The video starts to play, and it’s hard to make out what’s happening on screen, but then the sound kicks in, and—
“Oh!” I say.
The picture is still gray, shapeless, but the noises are clear. Two people having very enthusiastic sex in a dark room. And then, on the video, a light comes on, and the picture is clearer: Julian Castellani, sitting on top of someone, riding them with the intensity of a Kentucky Derby jockey.
“Oh, fuck,” Jack says, half-holding up his hand to shield the screen from his eyes.
“You’d better watch, Jack,” Julian says. “My life is at stake, after all.”
On the video, he leans over and kisses some unseen part of this unknown person, then rolls them over, hands pushing up on his chest—it’s a man, that’s all I can see—until Julian slaps him, hard, making the guy rear back, revealing his face completely—
“That’s—” Jack leans in, intent, and pauses the video. “That’s Vincenzo Esposito,” he says incredulously, staring back at Julian.
I can’t help myself. “The Esposito Enforcer?”
“A mere fling,” Julian says, with a falsely modest smile. “But you’re missing the important thing. The timestamp.” He steps forward and taps the screen, showing the date and time. “Our session was a long one—you’ll see if you keep watching—and I believe you’ll find it covers the time of Ciro’s murder.”
Alessandro will still not look Julian full in the face, and when he speaks his voice is quiet. Quiet, but unyielding. “You let an Esposito into Redwood Manor on the day of our father’s murder?”
“No, no,no,” Julian sighs, folding his arms. “This is exactly why I didn’t want to muddy the waters with this in the first place. Iknewyou’d come up with some crazy theory. I let Vincenzo into Redwood Manor the nightbefore, and he was with me the entire time he was here—that night through to that morning. I didn’t let him out of my sight—or out of my body, for that matter.”
Jack gives a small snort of laughter, but tries to stifle it. Alessandro, on the other hand, finds nothing funny about it.
“You’re telling me youneverleft him alone?” he asks coldly.
“I did,” Julian admits. “But I kept Vincenzo handcuffed to the bed the whole time he was here. Ask him, if you like—or don’t. He seemed keen to keep our little affair quiet. That’s why I was recording him in the first place.” He glances my way and adds, “Leverage, Teddy MacCallum.”
“Don’t talk to him,” Alessandro says. “Don’t even look at him.”
Julian ostentatiously moves his eyes from me to Alessandro. “Anyway. I did leave Vincenzo aloneonce. That morning, I wanted a particular toy from the cells downstairs. On my way back up, Ciro was in the study, taking a phone call from some producer, so I waited. Listened. Poor Lina Lamond was not the actress my mother was, and the producer wanted to cut her. But Ciro was past the point of caring by then. He told the producer he was done with Lina, and to do what he wanted with the movie. And when he hung up, he sent Wilson for me. Well, you can imagine how fast I bolted. Had to use the other door, the one through the kitchens.”
“Youhave a key to that door?” I break in. “Wilson said it was lost, the door permanently locked.”
Julian laughs. “There are no areas in Redwood Manor that are locked tome, Teddy MacCallum. And before Wilson made it up to my rooms, I’d already bundled darling Vincenzo back into the trunk of my car and was on the way to drop him off at the next block over,” Julian goes on. “Didn’t want to be gone too long. Wilson gave me the message when I got back.”
“How did the guards not see you smuggling a six-foot-six Esposito into your car?” Jack asks incredulously. “Maybe you looped the footage, but if they’d been watching the cameras in real time—”
Julian laughs. “Oh, Jack. The guards here are lazy. Complacent, except for that Pedretti fellow. The rest of them trust the cameras a little too much to pick up what they should be seeing with their own eyes. And Pedretti wasn’t scheduled on—I made sure of thatbeforeI invited Vincenzo over.”
If what Julian says is true, there are some deep-rooted problems in the Castellani Family.
Alessandro’s face remains impassive, but when he speaks, his voice is a soft threat. “You had an Esposito in here? Hid him, so no one would know?”
“I know what you’re going to say,” Julian says. “That it’s disloyal of me. It’s really not. I was pumping him for information.”
Jack snorts again, and turns it into a cough. “Sandro,” he says. “There’s no reason Julianwouldn’tthrow this guy under the bus, claim he’s the one who killed your dad, or set it up so someone else could. So maybe he’s telling the truth on this.”
But Alessandro looks unconvinced. “This Esposito is the only person who came on site that we didn’t know about before. And he’s been buzzing around. He asked after Julian at the funeral.”
“Did he?” Julian looks flattered. “How sweet. At leastsomeonenoticed I was missing.”
Alessandro turns slowly toward Julian. “You and I,” he says ominously, “need to have a talk. Jack, I want you to take care of Teddy. See if he needs medical attention—”
“I don’t,” I say quickly.
“—while my half-brother and I have a discussion.”
I get the feeling that this discussion might not end well for Julian. Jack obviously feels the same, because he hesitates.
