Chapter 2 - The Clock in the Locker
Pino moved before anybody else understood what was happening.
One second Renata’s hand was inside her apron pocket.
The next, the Doberman stood between her and Isabella.
His body went rigid.
A warning growl filled the foyer.
Renata froze.
My security officers reacted instantly.
“Hands where we can see them,” Marco said.
Renata’s face tightened.
“I was only reaching for my phone.”
“Then take it out slowly,” I said.
She did.
It was a phone.
Nothing more.
But fear had already betrayed her.
Maria barely noticed.
She crossed the foyer and reached for Isabella.
“My baby.”
I handed the child to her.
Isabella wrapped both arms around her mother’s neck.
“I’m sorry,” Maria whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
“You didn’t do it,” Isabella cried. “I told him.”
Maria’s eyes lifted to mine.
Humiliation mixed with terror.
“Mr. Duca, I can explain.”
“That’s exactly what you’re going to do.”
Renata stepped forward.
“Sir, the evidence is very clear.”
I turned toward her.
“You will speak when I ask you to.”
She stopped.
I looked at Marco.
“Lock down the staff entrances.”
“They already are.”
“Nobody leaves.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Pull every camera covering my study, the north corridor, staff lockers, laundry rooms, and service hallways from midnight until now.”
Renata shifted.
“There is a camera problem in the service corridor.”
I looked at her.
“How convenient.”
“It stopped working yesterday.”
“Who reported it?”
“I did.”
“Who has access to the security maintenance system?”
She hesitated.
“Several senior staff.”
“Names.”
“Me. Mr. Bell. Sofia in administration. Security.”
Marco spoke from behind her.
“The camera wasn’t broken.”
Renata turned.
“What?”
Marco held up his phone.
“I checked the maintenance logs ten minutes ago. Someone manually disabled it at 6:42 this morning.”
The foyer went silent.
I watched Renata.
She looked genuinely surprised.
Maybe.
Or maybe she was good.
“Who disabled it?” I asked.
Marco frowned.
“The login was registered under Maria Santos.”
Maria’s mouth fell open.
“No.”
Renata exhaled.
“There. You see?”
Maria shook her head violently.
“I didn’t touch anything.”
Marco continued.
“There’s another problem.”
“What?”
“Maria’s employee access doesn’t have permission to disable cameras.”
I looked at Renata.
Her expression changed.
Marco turned his phone.
“The system says her login was temporarily granted senior permissions at 6:39.”
“By whom?”
“Administrative override.”
I did not need to ask who had access.
Renata did.
So did two others.
But the circle was getting smaller.
Maria clutched Isabella.
“I came to work at seven.”
Marco nodded.
“Her entry card confirms 7:04.”
That mattered.
The camera was disabled twenty-two minutes before Maria entered the estate.
Renata’s confidence weakened.
“She could have given someone her credentials.”
Maria stared at her.
“I don’t even know my security password. Administration entered it for me when the system was installed.”
That was plausible.
Many staff never manually logged in.
I looked at Marco.
“Get Sofia.”
He nodded.
Renata crossed her arms.
“Mr. Duca, with respect, this feels unnecessary. The clock was physically found in Maria’s locker.”
“By whom?”
Renata’s lips tightened.
“Me.”
“And who opened the locker?”
“I did.”
“Alone?”
“No. Two staff members were present.”
“Who suggested searching lockers?”
“I did.”
“Who knew the clock was missing?”
“I discovered that as well.”
A pattern.
I glanced toward Maria.
“Tell me your morning from the moment you arrived.”
Her voice shook.
“I came through the staff entrance at seven-four. I changed shoes. I went to the breakfast room because Mrs. Duca’s flowers needed replacing.”
“My mother is in Florence.”
Maria blinked.
“Yes, sir. But Renata told me to prepare the room anyway.”
Renata interrupted.
“That is normal procedure.”
I raised one hand.
Maria continued.
“Then I cleaned the upstairs guest corridor. At eight-thirty, Renata told everyone a valuable item had disappeared.”
“Did you enter my study?”
“No.”
“Have you ever entered my study?”
“Twice. Both times with Renata.”
“Why?”
“Once to clean after a dinner. Once to polish the bookcases.”
“Were you alone?”
“No.”
“Where was Isabella?”
Maria’s cheeks colored.
“In the staff cottage with my sister this morning. My sister had an appointment and brought her here around eleven.”
That explained why the child was on the property.
“Why was Isabella near the service bins?”
Maria’s eyes filled.
“I don’t know. I was being questioned in the laundry room. I thought she was with my sister.”
Isabella whispered into her neck.
“Miss Renata told me Mommy was going to jail.”
Maria looked at Renata.
“What?”
Renata shook her head.
“She misunderstood.”
“She told me to hide,” Isabella said.
Everyone looked at her.
I crouched until we were at eye level.
“Isabella, look at me.”
She did.
“Did Miss Renata tell you to hide behind the bins?”
The child nodded.
“Why?”
“She said men were coming to take Mommy.”
Renata’s voice sharpened.
“That is absurd.”
Pino growled.
Renata went silent.
I kept my attention on Isabella.
“What exactly did she say?”
The little girl squeezed her rabbit.
“She said, ‘If you don’t want to see your mommy taken away, go outside and don’t come back until it’s dark.’”
Maria’s knees nearly gave out.
One of the security officers caught her elbow.
I stood.
That was no misunderstanding.
It was deliberate.
“Renata,” I said.
She looked at me.
“You frightened a child into hiding outside.”
“I did no such thing.”
“Then why would she say that?”
“Children imagine things.”
Pino moved beside Isabella and sat.
I looked down at him.
Then back at Renata.
“My dog disagrees.”
It was an irrational statement.
But it unsettled her.
Good.
A woman hurried into the foyer.
Sofia Marchetti, estate administrator.
“Mr. Duca?”
“Who granted senior security permissions to Maria’s account?”
Sofia looked confused.
“Nobody should have.”
“Check.”
“I can do that.”
“Now.”
She opened her laptop at a side table.
Renata remained motionless.
I began considering motive.
Framing a junior housekeeper was crude.
Too crude for theft at this level.
If Renata wanted the clock, why hide it in Maria’s locker and then make sure it was found?
Unless she never intended to keep the clock.
Unless the clock was evidence.
A distraction.
“What else happened this morning?” I asked.
Maria looked confused.
“Sir?”
“Anything unusual. Anybody arriving. Anybody entering restricted areas. Any arguments.”
She thought.
“Mr. Morelli’s assistant came early.”
I turned.
“Which assistant?”
“A man named Alessio.”
I knew him.
Carlo Morelli’s legal secretary.
“What time?”
“Around six-thirty.”
My stomach tightened.
Before Maria had arrived.
Before the camera was disabled.
Before the clock disappeared.
“Why was he here?”
Renata answered quickly.
“He brought documents for the marriage meeting.”
I looked toward the east wing.
The contracts.
Family names.
Marriage.
Suddenly the timing mattered.
“Where did Alessio go?”
“To the east wing.”
“Only the east wing?”
Renata hesitated.
“I assume so.”
“You assume?”
“I was managing breakfast service.”
Sofia spoke.
“Mr. Duca.”
I turned.
She was staring at her screen.
“What?”
“I found the permission change.”
“Who authorized it?”
Her expression hardened.
“The administrative token belongs to Renata.”
Maria gasped.
Renata’s face went pale.
“That’s impossible.”
Sofia rotated the laptop.
“Your security key authenticated at 6:39.”
“My key was in my office.”
“Who has access to your office?”
“Nobody.”
I stepped closer.
“Then either you changed Maria’s permissions, or somebody stole your key.”
Renata said nothing.
I looked at Marco.
“Search Renata’s office.”
Her head snapped toward me.
“You cannot seriously believe—”
“I can seriously believe anything until I know the truth.”
“You’ve known me twelve years.”
“And Maria eight months.”
“Exactly.”
“That does not make you innocent.”
Renata stared at me.
For the first time, anger broke through her careful professionalism.
“You’re taking the word of a child and a dog over mine?”
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“I’m taking timestamps over yours.”
Her jaw tightened.
Marco left with another guard.
The rest of us waited.
Isabella had stopped crying.
She watched Pino, stroking the smooth fur between his ears.
The dog seemed calmer with her hand there.
Five minutes passed.
Then ten.
My uncle appeared from the east wing.
“Lorenzo, Carlo is furious.”
“So am I.”
“This meeting—”
“Can wait.”
“For what?”
I looked at him.
“A crime.”
His expression changed.
“What crime?”
Before I could answer, Marco returned.
He carried a clear evidence bag.
Inside was a small black security token.
Renata’s.
And beside it was something else.
A second object.
A tiny screwdriver.
Marco looked at me.
“We found these in her desk.”
Renata exhaled.
“That proves nothing.”
Marco’s expression was grim.
“There’s more.”
“What?”
He handed me a folded sheet of paper.
It was a printout.
A floor plan of my private study.
Several locations had been circled.
The wall safe.
The painting above it.
The camera angle.
And a note written by hand.
6:40. Camera dark. Seven minutes maximum.
I looked up at Renata.
Her face was no longer pale.
It had become completely still.
I knew that look.
People wore it when the lie they had prepared was suddenly not enough.
My uncle stepped closer.
“What the hell is going on?”
I showed him the floor plan.
His eyes widened.
Renata finally spoke.
“I’ve never seen that paper before.”
“It was in your locked desk.”
“Someone planted it.”
I almost laughed.
“So now you are being framed too?”
She met my gaze.
“Yes.”
That answer changed everything.
Because if she was telling the truth, then whoever framed Maria had also prepared to frame Renata.
And if she was lying, she was more dangerous than I had thought.
Then Sofia said quietly, “There’s one more thing.”
I turned.
She was looking at her laptop.
“The access log for your study shows the door opened at 6:47 this morning.”
“With whose credentials?”
She swallowed.
“Yours.”
Nobody spoke.
I had been across town at 6:47.
My access card had been in my wallet.
Which meant somebody had cloned my credentials.
The clock had not simply been stolen.
Someone had breached my private study using my identity.
And whoever had done it had arrived at my estate before sunrise.
I looked toward the east wing.
At the men waiting beside the marriage contracts.
At the alliance I had been pressured to accept.
At the future somebody was trying to force me into.
Then my phone vibrated.
A message from Marco’s deputy.
Only six words.
Sir, your wall safe is open.
I read it twice.
The clock suddenly meant nothing.
Because inside that safe were documents worth far more than gold.
And one of them could destroy the Duca family.
I handed Isabella gently back to Maria.
“Stay here.”
Then I looked at my security team.
“Seal the house.”
My uncle stared at me.
“What was in that safe?”
I looked toward the staircase.
“The reason somebody needed Maria to take the blame.”
And as I climbed toward my study, I finally understood that the frightened little girl behind my trash cans had not stumbled into a simple theft.
May you like
She had accidentally exposed the beginning of a conspiracy.
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