Chapter 5 - The Woman in Cream Silk
Camila Duca requested the meeting herself.
Avery almost refused.
Then Camila chose Aunt May's laundromat.
That changed things.
Not the Vitali estate.
Not Duca headquarters.
Not a private club where Avery would feel like furniture had more social status than she did.
The laundromat.
Sunday afternoon.
Closed to customers.
Avery arrived twenty minutes early.
Lorenzo arrived eighteen minutes early.
"You weren't invited," Avery told him.
"Neither was danger."
"That sentence sounded rehearsed."
"It wasn't."
"That's worse."
Aunt May appeared from behind a row of dryers.
"Lorenzo."
He turned.
"You can wait in my office."
His eyebrows lifted.
Avery smiled sweetly.
"Apparently you're being supervised."
The great Lorenzo Vitali entered a twelve-by-eight office decorated with detergent invoices and a calendar featuring golden retrievers.
Avery enjoyed the sight more than she should have.
At exactly two, a black sedan stopped outside.
Camila entered alone.
No bodyguards.
No assistant.
She looked very different from the woman at the dinner table.
Jeans.
Cashmere sweater.
Minimal makeup.
Dark hair tied low behind her neck.
Still beautiful.
Still unmistakably wealthy.
But human.
Avery gestured toward a folding chair.
Camila sat.
For several seconds, neither woman spoke.
Then Camila said, "I owe you an apology."
Avery almost groaned.
"Everybody in your circle owes me an apology."
"I know."
"Are they taking numbers?"
Camila smiled despite herself.
"My mother was cruel."
"Yes."
"She believes cruelty becomes acceptable if spoken quietly."
"Does she practice?"
"Constantly."
Avery studied her.
Camila continued.
"I did not know someone would photograph you."
"Did you know someone would photograph the dinner?"
"No."
"Did you leak what Lorenzo said?"
"No."
"Did you know about the package?"
"No."
Avery folded her arms.
"Then why are you here?"
Camila looked toward Aunt May's office.
"Lorenzo told you about the merger."
"Some."
"My father began negotiating it before he died."
Her voice changed slightly on the final word.
"He believed combining Duca Maritime with Vitali Holdings would protect both families."
"From what?"
"Competition. Debt. Government investigations. Each other."
Avery waited.
Camila looked down.
"I was raised believing I would marry Lorenzo."
"Did he know?"
"Eventually."
"And?"
"He said no."
Avery almost laughed.
"That sounds like him."
"He was kind about it."
"That sounds slightly less like him."
Camila's mouth curved.
Then faded.
"I didn't love him."
The confession surprised Avery.
"My mother did not care."
"Did you?"
"Eventually."
Camila looked directly at her.
"I don't want Lorenzo."
"Then why did you look like you wanted to kill me Thursday?"
"Because twenty years of planning disappeared when you walked through a door carrying a cardboard box."
Avery couldn't help it.
She laughed.
Camila did too.
The tension broke.
Only slightly.
Then Camila leaned forward.
"But that isn't why I'm here."
Avery waited.
"My mother is frightened."
"Of me?"
"No."
"Of Lorenzo?"
"No."
"Then who?"
Camila's gaze moved to the office door.
"Marco Vitali."
Avery went still.
Lorenzo's cousin.
One of four people able to authorize the suspicious transfers.
"What about him?"
"Marco has been meeting with my uncle Riccardo."
"Your father's brother?"
"Yes."
"They support the merger?"
"They support anything giving them control."
Avery's stomach tightened.
"Do you have proof?"
"Not enough."
"Why tell me?"
"Because Lorenzo won't believe information from my family without evidence."
"Can you blame him?"
"No."
"Then why me?"
Camila studied her.
"Because he listens to you."
Avery immediately shook her head.
"You don't know that."
"I watched him Thursday."
"He had known me three minutes."
"Exactly."
Something in Camila's tone made Avery uncomfortable.
"Lorenzo has spent twenty years surrounded by people trying to gain something from him," she said. "Money. Position. Protection. Approval. You walked into his house, told him he behaved badly, refused his money, and left."
"Sounds charming when you describe it."
"You confuse him."
"Good."
"And he respects you."
Avery looked away.
Camila continued.
"My mother noticed too."
There it was.
The dangerous part.
"What does Odette want?"
"For Lorenzo to fail the board vote."
"So the merger proceeds."
"Yes."
"Does she know about the fraudulent vendors?"
Camila hesitated.
"I don't know."
Avery didn't believe her.
"Camila."
"I found something."
She reached into her bag.
Avery stiffened.
Camila noticed.
"It's paper."
"Good. I've had enough mysterious packages."
Camila placed a photocopy on the folding table.
A bank-transfer request.
Avery recognized the formatting from Gabriel's documents.
The amount was $1.8 million.
Vendor: Coastal Infrastructure Logistics.
Approval signature:
Marco Vitali.
Second authorization:
Riccardo Duca.
Avery stared.
"Where did you get this?"
"My father's old office."
"Why would it be there?"
"I've been going through his records since he died."
"When?"
"Eight months ago."
Avery remembered something.
"The merger negotiations became aggressive after his death."
Camila nodded.
"My father wanted an alliance."
"Your uncle wants control."
"That's what I believe."
Avery looked at the document again.
"Does Lorenzo know this exists?"
"No."
"Why bring it to me first?"
Camila hesitated.
Then whispered, "Because I think somebody in Lorenzo's security team is feeding information to Marco."
Avery felt cold.
The guard.
Seven minutes.
"Who?"
"I don't know."
"Then how do you know?"
"Because Friday morning my mother knew you were being moved to the hotel before the hotel reservation was complete."
Avery stared.
"Maybe Lorenzo told her."
"He hadn't spoken to her."
"Gabriel?"
"No."
"Then somebody—"
"Exactly."
The office door opened.
Lorenzo stepped out.
"You could have started with that."
Camila turned sharply.
"You were listening?"
"Yes."
Avery stared at him.
"Lorenzo."
"What?"
"You were supposed to wait."
"I did."
"In the office."
"I waited in the office."
"While listening through the door."
"The wall is thin."
Aunt May shouted from behind him.
"Don't blame my walls!"
Camila stood.
"Lorenzo, this is serious."
"I know."
She handed him the document.
He read it.
His face became stone.
"Is it authentic?"
"I believe so."
"Believe?"
"I don't have access to your internal signatures."
Gabriel, who had apparently been waiting in a car outside, was summoned.
Within an hour they confirmed the approval code attached to Marco's signature was genuine.
The second authorization had entered the system from a Duca corporate network.
Riccardo.
Avery sat on top of a washing machine while Lorenzo paced.
Camila stood nearby.
Gabriel worked on three devices simultaneously.
Aunt May brought everyone sandwiches.
It was the strangest investigative headquarters in Savannah.
Finally Gabriel looked up.
"The payment was routed through two shell companies and disappeared overseas."
"Can we prove Marco received it?" Lorenzo asked.
"Not yet."
"What about Riccardo?"
"Same problem."
Camila looked frustrated.
"My uncle has wanted control of Duca Maritime since my father was alive."
Lorenzo stopped pacing.
"And Marco has wanted my chair since he was twenty-five."
Avery looked between them.
"So they have motive."
"Yes."
"But why involve me?"
Nobody answered.
Avery looked at Camila.
"Did Marco know about the family dinner?"
"Of course."
"Did he know Lorenzo was being pressured about marrying you?"
"Everyone did."
Avery remembered the voices.
The argument.
The timing.
"But nobody could know Lorenzo would say that stupid thing about the door."
Lorenzo looked mildly offended.
"I agree it was stupid."
"Growth."
Camila frowned.
"Unless they didn't need him to say it."
Everyone turned.
She continued.
"Maybe the plan was simply to have a suspicious parcel delivered during the dinner."
Avery understood.
"The joke was luck."
"Bad luck for you," Camila said.
"Excellent luck for whoever wanted a scandal."
Lorenzo's eyes narrowed.
"If Avery had simply delivered the package and left, there would still have been evidence of the theft."
"But no national story," Gabriel added.
"No pressure on the board."
"No narrative about instability."
Avery looked toward the dark laundromat windows.
"So somebody adapted."
Lorenzo nodded.
"The moment I made the remark, they photographed her."
"And leaked it."
"Then connected her to the fraud."
Avery's phone buzzed.
Every person in the room looked at it.
"That's becoming unhealthy," she said.
She checked.
Unknown number.
Another photograph.
This one wasn't of Avery.
It showed Camila entering the laundromat twenty-three minutes earlier.
Below it:
YOU'RE COLLECTING THE WRONG FRIENDS.
Avery showed Lorenzo.
He looked toward the front window.
"No one leaves alone."
Camila's face had lost color.
Gabriel called security.
Then Aunt May, who had been standing by the office, spoke.
"Who owns the blue sedan?"
Everyone turned.
"What blue sedan?" Avery asked.
"The one that's been across the street since before Camila arrived."
Lorenzo moved toward the blinds.
A blue sedan sat half a block away.
The driver's seat looked empty.
Security approached it.
The car was unlocked.
Inside, they found no driver.
Only a disposable camera.
A printed photograph lay on the passenger seat.
It had been taken Thursday night.
Not inside the dining room.
Outside the estate gate.
The image showed Avery beneath the stone awning at 7:43 p.m.
Waiting.
On the back, someone had written:
SEVEN MINUTES CHANGED EVERYTHING.
Lorenzo looked at Avery.
And this time neither of them doubted it.
May you like
Somebody had been watching before she ever opened that door.
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