Chapter 5 - The Woman Who Remembered
Marcus finally found someone willing to talk.
Her name was Teresa Bell.
Twelve years earlier, she had been a night nurse at St. Matthew’s Hospital.
Now she lived outside Milwaukee and worked at a retirement community.
She remembered Luca immediately.
“Everybody remembers the powerful patients,” she said.
Luca sat across from her in a quiet private room.
Marcus remained near the door.
“What do you remember about the night I collapsed?”
Teresa hesitated.
“You were not supposed to survive.”
Luca’s face remained still.
“Explain.”
“Your blood pressure crashed twice.”
“From the poison?”
“I didn’t know it was poison then.”
She twisted her wedding ring.
“But something bothered me.”
“What?”
“Your neurological symptoms appeared gradually.”
She looked at him.
“The official chart later said sudden vascular event.”
Luca leaned forward.
“That was not what you saw?”
“No.”
Teresa lowered her voice.
“And there was a man.”
“Dominic?”
“No.”
Luca felt a flicker of surprise.
“A doctor?”
“He said he was.”
“Name?”
“I never knew.”
Teresa closed her eyes.
“He wore a hospital coat, but his ID badge was turned backward.”
Marcus moved slightly.
Teresa continued.
“He gave instructions about your medication.”
“To whom?”
“Dr. Grayson.”
Luca’s jaw tightened.
“Did you see Dominic?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“The next morning.”
Teresa’s eyes filled with old fear.
“He was furious.”
“At whom?”
“The man in the coat.”
That did not fit.
If Dominic had orchestrated the poisoning, why would he be angry?
“What did you hear?”
“Not much.”
She swallowed.
“Dominic said, ‘You were supposed to keep him weak, not kill him.’”
Silence filled the room.
Luca felt the entire shape of the investigation change.
Dominic had known.
But perhaps Dominic had not designed the plan.
“Anything else?”
Teresa nodded.
“The other man said, ‘Your brother made the same mistake you’re making.’”
Luca’s blood turned cold.
His father had died five years before Luca’s collapse.
Officially from a heart attack.
Luca had never questioned it.
Until now.
Marcus spoke for the first time.
“Can you describe the man?”
Teresa nodded.
“Tall.”
“Gray eyes.”
“A scar near his left ear.”
Luca knew only one man fitting that description who had been close enough to his family to speak that way.
His father’s former attorney.
Arthur Vale.
The man who had drafted Luca’s succession documents.
May you like
The man who had disappeared from Chicago eleven years ago.
And the man whose signature still appeared on the trust controlling almost half the Costello empire.
