Chapter 6 — The Man at the Garage

At breakfast, Mara asked Mrs. Russo for the staff schedule from the night she remembered seeing Adrian near the motorcycle.

“What for?” Mrs. Russo asked.

“I’m trying to place when it happened.”

“Tell Mr. Moretti if it concerns yesterday.”

“I will. I want to be certain first.”

Mrs. Russo opened her folder and found the date Mara gave her. Mara had worked late that evening after a guest room flooded. She had carried dry towels across the courtyard at eleven forty.

Adrian’s name appeared on the security rota. His shift had ended at ten.

“Could he have stayed?” Mara asked.

“He often does.”

Mara thanked her. The schedule proved almost nothing. She went to the garage and asked the mechanic for another look at his photographs of the altered bike.

He spread them on a workbench. Mara focused on the bright mark she had noticed. Beside it was a faint crescent of old dirt, interrupted where a tool had rested.

“This wasn’t done weeks ago,” the mechanic said when she pointed it out. “The fresh mark and the disturbed dirt are recent.”

“So seeing Adrian beside it weeks ago doesn’t put him here yesterday.”

“No. But it might tell you he had a reason to examine that area.”

Mara went directly to Nico.

He was in his study with his jacket off and a row of security reports on the desk. She told him exactly what she remembered, then showed him the staff schedule.

“Adrian was there after his shift,” she said. “He told me you’d asked him to check the bike.”

“I didn’t.”

“You might have forgotten a small request made weeks ago.”

“I didn’t ask Adrian to check my motorcycle.”

Nico said it without hesitation. Mara sat opposite him and waited while he considered the rest.

“Why didn’t you tell me yesterday?” he asked.

“I only remembered last night. I needed to pin down the date.”

“He has access to the cameras,” Nico said.

“So do other people. I don’t know what he was doing there.”

Nico looked toward the window. Twelve years of working with Adrian could not be put aside because Mara had seen him crouch beside a motorcycle. But Nico did not dismiss her, either.

“We’ll find out,” he said.

By noon, they had a plan. Nico would tell his senior staff that the black motorcycle had been repaired and that he intended to ride it the following morning. The damaged part remained in place, with the bike unable to leave the garage. The mechanic alone knew what had been done to keep it from starting.

A second camera would watch the bay from a storage cabinet across the room. Its feed would go directly to Nico’s study. They would also station men near both exits, far enough away to avoid warning anyone who entered.

Mara examined the cabinet before the camera was installed. She suggested moving a stack of boxes so the view included the side of the bike the mechanic had photographed. Nico passed the instruction to the technician.

At dinner, Adrian joined a brief meeting in Nico’s office. Mara did not attend. She waited afterward in the hall, studying Adrian’s face as he came out.

He gave her the same polite nod he always did.

Nico asked her to meet him in the study at midnight. “You can watch the feed from there.”

“I intend to.”

“Adrian knows the security system,” he said. “He may spot the camera.”

“Then your men can still watch the doors. And if he stays away, we lose nothing.”

Nico placed his hand on the back of a chair, close to hers. For a moment Mara thought he might touch her. Instead, he said, “I’m sorry I need your help with this.”

“You didn’t make me see him at the bike. And you didn’t make me come to you.”

“I know.”

“Then trust that I chose to be here.”

He looked at her for a long time. “I do.”

The words stayed with her through the rest of the evening.

At 11:55, Mara entered his study. Two monitors showed the garage from different angles. Nico sat beside the desk, watching both. A pair of guards waited downstairs.

Midnight passed. Then one o’clock.

Mara kept a cup of coffee between her hands. On the screen, the black motorcycle stood beneath the ordinary ceiling lights. Its polished tank reflected the empty room.

At 1:42, the service door opened.

A man stepped inside. He wore dark clothes and carried a small bag. He crossed directly to Nico’s motorcycle, avoiding the visible camera’s line of sight.

The second camera showed his face.

Adrian.

Mara set down her cup before she spilled it. Nico did not move. On-screen, Adrian opened the bag and took out a tool.

“Send them,” Nico said into the radio.

The garage doors opened almost together. Adrian straightened, the tool still in his hand, as Nico’s men entered from both sides.

He glanced toward the cabinet. He had found the hidden camera too late.

Nico rose and went to the study door. Mara followed him. Neither spoke on the stairs.

By the time they reached the garage, the guards had taken Adrian’s bag. He stood between them, uninjured and disturbingly calm.

“You knew,” Nico said.

Adrian’s eyes flicked to Mara. “She’s observant.”

“She heard the bike,” Nico said.

“Yes.” Adrian’s expression hardened. “I’ve heard.”

Mara stepped beside Nico. She wanted to ask Adrian whether he had altered the motorcycle himself. Before she could, an alarm sounded from the security office.

One guard pressed his earpiece. “Vehicles approaching the front gate. Four of them. Fast.”

Nico turned toward the courtyard. Adrian did not.

Mara looked at his face. He had expected the alarm.

“Get everyone inside,” Nico ordered.

A second report came over the radio. The lead vehicle had struck the outer gate, backing off before the guards could reach it. Two more were lining up on the road.

The men holding Adrian shifted their attention for a fraction of a second. He smiled.

Mara moved closer to Nico. “He came into the garage knowing you might catch him.”

Adrian’s smile disappeared.

The guard’s radio crackled again. Men were requesting permission to leave the rear post and reinforce the front.

Mara looked past the black motorcycle to the service door Adrian had used. Beyond it lay the narrow road running behind the garages.

“Nico,” she said, catching his arm. “Don’t send them to the gate.”

A fresh impact sounded in the distance.

She pointed to the rear of the property. “Keep your men on that road. Whatever he wants is happening there.”