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“Privacy,” I remind him.
“You’re my job now, Mrs. Mancini. I have to keep an eye on you.”
“Are you going to do that while I go pee?”
He has the decency to look embarrassed. “Understood.” He walks back into the dining room, and I rush out the backdoor of the kitchen. I pass the bathroom along the way and make sure to turn on the light and shut the door so if Enzo walks by, he’ll assume I’m in there. He’s not bold enough to open the door if he thinks I’m using the bathroom. Nico would have his head if he did that.
I only have minutes as I sprint to the foyer. I can just barely see Andrew in the dining room from here. Backing up to the other side of the foyer so I can’t be spotted, I kneel and use the combination Beatrice gave me.
The briefcase opens right up.
Her spies gave her good intel. Too bad they couldn’t have figured out if Nico killed my father so I wouldn’t have to do this.
I find a stack of papers, which I quickly go through. I scan the pages and read about more financial planning.
Then my eyes stop on something. There’s a charge for a plane ticket to LA the day before my father’s murder and a charge or another plane ticket back to New York the day after my father’s murder.
Either Nico or Andrew were in LA the day my dad was killed. It’s not enough to go on. It could be utter coincidence. But it’s something. Between this and Nico telling me he sometimes travels to LA, it’s starting to look like Nico may have been involved.
I dig through the papers faster, then stop. At the bottom of the stack of papers is a picture.
A picture of my house. In the photo, my father is walking up the drive to the front door. The date on the picture is the same date my father died.
This is the proof I was looking for. Someone took a photo of my dad, then went inside to kill him. I was gone, having been out shopping, when my father returned alone.
But why would Andrew keep a picture of this? Why print it out?
Is this evidence he gave to Nico to prove the job was taken care of?
And if there’s evidence that someone was watching my father the day he died, then did the same man who killed my father also take pictures of him after he got a bullet to his brain?
Does Andrew have those photos somewhere? On his phone perhaps.
No. I instantly brush that aside. If Andrew killed my father, then he wouldn’t keep the evidence on his phone. That must be way he printed this photo. Don’t take any pictures with a phone—anyone could hack it. But an old fashioned photo from an old fashioned camera couldn’t be traced back to anyone.
Except for this photo right here.
Now the question becomes: Did Nico order the hit on my father? Or did Nico kill my father himself?
Either way, if Andrew was involved, then Nico must have been involved as well.
Meaning, Nico in some way or another is responsible for my father’s death. And here I was starting to like him. That’s the last thing I can do. I have to find a way to kill him now.
And escape with my own life intact.
When I hear footsteps, I quickly close the briefcase and run back down the hallway. I go into the bathroom and wait a moment before stepping out of the room.
Enzo is walking by right at that moment. “You done?”
“I am now,” I snap.
He scoffs and keeps on walking down the hallway. I can hear Nico and Andrew talking in the foyer. After letting my heart quiet down, I join them.
“There you are,” Nico says.
“I was in the bathroom.”
“Andrew was leaving.”
