Page 38 of Kings & Carnage

"That's why I lied to you," I said. "I didn't think you'd believe me.”

"And you think that gives you the right to violate my private space?" she asked.

"Was I wrong?" I asked. "If I'd knocked on your door and told you everything I knew, everything that had happened to me at the cabin, would you have believed me? Would you have wanted to help?”

She reached for her teacup and brought it to her lips with shaking hands.

I resisted the urge to fill the silence with more words. She hadn't kicked me out yet and I had the sense that she was actually considering what I'd said.

I’d almost broken through. I could feel it.

She set her cup down with a sigh. "I loved my husband, even with all the flaws one discovers after twenty-five years of marriage, but he was no mastermind.”

I hesitated over my next question. Dean Giordana had died in the cabin fire. Whatever else he'd done, he was this woman's husband and his death had obviously leveled her.

"The cabin that burned down," I started, trying to be sensitive to the fact that it had been the site of her husband's death, "it was owned by Roberto Alinari. I only know that because of the binders in Dean Giordana's study.”

She furrowed her brow. "That cabin isn't campus property. I don't know why my husband would have had information on it.”

"I don't know either," I said. "But when I was there with him and the other man, I got the feeling that they weren't working alone. That they were taking orders from someone else. Then I found out the cabin was owned by Roberto, and I started to wonder who else might be involved.”

"How do you know all of this is tied to the disappearance of your sister?" she asked.

"I don't. Not for sure. I'm just putting pieces together and seeing what makes sense. I started digging for information about my sister and then I got threatening letters telling me to stop looking. Next thing you know, I'm about to be buried alive." I leaned forward. “And the thing is, Emma wasn't the only girl to go missing from Bellepoint.”

She was either an excellent actress or she was truly surprised. "I haven't heard of any missing girls from Bellepoint except your sister.”

"No one has," I said. "It was made to look like they'd all left voluntarily. Plus, they were girls of color.”

She nodded her understanding. "I see.”

"I could always be wrong, but it all feels connected. I don't know how but…" I looked down at my hands and drew in a breath, feeling the ache of Emma's absence from my life all over again. "I have to figure it out. My sister was here and then she wasn't and no one has any idea what happened to her. It's… well, it’s torture actually.”

"I'm sorry." She sounded like she meant it. "I just don't know how I can help. Stephen was… eager to impress his old classmates from Aventine. He'd attended on a scholarship and had never quite fit in. His need to be accepted by men who were half as smart and morally bankrupt besides was one of his flaws. It was a point of contention between us. We avoided the topic as much as possible.”

A picture of Dean Giordana was crystallizing in my mind: the poor kid at a school filled with rich ones. Maybe his father had been a minor criminal with big dreams for his son and had pushed him to attend Aventine. Maybe Stephen Giordana had his own big dreams.

Whatever the circumstances that had led him to the school, he'd ended up an outcast, something Roberto could have used to cultivate a groupie.

Maybe Roberto had accumulated dirt on Dean Giordana at some point in their friendship. Maybe Dean Giordana didn't need that kind of blackmail to try and make a place for himself as Roberto's friend and ally.

Either way, he'd wound up doing Roberto's bidding.

But Mrs. Giordana had been right when she said her husband was no mastermind, and I still had a feeling there was more to the picture than just Roberto.

"The only reason I know Roberto Alinari owned that cabin is because of the binders I found on the shelf in your husband's study," I repeated, circling back to the information I hoped to find.

"You think there might be more information there," she said.

"I don't know, but it's the only place I can think of to look," I said.

She got to her feet and looked down at me. "You asked me if I would have believed you when you came to the house before. The truth is, I don't know." Her dark eyes, weary and resigned just an hour before, now held a spark of conviction. "But I believe you now."

Chapter17

Oscar

Iopened my phone as a reflex, planning to check my text messages, before I remembered it was a burner.

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