Chapter 7: Valerio's POV

Valerio's POV

By Monday night the Gallardi house smelled like smoke.

I walked in through the kitchen, because delivery men jammed the front door.

Bianca Gallardi stood over a roasting pan with a fire extinguisher.

The pot roast in the pan was black.

"I followed the recipe," she told me.

"What recipe?"

"The one on my phone." She sat down on the counter in a silk blouse. "It said three hours. It didn't say what temperature."

I took the extinguisher out of her hands and put it on the floor.

I had eaten at this house every Thursday for a year.

In all that time the kitchen had never looked anything but spotless.

Now there were three trash bags by the back door, and nobody had taken them out.

I noticed that the way I noticed everything about that kitchen now.

It was her kitchen.

I had just never said so.

The summons came from the study.

Aurelio Gallardi stood at his desk with the consigliere at his elbow.

A pile of folded paper lay between them.

"Cipher sheets," Aurelio said. "Sixty-two of them. Sitting in the stove at the Tenafly safe house for a week."

"Who found them?"

"I did. I went looking for the stove key."

I looked at the pile.

Every page had been used once and folded in thirds, the way she did it.

"She did this on purpose," Aurelio said. "She wanted something to hold over me."

He tapped the desk.

"She was always quiet. I should have known."

"She burned them every night," I said.

He looked up at me.

"Every night for a year, Aurelio. Ask the guards."

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