The Photograph in the Frame
Chapter 11 - The Photograph in the Frame
Hannah had never imagined sitting at the dining table of a man whose family name made her former boss nervous. But Adrian insisted they eat in the small kitchen instead of the formal dining room. Lucia wanted macaroni and cheese. Hannah helped set the plates while Adrian struggled with a pot that had boiled over.
“You're not very good at this,” Hannah observed.
“An understatement.”
Lucia laughed so hard she nearly dropped her spoon. Adrian grinned, surprised at how quickly the sound changed the entire house.
After dinner Lucia showed Hannah her drawings. One depicted Elena in a yellow dress standing beside a red car. Behind the car was a tall man near a gate.
“Who's that?” Hannah asked without suggesting an answer.
“Uncle Vince,” Lucia said. “He was shouting at Mommy.”
Adrian's breath caught. Elena had driven a red car. On the evening before her death she had argued with Vincent in the courtyard. Adrian remembered the argument only because a staff member mentioned it afterward.
He quietly asked his attorney whether there might be contemporaneous records. Miriam advised him not to use Lucia as a source of investigative detail. The child needed protection from adult expectations, not repeated questions. Adrian agreed.
Later Mrs. Alvarez found an old photograph in the estate archive. It showed Elena near her car, Vincent a few feet behind, his hand raised in what might have been an angry gesture. The date matched the evening Lucia remembered.
The image did not prove what happened on the road the following night, but it corroborated that a confrontation had occurred.
Hannah sensed how heavily it weighed on Adrian. As she prepared to leave, she found him standing beside Elena's portrait.
“You don't have to solve everything tonight,” she said.
He shook his head. “I thought if I worked hard enough, my daughter wouldn't feel what she lost.”
“People don't stop grieving because you buy them a beautiful house.”
Adrian smiled sadly. “You have a talent for telling me things nobody else dares say.”
“That's not always good for my employment prospects.”
He laughed, then grew serious. “I want to help you with the way Bellini's treated you. No favors attached.”
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“My lawyer can handle it,” she said. “But thank you.”
For the first time in years, Adrian respected someone more because she didn't need him to solve her life.
