Chapter 5 - The Doctor at the Wedding
Giulietta shoved Keller into the library and locked the door behind them.
“Chair.”
He sat.
Enzo placed the medical bag on the table. Matteo remained near the wall, arms folded, saying nothing.
Giulietta stood over Keller.
“You get one chance to make yourself useful.”
“I was hired for a competency evaluation.”
“After my husband attacked me with a golf club?”
Keller shook his head fast.
“No. There was supposed to be an argument after the ceremony. Nothing violent.”
“What kind of argument?”
“I wasn’t told details.”
“Then what were you told?”
Keller swallowed.
“That you might become agitated. Paranoid. Accusatory. That your judgment could appear impaired under stress.”
Giulietta tapped the vial with one fingernail.
“And this?”
“Sedative.”
“Name.”
He gave it.
Enzo wrote it down.
“Dose?” Giulietta asked.
Keller answered.
From the wall, Matteo muttered, “That much could put her down for hours.”
Giulietta’s head turned.
Keller looked at Matteo too.
A fraction too long.
Matteo corrected himself.
“I’ve seen men sedated in hospitals.”
Giulietta filed it away.
“Who hired you?”
Keller rubbed his palms against his trousers.
“Payment came through Bellafonte Holdings.”
Matteo’s arms dropped.
“That company is dead.”
“You know it?” Giulietta asked.
“Your father used it for off-book consulting years ago.”
Keller pointed at the bag.
“I never met whoever authorized payment. Everything came through encrypted email.”
“Warren?”
“No.”
“Preston?”
“No.”
“Matteo?”
Keller’s eyes flicked sideways.
“I said I never met them.”
Giulietta leaned over the table.
“You almost said him.”
“I almost said nothing.”
A heavy bang sounded outside.
Enzo cracked the door.
One of his men whispered something.
Enzo’s face tightened.
“What?” Giulietta asked.
“Somebody cut power to the hotel’s lower surveillance room for forty seconds.”
“Why?”
“We’re checking.”
Giulietta looked back at Keller.
The doctor’s right foot was tapping.
Not random.
Three taps. Pause. Two taps.
He was signaling.
Giulietta grabbed his ankle and yanked his pant leg up.
A tiny adhesive transmitter was strapped above his sock.
Enzo ripped it off.
Keller lurched from the chair.
“I didn’t know that was there.”
Giulietta slapped the transmitter onto the table.
“Sure.”
Enzo’s technician entered carrying a laptop.
“Bellafonte is still active. Barely. We traced the last six months of payments.”
“Registered owner?”
“Dead accountant.”
“Emergency contact?”
“Active mobile.”
Giulietta held out her hand.
“Call it.”
The technician dialed.
Everyone listened.
One ring.
Two.
Then a phone began vibrating inside the room.
Matteo froze.
May you like
The sound came from his jacket.
