Chapter 4 - The Blue Notebook
That night Leo would not sleep.
Clara sat outside his bedroom door while Rico paced the hallway.
“You can go home.”
“He’ll hear your shoes.”
Rico stopped.
“What?”
“He knows you’re pacing.”
Rico looked down at his expensive shoes as if they had betrayed him.
“Sit.”
For ten minutes they listened to Leo turn beneath his blankets.
Then the boy whispered:
“Mommy blue.”
Clara leaned toward the open door.
“What’s blue?”
“Elena wore blue the night she died.”
Clara did not like the certainty in his voice.
“Could be anything.”
“Mommy book.”
“Elena kept a notebook.”
“What kind?”
“Personal. Lists. Charity notes. Things she didn’t trust to phones.”
“Where is it?”
“Police took her belongings.”
“Did you get everything back?”
“I thought so.”
They searched Elena’s study.
Rico had kept it almost untouched.
Clara hated how grief could make a room feel occupied.
A blue scarf hung over a chair.
Leo waddled in behind them.
“Mommy blue.”
Rico reached for a blue leather journal.
Every page had been removed.
“That wasn’t empty.”
“How do you know?”
“I bought it.”
Clara examined the binding.
Pages had been cut close to the spine.
“Who had access after the police released the room?”
“Family. House staff. Counsel.”
“Names.”
Dante started listing them.
Then Leo walked to the wastebasket beside the desk.
Reached underneath the wooden base.
His small fingers found something taped there.
Three lines:
V KNOWS ABOUT THE HARBOR ACCOUNTS.
DO NOT TELL RICO UNTIL I HAVE PROOF.
IF ANYTHING HAPPENS, CHECK JULIAN’S SAINT.
“Who’s Julian?”
“Not who.”
“Where.”
Saint Julian was the name of a bronze statue in the family chapel.
Dante reached the chapel first.
Behind the statue, they found an envelope.
And fresh scratches on the stone.
Someone had been there recently.
Then Clara noticed a tiny red thread caught beneath the base.
Leo saw it too.
“Bird man coat.”
May you like
Rico stopped breathing.
Vittorio had worn a red-lined overcoat that morning.
