Chapter 2 - A Job Mercer Regretted
William Mercer had chosen a booth facing the entrance.
That told Luca two things before either man spoke.
Mercer was cautious.
And he had expected Luca Moretti to come personally.
The diner was almost empty. A waitress refilled coffee near the register. Two college students sat beneath a television showing basketball highlights with the sound off. Outside, the snow had thickened enough to blur the headlights passing on Clark Street.
Daniel entered first.
Luca followed.
Mercer did not stand.
“Mr. Moretti.”
“Mr. Mercer.”
Luca slid into the booth opposite him.
Daniel stayed at the counter, close enough to see but far enough that the conversation would not become theater.
Mercer looked forty-five, maybe fifty. Gray beginning at the temples. No expensive watch. No attempt to look tougher than he was.
That irritated Luca less than bravado would have.
“You were in my house today.”
“Yes.”
“Without my knowledge.”
“Yes.”
“With my fiancée.”
“Yes.”
“You like that word.”
“Which one?”
“Yes.”
Mercer took a breath. “I’m trying not to lie to you.”
“Start earlier.”
A waitress approached with a coffeepot.
Luca looked at her. “No, thank you.”
Mercer lifted his cup.
She poured.
For ten seconds, they discussed nothing more dangerous than whether he wanted cream.
When she walked away, Luca said, “Who hired you?”
“Vanessa Bellini.”
“When?”
“Three months ago.”
“To do what?”
“At first? Confirm whether you were in contact with Elena Russo.”
Luca did not like hearing Elena’s name from him.
“Why?”
“She thought you were still emotionally involved.”
“Were you told to investigate an affair?”
“Not initially.”
Mercer stirred his coffee though he had not added anything to it.
Luca watched the spoon circle.
“What changed?”
“You met Ms. Russo last Tuesday.”
“To discuss real estate.”
“I know that now.”
“You followed me.”
“Yes.”
Luca leaned back.
There were ten different ways his life could have made that sentence dangerous.
He chose none of them.
“Keep going.”
“Ms. Bellini became convinced the meeting meant you were asking for something she wanted returned.”
“The emerald ring.”
Mercer stopped stirring.
“So you know.”
“I know now.”
Mercer looked down at his coffee.
“She talked about the ring constantly.”
“Why?”
“You’d have to ask her.”
“I’m asking what she told you.”
“She said your mother’s ring belonged with your wife, not your ex-wife.”
Luca’s jaw tightened.
“She isn’t my wife.”
“Yet.”
The word sat there.
Mercer continued. “She said Ms. Russo had refused to return it because she wanted to keep a hold on you. I called Ms. Russo once, as instructed. She told me she would not discuss it with me and that if you wanted to speak to her, you knew how.”
“That should have ended it.”
“It should have.”
“But it didn’t.”
“No.”
Mercer pushed his coffee away.
“Ms. Bellini wanted me to create pressure. She asked me to deliver the surveillance photographs to Ms. Russo and imply that your relationship with Vanessa began before your divorce.”
“Imply.”
“That was the word she preferred.”
“And five years?”
Mercer’s face tightened.
“I told her I wouldn’t say it.”
Luca studied him.
“Olivia heard Vanessa instruct you to.”
“She did.”
“So which of you is lying?”
“Neither. Vanessa told me to say it. I refused.”
“Why were you still in the room?”
“Because I was trying to terminate the assignment without giving back three months of fees.”
For the first time, Luca almost smiled.
It was not amusement.
It was recognition of a man admitting an ugly but ordinary truth.
“You wanted your money.”
“I wanted to be paid for legal work I had already done.”
“And the illegal part?”
“I wasn’t going to do it.”
“You still came into my house.”
“At your fiancée’s invitation.”
“My house.”
Mercer nodded once. “That was a mistake.”
Luca looked through the diner window.
Snow gathered along the curb in gray ridges.
“What happened after Olivia entered the room?”
Mercer’s answer came slower.
“She heard enough to know the photographs were being used dishonestly. Ms. Bellini panicked.”
“She grabbed her.”
“Yes.”
“And you stepped toward Olivia.”
“I stepped between them.”
“The camera angle says otherwise.”
“I know.”
Mercer rubbed both hands over his face.
“She was trying to leave. Vanessa grabbed her shoulder. Olivia jerked away. I moved forward because I thought she was going to fall. She hit the frame before I reached her.”
“Then?”
“Vanessa told her it was a household matter and she would lose her job if she repeated anything.”
“You did what?”
“Nothing.”
The honesty landed harder than an excuse.
Mercer looked at Luca directly.
“I did nothing. That’s why I’m sitting here.”
“You’re sitting here because Daniel found you.”
“No. I texted the number on your security company’s website and told him where I’d be.”
Luca glanced toward Daniel.
Daniel gave one small nod.
Mercer continued. “I didn’t know the woman was injured until later. I should have stopped Vanessa from threatening her. I didn’t.”
“Why?”
“I was thinking about my license, my client, and getting out of the house. In that order.”
Luca understood selfishness.
He trusted it more than sudden virtue.
“Did Vanessa ever tell you why the ring matters so much?”
Mercer hesitated.
“Once.”
“What did she say?”
“That she would not walk down the aisle wearing a ring bought last year while your ex-wife kept the ring every Moretti woman had worn for three generations.”
Luca’s expression changed.
“That ring was my mother’s. Before that it was my grandmother’s. But nobody was required to wear it.”
“Vanessa believed otherwise.”
Luca thought back six months.
A late dinner. Vanessa tracing one finger around the rim of a wineglass.
Does Elena still have your mother’s emerald?
Yes.
Are you going to ask for it back?
Eventually.
Eventually had been his favorite word for anything emotional.
It meant not tonight.
Not this week.
Maybe never, if everyone stopped asking.
“What else?” he said.
Mercer reached into his coat slowly.
Daniel moved before Luca did.
Mercer stopped.
“Phone,” he said.
Daniel came over, took it, checked it, then placed it on the table.
Mercer opened a folder of saved messages.
“I keep client communications. Not because I’m noble. Because people forget what they ask for when a job goes bad.”
He turned the phone toward Luca.
There were texts from Vanessa.
Most were ordinary.
Times. Addresses. Requests for photographs.
Then one from two nights earlier.
If Elena thinks he betrayed her before the divorce, she’ll send the ring back out of disgust. She kept it to punish him. I’m done letting another woman decide what I’m allowed to wear at my own wedding.
Luca read it twice.
Then a third time.
He had expected greed.
Vanity.
Maybe jealousy.
What he saw instead was something more specific.
Vanessa believed Elena controlled a part of her future.
And rather than tell Luca how humiliated that made her feel, she had decided to rewrite his past.
Mercer watched him.
“There’s another message.”
Luca looked up.
Mercer scrolled.
This one had been sent a month earlier.
I already asked Elena myself. She said no. Luca can never know I contacted her.
Luca’s eyes stopped moving.
“Vanessa spoke to Elena?”
“At least once.”
“When?”
“I don’t know.”
Luca stood.
Mercer looked relieved until Luca said, “You’re coming with us.”
His face changed.
“Where?”
“Nowhere dramatic. Daniel is going to take a recorded statement about what happened to Olivia.”
“I told you—”
“You watched an employee in my home get threatened after she was injured. You can explain exactly what you saw.”
Mercer looked toward Daniel.
Then nodded.
Luca pulled on his coat.
At the door, his phone vibrated.
A message from Vanessa.
Are you still downstairs? I can’t sleep. Come up when you’re done.
He stared at it.
Then typed four words.
I’ll be there soon.
He hated the lie even as he sent it.
Because for years he had told himself there was a difference between men like him and people who lied inside a home.
Outside, the wind hit hard enough to make his eyes water.
Daniel opened the car door.
Luca did not get in.
Instead he called a number he had not called in almost four years.
Elena answered on the fifth ring.
“Luca?”
Her voice was wary, not surprised.
He closed his eyes.
“Did Vanessa Bellini contact you about my mother’s ring?”
There was a long pause.
May you like
Then Elena said, “So she finally told you.”
