The Vow She Will Not Make

Sunday came. Salvatore Conti did not resign. Marco did not come back to the dock. The prosecco bottle was not returned. The two crystal glasses were not returned. The boat did not appear on the lake at sunset. The Conti line went quiet in the way that the Conti line had always gone quiet — the kind of quiet that meant the line was planning, not retreating.

I sat in the breakfast room on Sunday morning and read the Como paper and waited for Roman to come down. Roman did not come down. Roman's study door was closed. The study had been closed since Friday evening. Bianchi had been inside the study since Saturday morning. The study was the only room in the villa where the door was made of walnut and the lock was the kind of lock that does not open from the outside.