Chapter 8: The Arrest
They identified the second voice at 3:17 in the afternoon.
His name was Gerald Foss.
He was fifty-one years old, a licensed insurance broker who had written Luca's policy on Jessi in March — the same policy that named a twenty-six-year-old woman as sole beneficiary.
Foss had also, it turned out, filed two previous insurance claims on behalf of Luca's pharmacy group, both of which were now flagged for review.
Rachel called Ivan with the name while he was sitting in the chair beside Jessi's bed.
"We're moving in the next hour," she said.
"I wanted you to know before it happened."
Jessi was watching him from the bed.
She could hear enough from his side of the call.
When he hung up, she said, "They found him."
"Yes."
She looked at the window.
Outside, the Minneapolis afternoon was flat and gray, the kind of sky that couldn't decide what it wanted to do.
"Will it hold?" she asked.
"In court.
Will it actually hold?"
"The recording establishes premeditation.
The patch is physical evidence.
The insurance policy, the financial transfers, the GP connection — Rachel says it's enough."
Jessi was quiet for a moment.
"He was so careful," she said.
"For so long.
He was so careful."
"He made one mistake."
She looked at him.
"What mistake?"
"He assumed I would protect myself instead of you."
Her eyes filled.
She didn't look away.
At 4:45 that afternoon, Luca Vance was arrested in the parking structure of his largest pharmacy on Hennepin Avenue.
Rachel made the call herself.
Two uniformed officers and a plainclothes detective were present.
Ivan heard about it from Rachel forty minutes later.
"How did he react?" Ivan asked.
"Calm," Rachel said.
"Very calm.
Right up until Devereux arrived and told him about the recording." A pause.
"Then he asked to speak to his attorney privately.
When they came back out, he looked at me and said, 'Ivan always did have a hero complex.' Then he stopped talking entirely."
Ivan said nothing.
"Gerald Foss was picked up at his office at the same time," Rachel continued.
"He started talking before we finished reading him his rights.
He's already offering cooperation in exchange for consideration."
"What about the GP?"
"We're interviewing him tomorrow morning.
He may have been manipulated rather than complicit — Luca fed him observations, and he recorded them in good faith.
We'll know more after the interview."
Ivan thanked her and ended the call.
He sat for a long time in the chair beside Jessi's bed.
She was asleep again — real sleep this time, deep and still, her breathing slow and even.
The monitor beside her beeped its quiet, steady rhythm.
He had known Luca Vance for forty-two years.
He had been the best man at their wedding.
He had delivered a toast about loyalty and the kind of friendship that outlasts everything.
May you like
He thought about that toast now.
Then he stopped thinking about it.
