Chapter 16 - Elena’s Voice
Dominic took the phone.
“Elena?”
Silence.
Samuel said something on the other end.
Then the line changed.
A woman spoke.
“Dominic?”
His face broke.
Not dramatically.
Just one small fracture around the eyes.
“Elena.”
Her breathing trembled.
“You remember?”
“Not enough.”
A tiny laugh came through.
“You hid Captain in the laundry chute.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
The wooden horse.
The memory he had told me about.
Nobody else in that room could have known.
Dominic sat down.
“Where are you?”
“I can’t tell you yet.”
“Why?”
“Because they found Mom once.”
Every person in the drawing room froze.
Dominic’s eyes opened.
“Mom?”
Elena began crying.
Quietly.
“She’s alive.”
Nobody moved.
Even Vittorio turned white.
Dominic’s voice disappeared into a whisper.
“My mother is alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“She made me promise.”
“Elena.”
“I know.”
“Thirty-one years.”
“I know.”
“Please.”
That one word changed the entire room.
Dominic Caruso did not sound like a man people feared.
He sounded like a son.
Elena breathed shakily.
“Mom disappeared again in 2008.”
Dominic’s hope faltered.
“What?”
“She believed somebody had found us.”
“She left to protect me.”
“You haven’t seen her since?”
“No.”
“Then how do you know she’s alive?”
“Because every year on my birthday I receive a yellow ribbon.”
Dominic stared at the floor.
“The ribbon.”
I remembered his description.
Elena had worn yellow ribbons as a child.
“Last one came four months ago,” Elena said.
“So she was alive then.”
Dominic looked at Marco.
Marco was already writing.
“Elena, listen to me.”
“I can protect you.”
A bitter laugh.
“That is exactly what Dad used to say.”
Dominic flinched.
Then Elena said,
“There’s something else.”
“The portrait has a locator inside the frame.”
I looked at Dominic.
The metal strip.
Not numbers.
A tracker.
Elena continued.
“Mom put it there because she knew anyone desperate enough to steal the portrait would lead you to the rest.”
Dominic looked toward the window.
“Can you track it?”
“Yes.”
“Where is it?”
Pause.
“Moving south.”
Marco stepped closer.
“Toward the city?”
Elena answered,
“No.”
“The old Caruso packing plant.”
Vittorio suddenly stood.
“No.”
Everyone turned.
His face had lost all color.
Dominic stared at him.
“You know what is there.”
Vittorio gripped his cane.
“Dominic, listen to me.”
“What is there?”
Vittorio looked toward Anthony.
His own son.
Anthony had become very still.
Then Vittorio said something none of us expected.
May you like
“The person who stole that portrait is not working for me.”
Anthony slowly smiled.
