AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Oriana’s head spun with images of Nick all those years ago: her handsome, wonderful, vivacious friend. He’d had dreams and visions for his life, and they’d spoken of them endlessly, with Oriana frequently giving him advice and ideas on how to proceed.
All that time, he’d been watching her.
“I never told him to do that,” Roland said, his cheeks blotchy with rage. “That is completely unprofessional.”
“They went everywhere together,” Brea added, furrowing her brow. Suddenly, stricken, she gripped Oriana’s wrist on the tabletop and cried out, “He was at Kenny’s funeral!”
Oriana stuttered, staring into Brea’s eyes. Immediately, she was taken back to that horrific day, the very last she’d seen her best friend before Brea had taken off. It had been the day Brea had told her about the forgery.
“He must have heard us talking,” Brea whispered. “He knows.”
Oriana and Brea turned back to stare at Roland, who still looked shell-shocked, heavy with shame.
“When was that funeral?” Roland asked.
“December 28, 2000,” Brea answered.
Oriana’s brain throbbed with this influx of information.How could she put all the pieces together? How could they possibly make sense?
But a moment later, she realized something.
“I didn’t see Nick at all after that,” she breathed. “Not till earlier this month— the day I started receiving the notes from the blackmailer.”
“Oh my gosh.” Meghan closed her eyes.
“I’m going to New York City to see him tomorrow,” Oriana said. “But I don’t know how to beat him at his own game. The end of the month is just a few days away.”
Roland and Grant looked at one another gravely.
“Let us handle that part,” Roland said. “I got you into this mess. Let us get you out of it.”
ChapterTwenty-Three
As it turned out, Roland and Grant had another very good private detective connection— Rita, who was in South America but could pause for the night to do a few well-paid, hard-hitting hours studying Nick/Carl, or whatever his real name was. When Oriana learned they’d contacted Rita, she laughed and said, “She’s my private detective!” To this, Roland and Grant sighed, with Grant saying, “Maybe you didn’t need our help after all.”
By the time everyone woke up at the Coleman family house the following morning, Rita had written back with an exposé of Nick/Carl’s dealings over the years— and information about his real name.
Dear Roland, Grant, and Oriana,
It is much easier to research a man with arrogance, as he leaves clues about himself and his “true intentions” across the internet as a way to brag about how gifted and intelligent he is. I see it all over the world, in almost every case.
With that, I present to you the following:
Valentino Reggio. Originally born in Milan, Reggio came to New York as a teenager. He was penniless and worked as a pickpocket for a number of years until he met a young woman from a very wealthy family who fell in love with him. Naturally, he was charming, and he was able to rise in the ranks of her family until her father discovered he was stealing from him and kicked him out.
Around this time, he changed his name to Carl and began working as a private detective. Many people in New York City and surrounding areas used him, as he had a marvelous way of getting into other people’s business. He was paid handsomely for his efforts, which led to suits, shoes, beautiful apartments, and vacations to Europe, all that jazz.
It seems that around 1999 or so, he started going by the name of Nick and hanging out with the artistic elite. In 2001, he began buying and dealing art— which, it seems, brought him great success for a period of time, that is, until recently.
According to several sources, most of the art Nick was dealing with were forgeries. Nick’s career is on the brink of ruin, and he’s had to pay millions of dollars to previous clients to shut them up and avoid going to prison.
Another source close to me, one I cannot reveal, tells a horrible story of Nick attempting to kidnap the son of a previous client and then returning him, pretending to have been the one who’d found him. This ultimately backfired. However, Nick knew enough about the client’s backstory and illegal dealings that the client chose not to bring the story to the public eye.
In any case, this Nick/Carl/Valentino character seems terrible and potentially dangerous. Please, be careful in dealing with him.
Best,
Rita
