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J ulia and Courtney entered the villa, turning on the lights, and the house was still and quiet. Julia closed the door behind them and turned the deadbolt, relieved she’d had locks installed.

Courtney looked up. “I told Paul about these frescoes. They’re the only nice things about this place.”

“I know. Bianco!” Julia called out, and the dog lumbered in from the kitchen, his nails clicking on the tile. His gait was steadier, so the drug was leaving his system and probably hers. She petted his soft, furry head.

“Paul wants me to send pics.” Courtney took out her phone, and Julia went to the dining room table, set down her purse, and opened her laptop.

“I want to make a list of schools for tomorrow.”

“Good idea.” Courtney took another picture of the entrance hall, then went into the living room and turned on the light.

Julia sat down, opened Word, and started a new document. It thrilled her to think she was this close to finding her biological mother. She paused, wondering what to name the file. “I should title this document, ‘Finding Bio Mom.’”

“Catchy.” Courtney took pictures in the living room while Julia navigated to Google maps and widened her search to make sure she didn’t miss any schools, which added six schools.

“I have fifteen schools we need to visit.” Julia clicked the link of the first school, and its website popped into the screen, with a picture of a small brick building surrounded by cypress trees.

She looked at the top of the page for an English version but there wasn’t one. “Damn. It’s only in Italian.”

“The nerve.” Courtney entered the dining room, taking pictures.

Julia scanned the subject headings and guessed that facoltà meant faculty. She clicked the faculty link, but a blue box appeared on the screen in Italian, which she deciphered. “Oh no, it’s asking for my school ID. You can’t search the site unless you’re a member of the school community.”

“My nephew’s middle school is like that.” Courtney took another photo. “Schools don’t post pictures of kids or faculty anymore. It’s a security thing.”

“I’ll just make the list then.” Julia copied the name and address of the closest elementary school and pasted it into the document.

Courtney stopped taking pictures. “Oh, wait, the dog needs to go out, right?”

“Yes, do you mind letting him out back? Keep an eye on him.” Julia navigated to the next school’s website, then copied and pasted its name and address.

“Why don’t you come with? I feel nervous.”

“Of course, I’m sorry.” Julia got up. “Come on, Bianco.”

They walked to the kitchen with the dog, opened the back door, let him out, then stepped outside. The only light came from the kitchen, and Courtney looked around. “It’s dark out here. Do they have any exterior lights?”

“No.” Julia looked around, too.

“Jules, come here.” Courtney lowered her voice. “You need to see this.”

“What?” Julia walked over, and Courtney held up her phone, showing a photo of the astrological fresco in the entrance hall, its vivid lapis lazuli glowing in the darkness.

“See?” Courtney pointed to a tiny white fleck near the glowing yellow sun.

“Now, bear with me.” She scrolled to the photos of the living room frescoes, stopped at one, and pointed at a tiny spot again. “There’s another one. Wait.” She swiped through photos of the dining room frescoes and stopped at one, with another spot. “See what I see?”

“What? It’s a spot of plaster. Maybe some paint chipped off?”

“No. I took these with a flash. I think the spot is a reflection of the flash on glass.”

Julia didn’t get it. “There’s glass in the frescoes?”

“No, there’s cameras .”

“ What? ” Julia asked, aghast.

“Look.” Courtney enlarged the photo of the dining room fresco, and the white spot grew bigger. “That has to be a glass lens.”

“Holy shit.” Julia felt sickened. “Someone’s watching us? Why?” Suddenly she knew the answer. “For the same reason they’re following me. They want to know what I’m doing, saying, thinking.”

“I don’t know if the cameras have audio, but they could.” Courtney looked tense in the light from the kitchen. “In truth, we don’t know how long they’ve been here. We don’t know if they’re currently being monitored, either.”

“Right, Rossi could have installed the system. She was paranoid. Or maybe somebody in the conspiracy installed the cameras to watch her . Remember, they could’ve been drugging her, too.”

“I’ll take some pictures upstairs and see if I find more.”

“Okay, and from now on, we can’t talk about anything that matters inside.” Julia paused. “We should leave the cameras in place, so they don’t know we found them. But I’m not getting naked in front of those cameras.”

“I am.” Courtney snorted. “I’m going to moon those assholes.”