Chapter 2 - The Locked Dining Room.
Marcus crossed the dining room in four long steps and looked up at the dead camera.
“That camera was online twenty minutes ago,” he said.
Lorenzo remained beside Mia.
“Who can shut it off?”
Marcus looked at Celeste, then back at Lorenzo.
“Me, you, and anyone with the estate administrator code.”
“How many people have that code?”
“Three.”
Lorenzo’s eyes hardened.
“Name them.”
Marcus drew a slow breath.
“You.”
“Obviously.”
“Me.”
“And?”
Marcus hesitated again.
“Your brother.”
Celeste suddenly moved toward the table.
Lorenzo caught her wrist before she reached the wine glass.
Her eyes widened.
“I was going to move it away from Mia.”
“No, you weren’t.”
He released her and stepped between her and the table.
“Marcus, bring me a clean evidence bag.”
Celeste laughed nervously.
“This is your home, Lorenzo, not a police station.”
“It became a crime scene the moment you admitted putting something in my drink.”
Her mouth tightened.
“I didn’t say it was poison.”
“You said it wasn’t dangerous.”
“That is not the same thing.”
“Then tell me what it was.”
Celeste looked toward Mia.
The little girl was hugging Lorenzo’s leg now.
“I was trying to calm you down.”
Lorenzo stared at her.
“You secretly medicated me?”
“You’ve barely slept in weeks.”
“So you put medicine in my wine without asking me?”
Celeste’s confidence cracked.
“I knew you would refuse.”
Lorenzo stepped closer.
“That explanation should insult you more than it insults me.”
Marcus returned with an evidence pouch and nitrile gloves from the estate medical cabinet.
He carefully sealed the crystal glass inside.
Lorenzo watched every movement.
“Call Dr. Evelyn Grant,” Lorenzo said.
“Have her come here with a field test kit.”
Celeste’s eyes widened again.
“That isn’t necessary.”
“It is now.”
She turned toward Lorenzo.
“If this becomes public, people will twist it.”
“People cannot twist the truth unless you give them something crooked to hold.”
Celeste’s lips parted, but no words came.
Mia suddenly tugged on Marcus’s jacket.
He crouched.
“What is it, sweetheart?”
Mia pointed toward the long velvet curtain beside the doorway.
“There.”
Marcus pulled the curtain aside.
Nothing stood behind it.
Celeste exhaled with visible relief.
Then Mia shook her head.
“Not now.”
Lorenzo’s eyes returned to his daughter.
“When?”
“When the lady touched Daddy’s cup.”
Celeste closed her eyes.
Mia pointed to the narrow service passage concealed beyond the curtain.
“A man was there.”
Marcus looked at Lorenzo.
The service passage led directly toward the private study and the western staircase.
It also avoided every main hallway camera.
Lorenzo crouched beside Mia.
“Did you see his face?”
Mia frowned as if trying very hard to remember.
“No.”
Celeste’s shoulders loosened.
Then Mia added something else.
“He had Daddy’s ring.”
Lorenzo looked at his own hand.
A heavy black signet ring sat on his right index finger.
Only one other man in the DeLuca family wore the same crest.
His older brother, Adrian.
Lorenzo slowly stood.
Marcus’s phone vibrated.
He looked at the screen and went pale.
“What?” Lorenzo demanded.
Marcus turned the phone around.
The estate gate camera showed a black sedan entering the property.
The driver was Adrian DeLuca.
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The timestamp read 11:47 p.m.
Adrian had told Lorenzo he was in New York until morning.
