Chapter 1 - Beneath the White Roses
“Tell him he’s finished.”
Vanessa Bellini handed me an envelope.
I stared at it.
“What?”
“His severance.”
Across the conservatory, Mr. Thomas Russo was trimming dead leaves from a row of white roses.
He was sixty-eight years old.
He had worked for the Moretti family longer than I had been alive.
And his left hand was wrapped in gauze.
“He’s been here thirty-seven years,” I said.
Vanessa looked at me.
“Is that supposed to make him immortal?”
“No.”
“Good.”
She pushed the envelope into my hand.
“Then fire him.”
My name is Lily Carter.
I was twenty-nine and technically Luca Moretti’s assistant house manager.
Technically mattered because I had held the position for twelve days.
The woman I replaced had quit without notice.
Nobody would tell me why.
The salary was nearly twice what I had earned managing a boutique hotel.
I had student loans, a car that made a new noise every week, and a younger sister who had just called to tell me she was pregnant.
I needed the job.
I did not need to fire an elderly gardener who was currently humming to himself while tending roses.
“What did he do?”
Vanessa pointed through the glass.
“Look.”
One section of the garden had been destroyed.
Black soil.
Broken stems.
A scorched wooden trellis.
At the center stood an empty patch where something had clearly been dug up.
“There was a fire?” I asked.
“Last night.”
“Was anyone hurt?”
“Apparently Thomas burned his hand.”
I looked at the gauze.
“Then shouldn’t he be resting?”
“He should be leaving.”
“Why?”
Vanessa’s eyes narrowed.
“Because the security camera shows him in the garden at two in the morning.”
That changed things.
“Did he start the fire?”
“He claims he didn’t.”
“Did security investigate?”
“I’m investigating.”
Something about that answer bothered me.
“Does Mr. Moretti know?”
Vanessa’s expression cooled.
“Luca has more important things to handle than flowers.”
She turned away.
“Do it before lunch.”
I found Thomas in the potting room.
He was trying to open a bag of fertilizer one-handed.
“Let me.”
He smiled.
“New manager doing gardening now?”
“Temporary promotion.”
I opened the bag.
He thanked me.
Then his eyes dropped to the envelope.
His smile vanished.
“She sent you.”
I didn’t pretend otherwise.
“Yes.”
He nodded slowly.
“I wondered who she’d make do it.”
“You know what’s inside?”
“Enough money to make disappearing polite.”
I set the envelope down.
“What happened last night?”
Thomas looked toward the conservatory door.
“Ask Vanessa.”
“I’m asking you.”
His expression changed.
“You won’t keep this job long if you do that.”
“Probably not.”
That almost made him smile.
I pointed to his hand.
“How did you burn yourself?”
He sat down.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Then he unwrapped the gauze.
The burn covered his palm and two fingers.
It looked painful.
But there were also cuts across his knuckles.
Fresh ones.
“That didn’t happen from touching a hot trellis.”
“No.”
“Were you fighting someone?”
Thomas looked at me.
“I was stopping someone.”
“Who?”
“I didn’t see his face.”
“From doing what?”
His eyes moved toward the garden.
“Digging.”
My stomach tightened.
“Digging up the roses?”
“One rose.”
“Why?”
Thomas stood.
“Come.”
We walked outside.
The October air was cold.
He led me to the blackened patch.
“My wife planted most of these with Lucia Moretti.”
“Luca’s mother?”
“Yes.”
He pointed toward the empty hole.
“That one was Lucia’s.”
“What kind?”
“White Eden climber.”
“Why would anyone dig it up?”
Thomas crouched carefully.
“Because they weren’t interested in the plant.”
He brushed away loose soil.
There was a rectangular impression beneath the roots.
Something had been buried there.
“What was it?”
“I don’t know.”
“You never saw it?”
“No.”
“But you knew something was there?”
Thomas nodded.
“Lucia asked me never to move that rose.”
“When?”
“Three weeks before she died.”
I stared at the hole.
“Did she tell you why?”
“She said one day Luca might need what was underneath.”
I felt a chill that had nothing to do with the weather.
“Did you tell Vanessa?”
“No.”
“Then how did she know?”
Thomas looked toward the house.
“That is a very good question.”
A door opened behind us.
Vanessa.
“Lily.”
Thomas stood.
Vanessa looked at the unwrapped burn.
Then at me.
“I gave you a simple instruction.”
“I was asking what happened.”
“I already told you.”
“No. You told me he was in the garden.”
Her jaw tightened.
Thomas quietly wrapped his hand again.
Vanessa stepped closer.
“Give him the envelope.”
I didn’t.
“Mr. Russo says someone else was here.”
“He would.”
“He says they were digging beneath Mrs. Moretti’s rose.”
Vanessa’s eyes flicked toward the empty patch.
There it was again.
Fear.
“What rose?”
Thomas smiled sadly.
“You know exactly which one.”
Vanessa’s face hardened.
“You’re confused.”
“No.”
“You’re old.”
“Also true.”
She stepped closer.
“But you are leaving.”
“No.”
The voice came from behind us.
Luca Moretti stood on the stone terrace.
Nobody had heard him approach.
Vanessa turned.
“Luca.”
He looked at Thomas’s hand.
“What happened?”
“Nothing.”
Luca’s eyes narrowed.
“Thomas.”
The old gardener sighed.
“Burn.”
“From?”
“A fire.”
“What fire?”
Vanessa interrupted.
“A small accident last night. I handled it.”
Luca looked at the destroyed garden.
“You handled that?”
“It was contained.”
His gaze moved to the empty hole.
Then he stopped.
“Where is my mother’s rose?”
Nobody answered.
Luca walked down the steps.
He came closer.
His face changed as he saw the disturbed soil.
“Who dug this up?”
Thomas spoke.
“A man in a hood.”
“When?”
“Two thirteen this morning.”
“You saw him?”
“I stopped him.”
Luca looked at the burned hand.
“He did that?”
“Fire did.”
“Why was there fire?”
“He poured something on the trellis when I grabbed him.”
Luca turned toward Vanessa.
“You said accident.”
“That’s what security told me.”
Luca pulled out his phone.
“Daniel.”
A guard appeared less than a minute later.
“Sir?”
“Who reviewed last night’s cameras?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Miss Bellini asked us not to disturb you.”
Luca looked at Vanessa.
Then back at him.
“Answer.”
“Marcus reviewed them.”
“Where is Marcus?”
“No one has seen him since this morning.”
Vanessa folded her arms.
“This is absurd. We’re talking about a plant.”
Luca turned slowly.
“My mother planted that rose.”
“I know.”
“No.”
His voice became quieter.
“You knew it was the only plant Thomas had been told never to move.”
Vanessa stared at him.
Thomas looked surprised.
Luca continued.
“My mother told me.”
That changed everything.
Thomas stepped forward.
“She told you?”
“Once.”
“When?”
“Before she died.”
Luca looked into the empty hole.
“She said my father buried a mistake under the white roses.”
Nobody spoke.
I looked at Thomas.
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know,” he whispered.
Luca crouched beside the hole.
He touched the rectangular impression.
Then his fingers found something.
A small piece of black plastic.
He lifted it.
The broken corner of a weatherproof case.
“Whatever was here,” he said, “someone took it.”
Thomas shook his head.
“No.”
Luca looked at him.
“No?”
“I got outside before he finished.”
“Then where is it?”
Thomas glanced toward Vanessa.
Her face went pale.
“I moved it.”
Silence.
“Where?”
Thomas looked at me.
“Inside.”
Vanessa moved first.
She turned toward the house.
Luca caught her wrist.
Not violently.
But she stopped immediately.
“Where are you going?”
“To call security.”
“They’re already here.”
Her eyes met his.
For the first time since I had met her, Vanessa looked genuinely frightened.
Thomas led us into the potting room.
He reached beneath a stack of empty ceramic pots.
Then stopped.
The space was empty.
“No.”
He pulled the pots aside.
Nothing.
“I put it here.”
Luca’s face hardened.
“When?”
“Two thirty.”
“Who knew?”
“Nobody.”
Vanessa spoke too quickly.
“Then perhaps you imagined it.”
Thomas turned.
“You saw me.”
Silence.
Luca looked at her.
Vanessa blinked.
“What?”
Thomas’s voice shook now.
“When I came inside.”
He pointed toward her.
“You were standing right there.”
Luca did not move.
“What time?”
“Two thirty-five.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“I was asleep.”
“No.”
Thomas looked at her.
“You were wearing a coat.”
Her face drained.
“And you asked whether I had found a metal box.”
Luca’s eyes became cold.
“You knew it was metal?”
Vanessa opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
Then Daniel’s radio crackled.
A guard’s voice came through.
“We found Marcus.”
Luca took the radio.
“Where?”
A pause.
Then:
“Union Station.”
Another pause.
“He had a train ticket to Detroit.”
Luca’s jaw tightened.
“Bring him back.”
The guard hesitated.
“Boss, there’s something else.”
“What?”
“He had a metal box in his luggage.”
Vanessa closed her eyes.
Luca saw it.
“What’s inside?”
“We haven’t opened it.”
“Don’t.”
Luca looked directly at Vanessa.
“Bring it here.”
Then Thomas whispered something.
So quietly I almost missed it.
“That won’t be the real box.”
Luca turned.
“What did you say?”
Thomas stared at Vanessa.
“The man in the garden took something from the ground before I stopped him.”
My stomach tightened.
“What?”
Thomas swallowed.
“A photograph.”
Luca stepped closer.
“Of whom?”
Thomas looked at him.
“Your mother.”
May you like
Then at Vanessa.
“And a little girl standing beside her.”
