Chapter 3
Adrian had signed away his vote before Serena picked up the hose.
I read the document twice. It gave Dante authority to vote Adrian’s shares for thirty days unless Adrian revoked it in writing. A line beneath his signature said the revocation had to be delivered to the company secretary.
“Did you receive a copy when you signed?” Miriam asked him.
“No. Dante sent this photograph after the party.”
“Then send a revocation now. We’ll deliver it in person when the office opens.”
Adrian looked relieved.
Miriam did not.
“Dante may argue the proxy can’t be revoked during a pending meeting,” she said. “He would lose eventually, but he may only need tomorrow morning.”
I asked Adrian what Dante had told him the document was.
“A way to keep the board from using my signature on the shipment against me.”
“You didn’t read it?”
“I read the first page.”
There were four pages.
I wanted to tell him what his father would have thought. I stopped myself. Adrian already knew he had been careless. I needed the truth about how Dante had persuaded him.
“What did Serena know?” I asked.
“All of it.”
“Did she ask you to sign?”
“She brought the papers to me. Dante said she was helping.”
I pictured Serena smiling as twenty-four glasses rose.
At six, Miriam and I went to the diner. She drove. I wore a scarf over my bruised cheek because I wanted the woman who had contacted me to recognize my face, not spend the meeting staring at it.
She was waiting in a booth near the back. Her name was Nina Flores. She managed the catering crew for the reception.
“I’m sorry I left,” she said as soon as we sat down. “My staff were there.”
“You sent the photographs,” I answered. “Tell us what you heard.”
Nina had watched Grant distribute cards before the guests arrived. He called them seating notes, but she had found one beneath a chair after the party.
She slid it across the table.
On one side was the Bellini crest. On the other was a short instruction:
WHEN SERENA ASKS FOR SUPPORT, RAISE YOUR GLASS. DANTE WILL UNDERSTAND YOUR VOTE.
Below it, in smaller print, was a promised bonus for attending the next day’s board meeting.
“Did every guest receive one?” Miriam asked.
“No. Grant gave them to certain people. I recognized Martin Kessler and Beatrice Vale. A few others were directors. Some weren’t.”
That explained the count. The raised glasses were a display meant to make me feel abandoned and give Dante a quick picture of his support. They had no legal force.
“Why show me the card?” I asked.
Nina glanced toward the diner window.
“Grant offered me money to delete the garden footage. My team put cameras up for the reception video. I told him I needed the company owner’s approval.”
“You kept it?”
“Yes. I copied it before he took the camera.”
I called Detective Hale, whose name was on my police report. He agreed to collect the card and footage from Nina. She wanted her staff kept out of the fight. Hale told her he would take their statements only if they had relevant information and would explain the process to each of them.
When Nina left, Miriam studied the card.
“Dante promised money for votes he already thought he had,” she said. “He must need the terminal sale badly.”
At the office, Adrian signed the revocation in front of Miriam. We delivered it to the company secretary at eight. She stamped our copy with the time.
Dante arrived at eight-ten.
He saw the paper in Miriam’s hand and stopped.
“You’re making a mistake, Adrian,” he said.
Adrian stood beside me. “You should have told me what I signed.”
“I did.”
“You told me it would protect me.”
“It still could have.”
Dante moved toward the conference room. Miriam stepped into his path.
“The proxy has been revoked. If you attempt to use it, we will object on the record.”
He gave her a thin smile.
“Then we’ll see how the directors vote without it.”
Inside, the room filled with people who had been laughing at me less than twelve hours earlier. Beatrice kept her eyes on her folder. Martin avoided my side of the table.
Serena arrived with Grant. Her lawyer followed them in.
The chair called the meeting to order. Dante proposed suspending me. He presented the doctor’s statement and said my conduct at the engagement reception showed I was no longer fit to lead.
I put the police report on the table.
“This describes my conduct,” I said. “It also describes Serena’s.”
Serena’s lawyer rose. Miriam objected because Serena was not a director. The chair asked the lawyer to sit down.
Dante began the vote before anyone could ask about the doctor.
Miriam stood.
“The medical statement is false. My client was elsewhere at the time of the supposed examination, with four witnesses. We request the vote be delayed until the board verifies the document.”
Dante called that an excuse.
Then Adrian spoke.
“I gave Dante a proxy because I was frightened about a shipment I approved. I revoked it this morning. I won’t vote to suspend my mother on a statement we already know is disputed.”
The room changed. I heard chairs move. One director asked to see the time stamp on the revocation.
Dante leaned toward Adrian.
“If you say another word, the river shipment comes out.”
Adrian’s voice shook, but he did not lower it.
“I’ve already told my mother.”
The chair called a recess. Before anyone could leave, my phone rang.
May you like
It was Rosa.
“Mrs. Bellini,” she said, “someone has opened the locked records room at the house.”
