What Luca Knew Before Julian Died
Chapter 06 - What Luca Knew Before Julian Died
Luca did not sleep.
I knew because neither did half the house.
At three in the morning I found him in the library with Julian’s old email printed in front of him.
Need to talk alone.
The message he never saw.
I should have gone back to the staff wing.
Instead I said:
“You look terrible.”
He looked up.
“So do you.”
“My wrist has an excuse.”
His mouth almost moved.
Then nothing.
I stayed near the door.
Not invited.
Not dismissed.
After a while he said:
“I knew he was angry with our father.”
I waited.
“I didn’t know why.”
“Julian.”
“Yes.”
Luca looked at the email.
“Two weeks before he died, he came to the office.”
“What happened?”
“He said Dad was stealing from employees.”
I stopped.
“You knew that.”
“No.”
He looked at me.
“He said it. I didn’t believe him.”
Different.
Still terrible.
“Why?”
“Because Julian had spent years trying to get out.”
“That makes him less believable?”
“It did to me then.”
Luca rubbed his face.
“He thought every family business was corruption.”
“Was he wrong?”
“No.”
Clean.
No defensive smile.
“He also said Carlo Bellini was involved.”
“And?”
“I told him he was seeing conspiracy everywhere.”
I thought of Julian’s recording.
You probably believed Dad before you believed me.
“Did you tell Salvatore?”
“Yes.”
There.
Luca looked at the floor.
“That same day.”
“What happened?”
“My father laughed.”
“Then?”
“He said Julian was emotional because Vanessa was pregnant.”
I froze.
“Your father told you.”
“Yes.”
“You knew there was a baby.”
Luca’s face changed.
“I knew she was pregnant.”
The room went cold.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“Then why were you shocked Oliver existed?”
“Because my father told me she lost the pregnancy.”
Silence.
There.
Another dead child invented by an old man.
“When?”
“Three days after Julian came to me.”
“Did you ask Vanessa?”
“No.”
“Julian?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Luca laughed once.
Bitter.
“Because my father said Julian needed space.”
“You believed him.”
“Yes.”
“Then Julian died.”
“Yes.”
“And you still didn’t ask Vanessa.”
“No.”
I stared at him.
Anger surprised me.
Not because he had lied to me.
We were barely more than employer and employee.
Because Oliver had spent eight years calling his mother aunt while Luca had accepted two deaths without a single question.
“You were his brother.”
“Yes.”
“That’s awful.”
Daniel, entering the room, stopped.
Luca looked at me.
Not angry.
Almost relieved.
“Yes.”
No defense.
That mattered.
He continued.
“After the crash, my father showed me the toxicology.”
“The fake one.”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“I thought Julian drove drunk.”
“Did he drink?”
“Not after Vanessa got pregnant.”
“You knew that.”
“Yes.”
“So the report should have looked wrong.”
“It did.”
“Then?”
“I wanted it to be true.”
There.
The most honest sentence in the room.
“Why?”
“Because if Julian caused his own death, no one I loved had to be responsible.”
Luca stood and walked to the window.
For a while neither of us spoke.
Then he said:
“My father used to tell me loyalty meant deciding whose version of events you were willing to defend.”
I looked at him.
“That sounds convenient for the person telling the story.”
“Yes.”
“Did you believe him?”
“For years.”
“And now?”
He stared through the glass.
“Now I think loyalty without questions is just obedience wearing better clothes.”
That sounded like something Julian might have liked.
I did not say it.
Luca did not need comfort attached to every realization.
Sometimes the truth should stay uncomfortable long enough to do its work.
I looked away.
That was not innocence.
It was grief choosing the easiest suspect.
The dead man himself.
Daniel put a folder on the desk.
“We found Julian’s bank records.”
One unusual transaction.
Three days before the crash, Julian withdrew $40,000.
Cash.
Luca frowned.
“Why?”
Another record.
A safe-deposit box rented under Julian’s name.
Opened twice.
Last opening:
The morning of his death.
The box had later been closed by executor.
Martin Vale.
Contents declared:
None.
Of course.
Police obtained archived bank camera footage.
Grainy.
Julian entered.
Forty minutes later, another man arrived.
Daniel zoomed.
Carlo Bellini.
Vanessa’s father.
Luca’s face hardened.
“Get Vanessa.”
She came down in a robe.
No makeup.
For the first time she looked younger than thirty.
Luca showed her the image.
“Did you know they met?”
She stared.
“No.”
“Did Julian tell you?”
“No.”
“Did Carlo?”
“No.”
Then she looked closer.
“My father had that coat.”
“Useful.”
Vanessa looked at him sharply.
Luca corrected.
“It supports identification.”
I almost smiled despite everything.
We all had our little signs of contamination now.
Vanessa continued staring.
Then whispered:
“That day.”
“What?”
“Julian told me he had bought insurance.”
“What insurance?”
“For me and the baby.”
Luca’s face changed.
“Life insurance?”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“A lawyer.”
No one understood.
“He said he bought me a lawyer.”
Meaning he had paid someone to hold evidence or instructions.
Forty thousand dollars.
Safe-deposit box.
Carlo meeting him.
Maybe Julian was paying for more than legal work.
Maybe Carlo was.
Detective Morales found the lawyer by tracing Julian’s call records.
Evelyn Marsh.
Family-law attorney.
Still practicing.
She remembered him instantly.
“He came with a sealed packet.”
“Do you still have it?”
“Yes.”
Everyone stopped breathing.
“Why?”
“Because my instructions were to hold it until one of three things happened.”
“What things?”
“Julian returned personally.”
“He didn’t.”
“Vanessa Bellini contacted me with proof her child was in danger.”
“She never knew.”
“No.”
“And third?”
Marsh looked toward Luca.
“Luca Moretti asked me whether his brother died sober.”
Silence.
Eight years.
That exact question had finally been asked.
The sealed packet arrived under police chain of custody.
Inside was a letter to Luca.
A copy of the pension records.
And one photograph.
Not Carlo.
Not Salvatore.
Martin Vale standing beside Julian’s car with the hood open the night before the crash.
Behind the photograph Julian had written:
IF I’M DEAD, START WITH THE MAN WHO ALWAYS SAYS HE’S ONLY THE LAWYER.
May you like
Vale was no longer just the man who covered the story.
Julian had believed he was involved before the crash even happened.
