Luca on maintenance inspections.”
I looked at him sharply.
“You knew who my father was?”
“Not when I hired you.
I found out during your background review, after you started.”
“And you never said anything?”
“I wasn’t certain how to approach you.”
I gave a bitter laugh.
“You can negotiate with criminals, but you couldn’t ask your secretary about her father?”
He accepted the accusation without arguing.
“Luca believed someone was moving dangerous materials through the warehouse under false shipping descriptions.
Thomas discovered discrepancies in the electrical maintenance schedule.
They started asking questions together.”
“Questions about what?”
“About why the warehouse was being cleared before an unscheduled inspection.
About why the night security roster had changed.
About shipments that weren’t supposed to exist.”
“And what happened to the evidence?”
“Most of it disappeared after the fire.”
“Most?”
Nico looked at the visitor register.
“I kept what Luca had already given me.”
My anger rose so quickly that it frightened me.
“For eight years, my father has been blamed for that fire.
My mother died believing everyone considered him incompetent.
And you’ve been sitting on records that might have helped us?”
His expression changed.
“I knew the official explanation was wrong,” he said.
“I suspected someone inside the company had covered up the truth.
I didn’t have enough to prove who was responsible.”
“That doesn’t excuse keeping it from his family.”
“No,” he said quietly.
“It doesn’t.”
That answer stopped me.
I had expected excuses.
I had expected anger.
Instead, Nico looked like a man who had finally encountered a question money and intimidation couldn’t answer.
I took a breath.
“I’m still going to dinner.”
His head lifted.
“Mara—”
“I need answers.
Evan knows something, and this may be the only chance I get to hear it.”
“He could be using you to reach me.”
“Then I’ll listen carefully.
But you don’t get to decide for me.”
Nico studied me for a long moment.
Finally, he nodded.
“It’s your decision.
But speak to Inez before you leave.
She has information you should see.”
Inez Soto was waiting in the lobby when I arrived downstairs.
She was forty-two, with closely cropped black hair and the watchful expression of someone who had spent years assessing emergencies.
Before driving for Nico, she had worked as a paramedic.
She didn’t try to block my way.
Instead, she opened a photograph on her phone.
It showed Evan standing across from the Bellandi Shipping employee entrance three days earlier.
The picture had been taken from a security camera.
“He was watching the building before he contacted you again,” she explained.
“We haven’t established why.”
I felt cold.
At the fundraiser, Evan had acted surprised when I told him where I worked.
The photograph proved that surprise had been an act.
“Has Nico sent someone to follow me?” I asked.
“No.
He asked me to show you this.
What happens next is your choice.”
I looked at the screen again.
Then I made one decision that probably saved my life.
I asked Inez to stay nearby.
We agreed on a simple signal.
If I sent her an empty message, she would approach the restaurant and check on me.
If I asked directly for help, she would call emergency services.
At seven fifteen, I arrived at the Halcyon Room,
