Chapter 6 - PRESSURE DAYS
The phrase “pressure days” appeared twenty-three times in Wendy’s notebook. Each entry was written in the same careful handwriting as the meal chart.
Some dates were marked with only initials.
Others included instructions.
Reduce contact.
Hold mail.
No dessert.
Mention nursing home.
Repeat until signature.
Luca read the scanned pages in Rachel’s office and felt something deeper than anger.
He felt disgust.
Wendy had turned fear into a schedule.
Jessi’s hunger had not been accidental neglect.
It had been leverage.
The financial crimes investigator, Detective Mara Sloan, sat across from Luca with a legal pad covered in notes.
“We believe the notebook documents coercive tactics,” she said. “But we still need to establish who created the broader scheme.”
“Eric,” Luca said.
“Maybe. We prove, not assume.”
Luca recognized his own professional language and almost smiled.
“Fair.”
Mara continued.
“Your wife’s notes include eleven other initials. Noah’s ledger contains eleven corresponding clients. We’re contacting families carefully.”
“Are they safe?”
“Some are. We don’t know about all of them yet.”
Luca looked away.
That uncertainty would stay with him for a long time.
Eric Vance was questioned that afternoon.
He denied everything.
He claimed Wendy had asked him for ordinary retirement planning advice and that he never knew Jessi was being mistreated.
Then investigators showed him video of his visits.
His attorney ended the interview.
Wendy also hired counsel.
Her position changed again.
First, she had said Jessi fell.
Then she said Jessi was confused.
Now she said Luca had manipulated his mother into making false allegations because he wanted a divorce without losing money.
When Rachel read the claim aloud, Luca almost laughed.
“Of course.”
“She is building a counter-narrative,” Rachel said.
“She always does.”
“That doesn’t mean we ignore it.”
Luca nodded.
Rachel began compiling documentation showing that Luca had been out of town during many of the alleged incidents and had transferred no money from Jessi’s accounts.
The hospital records supported the timing of injuries.
The hidden camera supported physical intimidation.
The forged document supported the financial motive.
The notebook supported intent.
Still, the case was not finished.
Then the bank called.
Aster House Consulting had attempted to move sixty-eight thousand dollars overseas.
The transfer was stopped because of the asset preservation order.
The destination account belonged to a holding company connected to Eric Vance.
That night, Wendy called Luca for the first time since the hospital.
He almost let it ring.
Then Rachel said, “Answer. Speakerphone. Don’t provoke. Don’t promise. Just listen.”
Luca accepted the call.
“Hello.”
For several seconds, Wendy said nothing.
Then she began to cry.
Not loudly.
Softly.
“Luca, please.”
He stared at the wall.
“What do you want?”
“I want my husband back.”
Rachel made no expression.
Wendy continued.
“Eric used me.”
Luca’s eyes narrowed.
“He told me your mother needed professional management. He said the accounts should be protected before she became incompetent.”
“Did he tell you to lock the pantry?”
Silence.
“Wendy?”
“She was eating constantly.”
“Did he tell you to restrict her meals?”
“I was overwhelmed.”
“Did he tell you to take her phone?”
“She kept calling you at work.”
“Did he tell you to grab her hard enough to leave bruises?”
Wendy’s crying stopped.
The silence became flat.
“You have no idea what she did to me.”
Luca looked at Rachel.
Rachel wrote one word on a legal pad.
Continue.
“What did she do to you?” Luca asked.
“She judged me. Every day. The way I cooked. The way I decorated. The way I spent money.”
“So you starved her?”
“I did not starve her.”
“You wrote ‘no dessert’ and ‘reduce contact’ beside pressure days.”
Another silence.
Then Wendy said, “You found the notebook.”
It was not a question.
Luca said nothing.
Her breathing changed again.
“You invaded my privacy.”
“That notebook documented my mother’s punishment.”
“It documented a difficult living arrangement.”
“Why were her account balances beside the punishments?”
Wendy did not answer.
Luca heard movement on her end.
A door.
Maybe footsteps.
Then she spoke in a lower voice.
“Luca, there are things you don’t understand.”
“Explain them.”
“Not on the phone.”
“Then say them to police.”
The line went dead.
Rachel immediately saved the recording through a lawful recording setup permitted under the circumstances and jurisdiction after confirming the process with counsel.
“Useful,” she said.
“Not enough.”
“No. But useful.”
An hour later, Mara called.
Officers had attempted to locate Wendy at her hotel.
She was gone.
Her phone was found in the room.
Her rental car was discovered at the airport parking garage.
But no commercial flight record showed her leaving.
“Do you think she ran?” Luca asked.
“We think she wants us to think she flew.”
Luca’s stomach tightened.
“Where would she go?”
Mara hesitated.
“We were hoping you could tell us.”
He thought through every place Wendy had ever loved.
Her sister lived in Denver.
Her college roommate lived in Miami.
Her father’s old cabin had been sold years earlier.
Then he remembered something.
Six months ago, Wendy had insisted they visit a rural lake house outside Madison.
She said it belonged to a friend.
Luca had stayed only one night before leaving for work.
He never learned the friend’s name.
He told Mara.
Within twenty minutes, investigators identified the property owner.
A shell company.
Aster House Consulting.
The same company tied to Eric.
Mara ended the call quickly.
Luca stood beside the window as rain began to hit the glass.
Rachel packed her files.
“If she’s there, they’ll find her.”
Luca nodded, but his attention had shifted.
On the street below, cars moved through the wet city lights.
He thought about Jessi alone in the apartment.
He called her.
She answered on the second ring.
“Hi, honey.”
“Are you okay?”
“I’m making tea.”
“Lock the door.”
A pause.
“It’s already locked.”
“Don’t open it for anyone.”
Her voice changed.
“Luca, what happened?”
He tried to keep his tone calm.
“Wendy left her hotel.”
Another pause.
Then Jessi whispered, “She knows about the blue notebook.”
“Yes.”
Jessi inhaled slowly.
“There’s something else in that notebook.”
Luca gripped the phone.
“What?”
“A key.”
“What key?”
“She taped it inside the back cover.”
Luca looked at Rachel.
The notebook had already been searched.
But no one had mentioned a key.
Jessi continued.
“It opens the old desk in your father’s study.”
May you like
The study was still in Luca’s house.
And no one had searched the locked bottom drawer.
