded.
Victor entered.
Nothing.
Grace followed despite Luca’s disapproval.
Inside, vines had overtaken old tables.
Broken pots covered the floor.
Titan moved toward the back.
Then Grace heard breathing.
“Bruno?”
A soft whine.
They found the dog behind a collapsed bench.
Alive.
Unhurt.
But trapped by a loop of rope attached to an old pipe.
Grace knelt.
“Easy.”
Bruno’s tail moved.
Victor inspected the rope.
“This was deliberate.”
“Someone tied him?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Titan began scratching near the wall.
Grace looked.
A section of brick appeared cleaner.
Something had recently been removed.
Victor shone his flashlight.
A rectangular outline.
Luca said, “There was a safe here.”
Grace looked at Bruno.
“He didn’t wander here. Somebody brought him.”
Victor nodded.
“Perhaps to find this.”
“Like Dad trained them.”
Grace’s heart quickened.
The sixth dog had been used as a guide.
Someone knew Samuel’s methods.
Someone had brought Bruno to another hiding place.
Luca searched the floor.
“Too late.”
Victor pointed.
Tire tracks behind the greenhouse.
Fresh.
Grace freed Bruno.
The old dog immediately crossed to a corner.
He sniffed.
Then picked something up.
A black object.
Grace removed it gently from his mouth.
A phone.
Cheap prepaid model.
Victor put on gloves.
The screen remained lit.
One message.
FOUND IT. MOVING TO SECOND LOCATION.
Sent twenty-three minutes earlier.
Recipient unidentified.
Luca looked toward the tire tracks.
“Lock the gates.”
Victor radioed orders.
Seconds later came the reply.
“West service gate opened at 7:44.”
“By whom?”
“Authorized badge.”
Victor waited.
Then looked toward Luca.
“Carlo Benedetti.”
Grace remembered the name.
Antonio’s closest friend.
Chairman of the family foundation.
Trusted for decades.
“Where is Carlo?”
Luca’s expression darkened.
“He was supposed to be in New York.”
Victor checked.
“His driver entered the estate at seven twenty.”
“Why wasn’t I informed?”
“Routine clearance.”
Grace’s heart raced.
“What was in the greenhouse safe?”
Luca looked around.
“I didn’t know it existed.”
Bruno suddenly nudged Grace.
Something remained caught beneath his collar.
A tiny folded strip of paper.
Grace pulled it free.
Freshly placed.
She opened it.
Three words.
ASK THE COOK.
Grace stared.
“Me?”
Luca took the paper.
“Maybe not you.”
Grace looked toward the mansion.
“The cook twelve years ago.”
Teresa.
They hurried back.
Teresa waited in the kitchen, visibly shaken.
Grace placed the note before her.
“Do you know what this means?”
Teresa read it.
Her hands began trembling.
“Yes.”
“What?”
She looked toward the old ovens.
“Samuel once asked me to hide something.”
Grace’s pulse quickened.
“Where?”
“I never knew what it was.”
“How can you hide something without knowing?”
“He brought a sealed metal container.”
“When?”
“The night before he disappeared.”
“Where did you put it?”
Teresa looked toward the wall.
“The old bread oven.”
Grace stared.
The kitchen had been remodeled.
“Where is it now?”
“Behind the new range.”
Within minutes maintenance workers pulled the commercial range away.
An old brick cavity appeared.
Inside sat a metal cylinder.
Untouched.
Grace’s brass key did not fit.
Teresa whispered, “Samuel gave me another key.”
“Where is it?”
She reached beneath her necklace.
A tiny silver key hung there.
For twelve years.
The cylinder opened.
Inside was no ledger.
No money.
Only a stack of photographs.
Grace examined the first.
Carlo Benedetti entering the north kennel at 1:13 a.m.
Second.
Carlo meeting Evan Mercer.
Third.
Carlo handing Marcus Hale an envelope.
Fourth.
Carlo standing beside Samuel’s burned truck—
the night before authorities supposedly discovered it.
Luca’s face drained.
On the back of the final photograph, Samuel had written:
Carlo knows the fire is fake.
Below that:
If I disappear twice, he found me.
Grace stared at the words.
Twice.
Samuel had disappeared once twelve years ago.
Then Helen saw him six years later.
After that, nothing.
Grace suddenly understood.
Her father’s second disappearance had happened six years ago.
May you like
And Carlo Benedetti might know exactly why.
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