🌙 THE NIGHT THE MAID KNOCKED

Chapter 09 - Gideon’s Gun

The gun had belonged to Vittorio Orsini.

That was Gideon’s first sentence after they moved Wyatt out of the chapel.

His second was worse.

“It had been fired.”

Raphael stood behind his father’s desk.

Josephine sat near the window, arms folded tightly across herself. Gideon remained by the door, as if he expected Raphael to order him out of the house he had served for twenty-two years.

“Start at the beginning,” Raphael said.

Gideon’s face looked carved from fatigue.

“Your father called me at one seventeen that morning. He told me Dileia had been in an accident.”

“How did he know before the police?”

“I never asked.”

“You never asked?”

“I was working for Vittorio Orsini. There were many years when not asking was considered intelligence.”

Raphael’s mouth hardened.

“And now?”

“Now I know it was cowardice.”

Josephine looked at him.

Gideon continued.

“When I arrived, the car was off the road. Sam was alive.”

Josephine stood.

“What?”

The word barely came out.

“My father was alive?”

“Yes.”

Her face emptied.

Eleanor had told her Samuel died at the scene.

Gideon lowered his eyes.

“He was conscious for less than a minute.”

Josephine crossed the room.

“What did he say?”

Gideon swallowed.

“He said, ‘The baby is safe.’”

Her hand went to her mouth.

“What else?”

“He said Dileia was not driving.”

Raphael stared.

“The police report says she was behind the wheel.”

“I know.”

“Was she?”

“No.”

The room went silent.

Gideon looked at Raphael.

“Dileia was in the passenger seat.”

“Who was driving?”

“I never saw.”

Raphael leaned both hands on the desk.

“Then how did the report change?”

“Your father.”

Josephine closed her eyes.

Gideon’s voice cracked.

“Vittorio arrived before the state police. He pulled Dileia from the car. That was the blood Mrs. Roz saw later.”

Raphael looked at him sharply.

“She was alive?”

“For a few minutes.”

Raphael’s face lost all expression.

The missed call.

12:43.

For years he had pictured Dileia alone after calling him.

Now he saw his father kneeling beside her on a dark road.

“What did she say?”

Gideon looked at him with something like pity.

“She asked for you.”

Raphael turned away.

Josephine rose but did not touch him.

Not yet.

Gideon continued.

“Then she said one name.”

“Conrad?”

“No.”

Raphael looked back.

“Whose?”

Gideon shook his head.

“I could not hear it. Your father did.”

“What did he do?”

“He told me to remove the gun.”

“Why?”

“He said if police found a fired weapon registered to him in Dileia’s car, every enemy the family had would descend on the investigation.”

“That sounds like him.”

“Yes.”

“Where is the gun?”

Gideon’s answer came too slowly.

“Gone.”

Raphael moved around the desk.

“Gone where?”

“I destroyed it.”

Josephine stared at Gideon.

“So the only piece of physical evidence was destroyed because protecting the Orsini name mattered more than finding out who killed my father?”

Gideon flinched.

“Yes.”

Her eyes filled.

“Thank you for finally saying it plainly.”

Raphael closed his eyes.

There was no defense for that.

Gideon reached inside his coat.

Security moved in the hall.

Raphael raised a hand.

Gideon removed an old envelope.

“I kept one thing.”

He placed it on the desk.

A spent shell casing.

Raphael looked at him.

“You said you destroyed the gun.”

“I did.”

“But you kept this.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because Vittorio told me to destroy everything.”

Gideon’s mouth tightened.

“And for once, I did not obey him completely.”

Inside the envelope was a brass casing wrapped in tissue.

“Can it be tested?” Josephine asked.

“For marks, maybe,” Raphael said. “If the weapon no longer exists—”

“It exists.”

Everyone turned.

Conrad Vale stood in the open doorway.

He was pale from surgery, one arm held close to his body beneath a dark coat. A bandage disappeared under his collar.

Raphael’s expression became lethal.

“How did you get in?”

“Mrs. Roz.”

From the hall, Mrs. Roz called, “He said it was urgent.”

Conrad stepped inside.

His eyes moved to the shell casing.

“I know where the gun is.”

Gideon looked as if he had seen a ghost.

“You can’t.”

“I can.”

Raphael folded his arms.

“Explain.”

Conrad gave a tired smile.

“You think I killed Dileia.”

“No,” Raphael said. “I think Dileia was afraid of you. I think money moved through accounts in her name. I think you were at the hospital when Wyatt was born. I think someone dressed like Josephine and stole Dileia’s archive file.”

Conrad absorbed each point.

“And the photograph?”

Raphael did not answer.

Conrad’s eyes flicked to Josephine.

“So you found that too.”

“Were you Wyatt’s father?” Josephine asked.