Chapter 8 - The Locked Boat at Port Washington.
The marina looked ordinary enough to insult everyone involved.
White boats rocked gently against their slips.
A man in a baseball cap washed the deck of a thirty-foot cruiser.
Two teenagers carried a cooler toward a fishing boat.
Sunlight flashed on the water.
Nothing about the morning suggested conspiracy.
That was exactly why Victor liked it.
Lorenzo arrived in a plain black SUV with Marco driving.
Serena sat in the back beside Elena and Mia.
Salvatore followed in another vehicle.
Lorenzo had argued against bringing Mia.
Elena had argued harder against leaving her anywhere she could disappear again.
They compromised by keeping mother and daughter in the SUV with two trusted guards.
"Which boat?" Marco asked.
Serena pointed through the windshield.
"White hull, blue stripe, third dock."
The vessel was registered under Hudson Strategic Holdings.
Victor's name did not appear anywhere.
Of course it did not.
Lorenzo stepped out.
His hearing felt clearer than it had the night before.
Dr. Vale had called twice and insisted that he go to a hospital for full testing.
Lorenzo had promised he would.
Later.
Vale had called him an idiot.
Lorenzo respected him more for it.
Marco and two men moved ahead.
Salvatore approached from the opposite side.
"If my brother has Matteo, I handle Victor."
Lorenzo looked at him.
"You lost the right to define handling when your daughter's engagement contract was rewritten behind your back."
Salvatore's eyes hardened.
"He's my brother."
"Matteo is my cousin."
"Then we both have reasons to keep this controlled."
"Controlled ended last night."
They reached the dock.
Victor's boat was locked.
No movement showed through the tinted windows.
Marco knocked once.
No answer.
He tried the door.
Locked.
Salvatore called Victor again.
A phone rang inside the cabin.
Everyone heard it.
No one answered.
Marco looked at Lorenzo.
Lorenzo nodded.
The lock was forced.
The cabin was empty.
A cup of coffee sat on the table, still warm.
Matteo's photograph had been taken there.
The metal shelf from the image stood against the rear wall.
The Duca and Romano wine crates remained beneath it.
Matteo was gone.
So was Victor.
Serena entered behind them despite being told to stay outside.
"He was here."
Lorenzo gave her a look.
"Apparently obedience is not a Romano family strength."
"You weren't going to stop me."
He did not deny it.
Marco opened the first wine crate.
It contained bottles from the Duca cellar.
The labels looked authentic.
The second crate contained empty bottles.
Each had been washed clean.
The third crate held files.
Medical invoices.
Trust documents.
Copies of Lorenzo's travel schedule.
A list of dates stretching back four months.
Serena leaned over the page.
"Those are nights I stayed at the estate."
Lorenzo saw it immediately.
Each date corresponded to an evening when Serena had prepared a drink for him.
A handwritten mark appeared beside several dates.
S.
Another mark appeared beside others.
C.
Serena touched the letters.
"S is me."
"C is Celeste," Marco said.
Lorenzo studied the pattern.
On nights marked S, he remembered mild ringing.
On nights marked C, the symptoms had been worse.
A third mark appeared only twice.
H.
Hart.
Lorenzo's stomach tightened.
The boat suddenly felt too small.
"They tracked every exposure."
Serena looked sick.
"Like an experiment."
Marco opened another file.
Inside were audiology reports that Lorenzo had never seen.
His real test results showed the problem fluctuating dramatically.
The reports Hart had given Lorenzo had been altered to make the decline appear natural.
"He knew," Lorenzo said.
"Hart knew from the beginning."
Salvatore stood unusually quiet near the window.
Lorenzo watched him.
"You knew Victor was moving money."
"Yes."
"Did you know he was paying Hart?"
"No."
"Celeste?"
"No."
"Anything useful?"
Salvatore's jaw tightened.
"I know my brother."
"Apparently not."
"Victor does nothing without leverage."
"Meaning?"
"If he involved Serena, he has something on her."
Serena snapped around.
"He didn't force me to use the drops."
"Then why did you?"
"Because Hart told me Lorenzo needed them."
Salvatore looked at her with something close to pity.
"And why did Hart contact you instead of Lorenzo?"
Serena opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
Salvatore answered for her.
"Because Victor knew exactly which fear to use."
Lorenzo looked between them.
"What fear?"
Serena turned toward the window.
"That you would become like your father."
The words hit Lorenzo harder than he expected.
His father, Carlo Duca, had spent the last two years of his life paranoid, sleepless, and increasingly unable to trust anyone.
He had mistaken loyal men for enemies.
He had accused his own brother of theft.
He had once locked himself in his study for three days because he believed someone had replaced his medication.
Lorenzo had been twenty-seven when Carlo died.
He still remembered the final months with a clarity he preferred not to visit.
"What does my father have to do with this?"
Serena looked at him.
"Hart told me your symptoms were early signs of the same neurological condition."
Lorenzo became still.
"My father did not have a neurological condition."
"That's not what Hart said."
"My father's autopsy showed vascular disease and exhaustion."
"Hart said the report was incomplete."
Lorenzo laughed once.
It contained no humor.
"And you believed him."
"I was afraid."
"So you secretly gave me something because you were afraid I might become paranoid."
Serena looked away.
The cruelty of the irony did not need explanation.
Marco opened a desk drawer.
Inside was a digital recorder.
He pressed play.
Victor's voice filled the cabin.
"If Serena hesitates, remind her what happened to Carlo."
A second voice answered.
Hart.
"And if she asks what's in the bottle?"
"Tell her it's preventative."
"She may ask for the name."
"Then give her one she cannot verify."
Serena closed her eyes.
Hart continued.
"The lower dose won't create enough decline."
Victor answered.
"That's what Celeste is for."
Silence consumed the cabin.
Lorenzo felt Serena look at him.
He could not look back yet.
Marco stopped the recorder.
"There's more."
"Play it."
Victor's voice returned.
"By the wedding, he only needs to appear unstable enough that the board can act."
Hart laughed nervously.
"You make it sound simple."
"Everything is simple once the paperwork is signed."
The recording ended.
Salvatore sat down heavily.
He looked ten years older.
"My brother planned to take both families."
Lorenzo stared at the files.
"Not both families."
"What?"
"Control."
He tapped section nine.
"He wanted control without sitting in my chair."
A thud sounded beneath the cabin floor.
Everyone froze.
Another thud.
Marco drew his weapon but kept it pointed down.
He opened a narrow hatch.
Matteo Duca looked up from the storage compartment.
His wrists were bound loosely with plastic ties.
His face was bruised but alert.
"Took you long enough."
Lorenzo helped him up.
"Where's Victor?"
Matteo rubbed his wrists.
"Gone."
"How long?"
"Ten minutes before you arrived."
"With whom?"
Matteo looked at Salvatore.
Then at Serena.
"Celeste."
"Where?"
"Back to the Duca estate."
Lorenzo's face hardened.
"Why would they go back there?"
Matteo stared at him.
"Because Victor said the only thing he still needed was in your father's study."
Lorenzo stopped breathing for a beat.
Carlo Duca's study had been sealed since his death.
May you like
Only Lorenzo had the key.
At least that was what he had always believed.
