Page 57 of Code Name: Dante

“Like I said, thermal imaging only shows one heat signature at the moment, but regardless of what that indicates, the utility usage patterns suggest whoever it is, isn’t there alone. It doesn’t add up.”

“Thermal imaging isn’t infallible. There are ways to go undetected.”

“You’re absolutely right, Alessandro,” said Alice. “And there’s more. We discovered the caretaker makes regular trips to a post office box in Lake Pleasant. Tex tracked some of the mail—it gets forwarded to and from various locations around the country, never staying at one address for long. Like the one here, all are boxes, of course. Oh, and some are in other countries.”

“A relay system,” I said, recognizing the technique. “Keep the real destination hidden by bouncing the mail through multiple points.”

“Exactly.” Alice nodded. “But here’s something else interesting—the names listed on the forwarding addresses. They alternate between two different ones: Catherine Ross and Maria Bennett.”

“My mother’s middle name was Catherine,” Lark whispered.

“And Maria was my grandmother’s name,” I added, thinking of the marinara-sauce recipe Barbara had mentioned. The one that had supposedly been passed down through her family but actually came from my grandmother.

“If they are aliases, they’re familiar enough to remember easily, but not obvious connections to their real identities.”

She pulled up another window, this one showing financial records. “There’s more. Two separate accounts receive regular deposits—both opened in 1998, both managed through offshore banks. The amounts are substantial.”

“Hush money?” Lark suggested.

“Exactly,” I said grimly. “Insurance that they’d keep quiet about whatever they knew.”

“Or maybe just a way to stay alive.”

Alice nodded at Lark’s comment. “The deposits come through shell companies, but Tex traced them back to entities we know Vincent controlled.”

That implication hit me hard. My brother hadn’t killed them—he’d been paying to keep them hidden. But why? What could they have known that was worth maintaining this elaborate arrangement for over twenty years? Especially after Vincent Sr. died.

“There’s something else,” Alice said, her expression troubled. “Tex found old police reports from 1998. There was a series of murders around Great Sacandaga Lake that summer, including Joseph Rossetti’s.” My newly discovered biological father. “But one case stood out—a woman whose body was never identified was found in an abandoned mine shaft. The incident records cite evidence found at the scene indicating foul play. It also suggests there was more than one person involved, meaning in addition to the killer.”

“What kind of evidence?” I asked.

“Blood. Tank sent a team to gather samples. There are a lot of factors that determine whether DNA can be extracted months, let alone years, later. However, there’s a chance they’ll find something else that could be used.”

Lark’s sharp intake of breath matched my own unease. The pieces were starting to form a pattern I didn’t like.

“The timing fits with when your mothers disappeared,” Alice continued.

“You think one person died, but another might have escaped?” Lark’s voice shook.

“It’s possible.” Alice’s fingers drummed on her desk as another image appeared on the screen. “They found a piece of jewelry at the scene. The notes say it was Italian and worth a lot of money at the time. More now.”

“Proof of death,” I muttered.

“But you think someone got away?” Lark asked.

“Maybe.” She shook her head. “It’s also possible that the unidentified woman has no connection to either of you.” Alice’s phone buzzed with an incoming message, and her eyes widened as she read it.

“What is it?” Lark and I asked simultaneously.

“Tex just reported a development. Someone’s making a phone call on a landline.”

“Can it be traced?” I asked.

Alice shook her head. “It’s being bounced through multiple relays. But look at this—” She pulled up a graph showing phone activity over the past year. “Every two weeks, like clockwork. Same duration, same time of day.”

“Someone checking in,” Lark suggested softly.

“Again, maybe. It’s certainly a plausible explanation, given the pattern. Hold on,” Alice said, moving to a different monitor. “He sent something else. Overheads show movement at night—like someone walking the grounds, but it’s inconsistent. Sometimes, there appear to be two people, some only one, and others, there are three. In every instance, the people are heavily clothed, including hoods that obscure their faces.”

---