The Missing Keys
Chapter 03 - The Missing Keys
Rose spent the night in a private hospital suite, not because Dante thought she was incapable of living at home, but because she'd been dizzy, dehydrated, and afraid. A physician confirmed that she needed evaluation, nutrition, and time to recover. No one made a diagnosis from a dinner-table confrontation.
Evelyn returned to the Belvedere kitchen expecting dismissal. Instead, its director gave her the remainder of the night off with pay. She rode the subway to Queens with her shoes in a paper bag and the memory of Rose's voice echoing in her head.
At home her younger brother Ben was asleep on the sofa amid college applications. Their rent notice lay on the counter. Evelyn tucked a blanket over him, then opened the battered biscuit tin containing their mother's photographs.
One photograph stopped her. Her mother, Laura Hart, stood beside a woman Evelyn had never noticed closely. The other woman's features resembled Rose Romano's.
At dawn, Dante called.
“I hope I'm not disturbing you, Ms. Hart. My mother would like to speak to you again. You're under no obligation.”
“Why me?”
“She says your name reminds her of someone she lost.”
Evelyn looked at the photograph in her hand. “I think I have questions too.”
***
Back at the Romano estate, Anthony reported that Rose's cell phone had been found locked in Celeste's dressing room. Her house keys were inside the same drawer. Two property agents had visited Rose's brownstone without her knowledge.
The townhouse on East Seventy-Eighth Street wasn't grand by Romano standards. Rose had lived there since marrying Dante's father. She refused every offer to move, saying it held the marks on the doorway showing how tall her son had grown.
Dante stared at the listing agreement. “She would never sell that house.”
“Someone initiated the process,” Anthony said. “The broker thought your mother had authorized it.”
“And had she?”
“The signatures need verification.”
Dante folded the document, resisting the old instinct to settle matters by intimidation. His mother's situation demanded more than fear. It demanded facts strong enough to protect her in any courtroom.
Then he called Celeste.
She answered brightly. “Have you calmed down?”
“Why was Ma's phone in your room?”
Silence.
“Celeste?”
“She was calling strangers and getting confused. I took it for her safety.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“You were working.”
Dante looked at his father's portrait above the desk. He had used those same words himself far too many times.
“You'll return her belongings to Anthony. And until this is resolved, you'll have no role in her affairs.”
Celeste whispered, “You're making a mistake.”
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“Then the evidence will prove it.”
After hanging up, Dante opened his mother's old address book. Beside Margaret's name, he found a telephone number crossed out in red ink. Written underneath were two words: FIND EVELYN.
