Chapter 3 - THE WIFE WHO HAD NEVER BEEN MARRIED
The detectives separated Penelope from her family.
They tried to separate her from Matteo.
That proved more difficult.
Detective Helen Ward was a compact woman in her fifties with intelligent brown eyes and no apparent fear of the Duca name. She led them into a conference room near the ballroom and closed the door.
“Mr. Duca, unless you are Ms. Hayes’s attorney, you cannot remain during questioning.”
Matteo sat beside Penelope.
“She asked for her husband.”
Ward looked at Penelope’s left hand.
There was no ring.
“When did you get married?”
Penelope’s mouth went dry.
Matteo answered. “That is private.”
“Marriage licenses are public records.”
“Ours is not yet filed.”
Ward leaned back. “Then you aren’t legally married.”
“Not being legally married does not prevent me from advising her to remain silent.”
Penelope looked at him.
“Are you an attorney?”
“No.”
“Then stop advising the witness,” Ward said.
Matteo’s gaze cooled.
Penelope touched his wrist.
The small contact made him look at her.
“I can answer basic questions.”
“You can,” he said. “You don’t have to.”
Ward noticed the exchange.
She opened a folder.
“At eight twenty-seven tonight, an executive credential assigned to Penelope Hayes accessed the forty-first floor. At eight thirty-one, a second credential opened Mr. Duca’s private office. At eight fifty-six, security found confidential files in a locked cabinet inside Ms. Hayes’s office.”
“I didn’t put them there,” Penelope said.
“Who has access to your office?”
“Management. Security. Housekeeping supervisors.”
“And Bradley Jenkins?”
“No.”
Ward slid a photograph across the table.
It showed Bradley entering Penelope’s office the previous Tuesday.
“You told hotel security he was alone there for five minutes.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I had to assist a guest.”
“What was he doing in your office?”
“He brought wedding vendor contracts for Madison.”
“Did he touch your credential?”
“I don’t know. My purse was beneath the desk.”
Ward showed another photograph.
Bradley stood near the desk with his back to the camera. One hand was inside Penelope’s purse.
Her stomach twisted.
“He said he was looking for a pen.”
“When?”
“When I came back. I asked why my purse was open.”
“And you believed him?”
“He was my sister’s future brother-in-law. I didn’t think he was cloning my badge.”
Ward studied her.
“What exactly was stolen?”
Penelope looked at Matteo.
He answered the detective.
“Property deeds, environmental assessments, and preliminary acquisition agreements.”
“For which property?”
“Calumet River industrial land.”
Ward’s expression changed.
Penelope noticed.
“You know the property,” Matteo said.
“I know there are multiple investigations involving that corridor.”
“What investigations?” Penelope asked.
Ward closed the folder.
“Organized crime, bribery, fraudulent zoning approvals, and the disappearance of a city inspector named Evan Bell.”
Penelope looked at Matteo.
He showed no surprise.
“You knew about the inspector.”
“I knew he disappeared.”
“Did the documents relate to him?”
“Not directly.”
Ward gave him a skeptical look.
“Mr. Duca, four companies are fighting for control of that property. One belongs to you. Another is represented by Bradley Jenkins’s firm.”
“And the others?”
“A development consortium and a shell company called North Meridian Holdings.”
Matteo’s jaw tightened at the name.
Penelope saw it.
“What is North Meridian?”
He did not answer.
Ward did.
“A company linked to Carlo Duca.”
Penelope frowned. “Related?”
“My uncle,” Matteo said.
Ward leaned forward.
“Carlo Duca controlled the family organization before Matteo. Seven years ago, he disappeared.”
“Disappeared?” Penelope repeated.
Matteo’s voice remained calm. “His boat was found in Lake Michigan. His body was not.”
“And now a company tied to him is purchasing property beside yours?”
“Yes.”
Ward looked at Penelope.
“Do you understand why your badge matters?”
“No.”
“If Carlo Duca is alive, someone inside the hotel may be helping him identify Matteo’s security weaknesses.”
Penelope tried to process that.
“I’m a guest-relations manager. I don’t know anything about criminal organizations or industrial property.”
“But you know this hotel,” Ward said. “Its cameras, service corridors, guest records, security access, and VIP schedules.”
The implication chilled her.
Someone could use her identity to move through the Lakeshore Grand without immediately attracting suspicion.
Ward stood.
“We are not arresting you tonight. But do not leave Chicago.”
Matteo rose.
“She will leave this room.”
“That is generally what happens when an interview ends.”
“And her employment?”
“Not my decision.”
The hotel’s general manager made that decision twenty minutes later.
Charles Wentworth met them outside the conference room. He looked miserable.
“Penelope, pending the internal investigation, we have to place you on administrative leave.”
Her chest tightened.
“How long?”
“I don’t know.”
“My sister’s wedding is here in two days.”
“You may attend as a guest, but you cannot access staff areas.”
“I planned the entire weekend.”
“I’m sorry.”
She had heard those words many times from people doing things that benefited themselves.
Penelope unclipped her badge and handed it to him.
Matteo took it before Wentworth could.
“Preserve this for independent examination.”
Wentworth looked nervous. “Hotel security needs it.”
“Hotel security allowed a duplicate to enter my private floor.”
“Mr. Duca—”
“You will receive it after my investigator images the chip.”
Wentworth glanced at Penelope.
She was too exhausted to argue.
Her family waited near the ballroom.
Madison rushed toward her.
“What happened?”
“I’ve been suspended.”
Her mother gasped.
Bradley stood behind Nathan.
He had removed his jacket.
White powder marked the edge of his right cuff.
Penelope saw it.
So did Matteo.
Luca stepped between Bradley and the exit.
“Mr. Jenkins,” he said, “please raise your hands.”
Bradley looked down.
He saw the powder.
For one second, fear broke through his expression.
Then he laughed.
“This is ridiculous. Penelope touched me upstairs.”
“No, I didn’t,” she said.
“You pushed past me.”
“I never touched your cuffs.”
Bradley looked toward Matteo.
“Maybe your security planted it.”
Matteo approached him.
Every conversation in the ballroom stopped.
“You opened my office,” Matteo said.
“No.”
“You searched the briefcase.”
“No.”
“And then you placed the documents in Penelope’s office.”
Bradley’s face reddened. “You can’t prove any of that.”
Luca held up a transparent evidence sleeve containing a tiny electronic device.
“This was recovered from the lining of your jacket.”
Bradley’s confidence vanished.
Penelope recognized the device only because she had seen hotel security use similar tools.
A credential scanner.
Nathan stared at his brother.
“What did you do?”
“Nothing. Someone planted that.”
“Who?”
Bradley looked around desperately.
Then his eyes settled on Penelope.
“She did.”
Madison stepped backward as though struck.
Bradley continued.
“She wanted revenge. She has hated me since I ended the engagement.”
Penelope could not believe what she was hearing.
“You followed me upstairs.”
“Because you texted me.”
“I did not.”
He removed his phone and showed the screen.
A message appeared from Penelope’s number.
MEET ME IN THE VIP LOUNGE. COME ALONE. WE CAN FINALLY END THIS.
Her skin prickled.
“I never sent that.”
Ward took the phone.
The message was real.
Or convincing enough to appear real.
Bradley pointed at her.
“She told me Matteo had documents that could destroy Nathan’s family.”
Nathan’s face changed.
“What does my family have to do with it?”
Bradley stopped.
Too late.
Matteo noticed.
“So that is what they told you,” he said.
Bradley’s eyes moved toward the door.
Luca blocked him.
“Who told you?” Matteo asked.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“The person who gave you the duplicated badge.”
“No one gave me anything.”
“The person who promised to protect your partnership if you entered my office.”
Bradley said nothing.
Matteo moved closer.
“The person who knew exactly which insult would make Penelope emotional enough to become useful.”
Penelope felt sick.
Had Bradley’s cruelty been planned?
No.
She understood almost immediately that it had not.
Someone had merely relied on it.
Bradley had been given a task. Humiliating her had been the part he performed freely.
“Tell them,” Nathan said.
Bradley looked at his younger brother.
“I was trying to protect you.”
“From what?”
“Holloway found irregularities in Dad’s company.”
Nathan went pale.
Their father, Richard Jenkins, owned a construction business that handled municipal projects across Illinois.
“What irregularities?”
“Payments through North Meridian.”
Matteo’s eyes narrowed.
Bradley continued.
“Someone called me last week. They said Dad signed contracts tied to money laundering. They said if I didn’t retrieve Duca’s acquisition files, they would send everything to federal prosecutors.”
Nathan stared. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because you were getting married.”
“So you framed Penelope?”
“I wasn’t supposed to frame her.”
Bradley looked at Penelope.
For the first time, she saw guilt.
It did not make her feel better.
“They told me her badge would open the lounge. I was supposed to copy one file and leave. The documents weren’t meant to disappear.”
“Who called you?” Matteo asked.
“A woman.”
“Name.”
“She never gave one.”
“Voice?”
“Older. Maybe fifty.”
Matteo exchanged a glance with Luca.
Penelope saw recognition.
“You know who she is.”
“Possibly.”
“Who?”
Matteo looked toward the wedding guests.
“This is not the place.”
Penelope stepped closer.
“My sister is marrying into a family being blackmailed. I have been suspended from my job and accused of theft. It became the place when all of that happened in front of everyone.”
Matteo considered her words.
Then he said, “The woman may be Sofia Duca.”
“Your mother?” Luca asked.
Matteo’s expression turned to stone.
“My aunt.”
Luca looked genuinely disturbed.
“That’s impossible.”
“Why?” Penelope asked.
Matteo held her gaze.
“Because Sofia was in the car when my parents were murdered.”
The room went silent.
“She died twenty years ago,” he said.
Bradley’s phone rang.
Everyone looked at the screen.
UNKNOWN NUMBER.
Ward answered and activated the speaker.
A woman’s voice filled the ballroom.
“Matteo.”
His entire body went still.
“I see you found your little wife,” the woman said.
Penelope felt Matteo’s hand close around hers.
The caller laughed softly.
“Keep her close. The last woman a Duca loved did not survive the week.”
The line disconnected.
Matteo remained motionless.
Then he looked at Penelope.
Whatever warmth she had seen in him upstairs had vanished behind something colder than anger.
“Our arrangement ends now,” he said.
Penelope stared.
“You said the weekend.”
“I changed my mind.”
“Why?”
“Because you are no longer pretending to be my wife.”
May you like
He released her hand.
“You are a target.”
