Chapter 7 - The Badge Used Twice
Luca wouldn't let us cancel the meeting. "They want Michael absent," he said. "He'll be there, with an independent audit request and witnesses."
He asked Nora to secure a copy of the event security logs. The estate used card readers on the service corridor and office wing, a system meant to protect expensive jewelry and contracts. At seven twelve on the evening of the toast, someone had opened Luca's private office using my staff badge.
"I was setting dessert trays," I said. "Mrs. Alvarez saw me."
"I did," she confirmed. "Your card was in your apron pocket at seven."
"Not all evening." I remembered Vanessa stopping me near the coatroom, pretending my uniform had a stain. She'd taken my apron to a supply closet for five minutes and returned it herself.
Luca looked as though he wanted to swear. Instead he asked whether an access card could be copied. The security technician explained that the logs alone didn't identify a person; they showed only a credential used at a door. Nora requested that the original records be preserved.
Inside Luca's office, a locked cabinet held the folder Michael had left for him: the disputed Harbor Steps invoices. The cabinet had not been forced. Luca kept the key in his desk, and someone who knew that could have opened it while his staff badge system recorded the wrong visitor.
The paper copies were gone.
"Don't accuse her based on a card," Nora warned when Luca said Vanessa's name. "You need a witness or something else."
Michael listened without interrupting. "Could she have wanted the invoices more than the drink?"
Luca's phone rang. Carlo's name appeared.
"Nephew," he said when Luca answered. "Bring Michael to dinner. We can settle the project quietly."
May you like
"Not quietly," Luca replied. "Not anymore."
Carlo's warm voice turned flat. "Then you should know the newspapers have a new story for tomorrow."
