Marco’s face twisted.
“You think you’re clever because you answer phones and carry coffee? You’re replaceable.
Your mother’s bills made you easy to use, and they’ll make you easy to bury.”
The words left his mouth before he realized what he had admitted.
Silence followed.
Dominic’s voice was almost gentle.
“Easy to use?”
Marco froze.
I felt the room turn toward him.
Dominic stood fully, placing himself in front of me.
“Explain that sentence.”
“I meant the Costellos used her.”
“You said her bills made her easy to use.”
“Everyone knows about the bills.”
“No,” I said.
My voice was quieter than his, but it reached every corner of the room.
“Only payroll knew I requested an advance.
Only you and Mr.
Viscari had access to that request.”
Dominic glanced at me.
I had not known whether he remembered approving the advance.
The change in his eyes told me he did.
Marco tried to speak, but I continued.
“The request included the hospital, the amount, and my mother’s surgery date.
That is how you knew I wouldn’t be here Tuesday night.”
One of the men pushed his chair back.
Another closed the report and placed both palms on top of it.
The judgment of the room had shifted completely.
Marco’s accusation had depended on my silence.
Every word I spoke tightened the trap.
“You took my badge before I left,” I said.
“You bumped into me near the elevator and knocked my purse down.
You apologized.
You helped pick everything up.”
I saw the moment in my memory with painful clarity.
Marco kneeling beside the scattered contents of my purse.
My keys.
My wallet.
My mother’s medication list.
My employee badge.
He had handed the purse back with a sympathetic smile and told me he hoped the surgery went well.
I had thought the kindness strange.
Now I knew it had never been kindness.
“You copied the badge,” I said.
“That’s absurd.”
Dominic tapped his phone again.
A second recording appeared.
The executive elevator at 11:36 Tuesday night.
Marco stepped out alone and used a badge against the reader.
The system log beside the footage identified the credential as mine.
Marco’s breathing changed.
He turned toward the locked door.
“Open it.”
No one obeyed.
“I said open the door.”
Dominic remained still.
