Chapter 4 - The unknown man
The message thread belonged to:
Julian Cross.
Forty-two.
Owner of Cross & Vale Private Sales, a boutique art and luxury-consignment brokerage.
His company handled:
Estate collections.
High-value watches.
Silver.
Paintings.
Furniture.
Private sales.
Legitimate business.
Mostly.
I had met him once.
Three years earlier at an auction dinner.
I barely remembered.
Amanda did.
Phone records later showed she had been communicating with him for seven months.
Were they lovers?
No evidence initially.
Messages were transactional.
Sometimes flirtatious.
Nothing clearly sexual.
More important:
She had sent him photographs of my personal property.
Item descriptions.
Estimated values.
Location notes.
Alarm-zone notes.
Staff schedules.
One message:
Daniel keeps the Patek pieces in the south study cabinet, but we skip watches first run unless access is perfect.
Another:
Silver and two paintings are easiest to explain as staging inventory.
Staging inventory.
Then:
Use the reset authorization. Staff have seen vendors all month because of wedding prep.
The plan depended on familiarity.
Wedding florist.
Caterers.
Rentals.
Designers.
Security contractors.
People had moved through my house for weeks.
Another crew after the ceremony would not look unusual.
Then honeymoon.
Amanda and I were supposed to leave Sunday morning for Italy.
Four days in Rome before continuing to Tuscany.
My house manager had Mondays off.
My mother lived elsewhere.
Sophie would have traveled with us for the first five days, then returned with my mother? Actually better: Sophie was supposed to spend the first week with my mother before joining? Let's choose: Sophie was staying with Margaret during the first four honeymoon days, then we'd return? But messages say house open. Need house emptier. So Sophie was staying at Margaret's apartment/house. Fine.
The mansion would have been mostly staff.
May you like
Then a forged authorization.
That document had not yet been found.
