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Marco glanced at him through the rearview mirror before replying, “The regular housekeepers, Marco and Teresa Bianchi, had gone back to their hometown the night before due to a family issue. So their niece and her husband were arranged to take over duties at the villa for a few weeks. They arrived right at 5 a.m.—said they were asked to help out while the couple was away. According to them, Vittoria opened the door herself, still in her pajamas, and personally led them inside.”

He paused, turning slightly to make sure they were following. “She then gave them a wheeled wooden box and asked them to deliver it to her restaurant. They left immediately, and when they returned around 5:30 a.m., they noticed blood seeping from the door of her bedroom.”

Marco’s voice dropped slightly. “That’s when they found her—already dead.”

James's brow furrowed slightly again as he digested the information. “Do you have any suspects so far?”

Marco exhaled through his nose, his fingers tightening slightly on the steering wheel. “A few,” he admitted. “So far, the main persons of interest are all people close to her—each with their own motives.”

He started listing them off:

“First, there’s Mr. André Pierrer and his wife, Ms. Elisabetta Pierrer—the couple in charge of managing Vittoria’s restaurant business. They’d recently come under suspicion for mismanaging funds. Vittoria had scheduled a financial review with her accountant the very morning she was killed. If they were hiding something, that meeting would’ve exposed it."

“Then there’s Mr. Alessandro Mancini, her husband. The two had a serious argument the night before she was found dead. He hasn’t offered much since—just that she was ‘emotional.’”

Marco’s voice took on a harder edge as he continued. “Next, there’s Mr. Leonardo Ferretti—an investor from a private military company. He showed up not long ago, pushing Vittoria to support a project that apparently required her scientific expertise. She turned him down. We later discovered he had taken out a massive loan banking on her involvement. Without her help, he’s looking at a lifetime buried in debt.”