Chapter 6 - The Second Verse
They did not go directly to the house.
Landon insisted on changing vehicles twice after leaving Palermo.
Serena complained that it was unnecessary.
Dominic disagreed.
That made two people in the car who enjoyed irritating her.
By late afternoon they reached Cefalù.
The town looked almost painfully beautiful.
Fishing boats rocked in the harbor.
Laundry moved gently between old balconies.
Tourists wandered through narrow streets carrying gelato and cameras, unaware that three people inside a dark SUV were trying to solve a two-year-old death.
Serena had barely spoken since they landed.
The closer they came to the coastline, the quieter she became.
Landon noticed her staring at familiar buildings.
“You lived here?”
“My grandmother did.”
“Where?”
“Near the old cathedral.”
“Still alive?”
“No.”
“I’m sorry.”
Serena glanced at him.
It was the first ordinary kindness he had offered her.
“Thank you.”
The house with blue shutters stood fifteen minutes outside town.
Small.
Stone walls.
Two stories.
Olive trees on one side.
Sea beyond the cliffs.
From the road, it looked peaceful.
Dominic’s security team had already cleared the property.
“No one inside,” one man reported.
“Tracks?”
“Two sets near the rear entrance.”
“Vehicle?”
“Possibly parked farther up the road.”
Landon looked at the blue shutters.
Weather had faded them.
Serena stood beside him.
“I hate this place.”
“You told me Santino rented it.”
“He did.”
“You stayed here?”
“Sometimes.”
“With him?”
“In the guest room.”
Landon looked toward her.
She rolled her eyes.
“Yes, we were friends.”
“I didn’t ask.”
“You were about to.”
He almost smiled.
Inside, the house smelled of dust, sea air, and wood smoke.
Someone had definitely been there.
A coffee cup sat beside the sink.
Still damp.
Dominic checked upstairs.
Serena moved slowly through the living room.
Her fingers touched the back of an old chair.
“Santino sat there constantly.”
Landon looked.
“Why?”
“The internet signal was strongest near that window.”
That sounded like his brother.
Practical even in beautiful places.
They entered the upstairs bedroom.
A narrow bed.
Wooden dresser.
Small balcony overlooking the water.
“This is where Papa slept.”
Landon remembered Leo’s second verse.
When the sea turns silver, look beneath the room where Papa slept.
He looked toward the floor.
Dominic knocked on the boards.
Solid.
They searched for nearly an hour.
Nothing.
No hidden compartments.
No loose boards.
No safe.
Serena stood on the balcony watching late sunlight turn the Mediterranean silver.
Silver.
She froze.
“The sea.”
Landon followed her gaze.
When the sea turns silver.
It was not simply poetic.
It was timing.
The setting sun reflected across the water at an angle, throwing light through the balcony doors.
The beam crossed the bedroom floor.
Then struck the wall near the dresser.
Serena moved the dresser.
Behind it was a tiny brass plate.
A keyhole.
She touched the chain around her neck.
“No.”
Landon stepped closer.
“You’ve carried the key for two years.”
She removed it.
Her fingers trembled.
“I thought it belonged to a locker.”
“Apparently not.”
She inserted the key.
The mechanism clicked.
A narrow section of wall opened.
Inside was a metal box.
Nobody spoke.
Landon lifted it onto the bed.
There was no lock.
Inside lay three objects.
A small digital recorder.
A sealed envelope.
And a child’s wooden music box.
Serena covered her mouth.
“What?”
She picked up the music box.
“I gave this to Leo.”
“When?”
“The summer they visited.”
She turned a small handle.
A simple melody played.
Landon recognized it immediately.
Santino’s lullaby.
The notes were imperfect.
Homemade.
“You made this?”
“My grandfather built music boxes.”
“You knew the melody?”
“Santino kept singing it.”
She smiled sadly.
“I told him it sounded unfinished.”
“What did he say?”
“That was because fatherhood was unfinished.”
Landon looked away.
Serena wound it again.
This time, halfway through the melody, something clicked.
The bottom opened.
Inside was a strip of paper.
A series of numbers.
Coordinates.
Dominic entered them into his phone.
“Cefalù harbor.”
“Where exactly?” Landon asked.
Dominic zoomed.
“An old storage building.”
Serena became tense.
“I know it.”
“Why?”
“Marco Bellini worked there.”
The murdered port supervisor.
Landon looked at the recorder.
He pressed play.
Static.
Then Santino’s voice.
Landon went completely still.
Two years vanished.
His brother was suddenly in the room.
“If you’re hearing this, then I was either paranoid…”
A pause.
“…or right.”
Serena closed her eyes.
The recording continued.
“Landon, if it’s you, I’m sorry.”
Landon swallowed.
“I should have told you sooner. I kept thinking I could hand you something clean. Evidence. Names. Answers. I didn’t want suspicion to poison everything between us.”
The recording crackled.
“If Serena is with you, listen to her.”
Landon glanced toward Serena.
“She saved my life once. Maybe twice. I stopped counting.”
Serena wiped at one eye angrily.
Santino continued.
“The network goes deeper than shipping. Someone has been using Moretti companies, legal partnerships, and political contacts to move money and people.”
Landon’s hand tightened.
“I don’t know who is at the top.”
The next words came slowly.
“But I know Matteo is involved.”
Serena inhaled sharply.
Landon did not move.
Matteo Rinaldi.
Family attorney.
Trusted adviser.
Man who stood beside Santino’s grave.
“There’s someone else.”
The recording distorted.
Landon leaned closer.
“One of Dad’s old security people. He uses different names. He looks enough like Dominic Hale to cause problems. Dominic may not even know he exists.”
Dominic stared.
The photograph.
Not Dominic.
A double.
Santino continued.
“His real name is Victor Saye.”
Dominic swore under his breath.
“You know him?” Landon asked.
Dominic nodded slowly.
“I knew a Victor Saye years ago.”
“Who?”
“A contractor.”
“For whom?”
“Your father.”
The recording continued before Landon could ask more.
“If I disappear, do not retaliate blindly.”
Landon almost laughed bitterly.
Santino knew him too well.
“Follow the money. Protect Leo. Protect Isabella.”
A pause.
“And Landon…”
His brother’s voice softened.
“You don’t have to become our father to keep this family alive.”
The recording ended.
Nobody spoke for nearly a minute.
Then Serena picked up the envelope.
LANDON was written across it.
He opened it.
Inside was a single sheet.
Numbers.
Dates.
Names.
At the bottom:
The second verse belongs to Leo.
Landon frowned.
“What second verse?”
Serena looked at the music box.
Then she began singing softly.
The first line was familiar.
The stars watch over you while the sun sleeps.
She turned the handle.
The music continued.
Then stopped.
Leo’s remembered phrase had led them here.
But Santino said there was another verse.
Landon took out his phone.
It was nearly midnight in New York, but he called Isabella.
She answered immediately.
“Did you find something?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“Later. Wake Leo.”
“No.”
“Isabella.”
“He just fell asleep.”
“This matters.”
“He is four.”
“I know.”
Silence.
Then she sighed.
Several minutes later, Leo’s sleepy voice came through the phone.
“Uncle Landon?”
“Hey, buddy.”
“Are you in Italy?”
Landon looked at Serena.
“Yes.”
“With Sara?”
Serena smiled despite herself.
“Yes.”
“Is she okay?”
“She’s here.”
“Can I talk to her?”
Landon handed over the phone.
Serena crouched beside the bed.
“Hi, Leo.”
“Sing Papa’s song.”
She froze.
Landon mouthed:
Ask him.
Serena swallowed.
“Leo, do you remember another part?”
There was silence.
Then the small voice answered.
“Papa said I wasn’t supposed to tell until I saw the blue house.”
Everyone in the room looked at one another.
Serena spoke carefully.
“We’re at the blue house.”
Leo became more awake.
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“What did Papa say next?”
A long pause.
Then Leo began whispering words he had apparently carried somewhere in a child’s memory for almost half his life.
“When the bells stop ringing, the lion wakes beneath the water.”
Dominic frowned.
Landon repeated it.
“The lion wakes beneath the water.”
Serena’s face suddenly changed.
“What?”
She stood.
“The old storage building.”
“What about it?”
“There’s a stone lion carved above the entrance.”
Dominic looked at the coordinates.
Same building.
Landon closed his eyes briefly.
Santino had broken the directions into pieces.
The house.
The key.
The music box.
Leo’s memory.
Nobody could find everything unless the right people came together.
He ended the call after promising Leo they would speak in the morning.
Then Landon looked at Dominic.
“We go to the harbor.”
Serena shook her head.
“Not tonight.”
“Why?”
“The bells.”
“What?”
Leo’s verse.
When the bells stop ringing.
Serena walked onto the balcony.
Far in the distance, Cefalù’s church bells echoed through the night.
She looked at her watch.
“They stop at midnight.”
Dominic checked the time.
11:47.
Thirteen minutes later, somewhere beneath an abandoned harbor building, Santino’s final secret would become accessible.
But as Landon stepped toward the door, Dominic’s phone rang.
He listened.
His face darkened.
“What?” Landon asked.
Dominic lowered the phone.
“Our team found the car used by whoever was at the house before us.”
“And?”
“There was a photograph inside.”
“Of what?”
“Not what.”
Dominic looked directly at Serena.
“Who.”
He turned his phone.
The photograph showed Leo leaving school in New York.
Taken yesterday.
And written across the bottom were four words:
May you like
BRING US THE WOMAN.
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