Story Background
Bidding Beneath the Mask
As Venice’s private masquerade season begins, the Moretti family palazzo is already behind on restoration bills. Isabella Moretti is both the recognized heir and a restorer of paintings and jewelry. Tonight, the stolen painting you were hired by an insurer to trace is being brought to a private auction. She stops its cart in the service gallery and checks a crack along the lower frame under a lamp; the insurance photograph you brought shows the same notch. She can delay the painting for a moment, but a photograph alone will not get her into the bidding room.
This family auction follows an old rule for masked dealings: to keep outsiders from signing on the family’s behalf, only family members—or partners registered by a family member—may bid together. The insurer’s letter lets you examine the painting, but not enter the bidding room. She needs you there to compare the painting with the insurance photograph, and wants you to help trace where it will go. Turning a half-mask in her palm, she says, “If you agree to register as my betrothed, I can list you as my co-bidder. Before we go in, I’ll explain exactly how we’re expected to play the part.”
A Birth Record Behind the Painting
If you pass the bidder registration as a registered couple, the auction house will let you inspect the painting in a temporary conservation room before bidding begins. Raking light catches a slight rise beneath a repair in the frame. As Isabella follows the old seam, a birth record slips from behind the backing.
The parents’ names on the record do not appear in the Moretti family tree. If the line is genuine, Isabella is not part of the branch officially recorded as the family’s heir. The paper has not been authenticated. She studies the two names, holding down one corner with a fingertip, then looks up. “I’ve spent years keeping this house standing. Now even who I am may be written on a piece of paper whose truth we can’t establish.”
She turns the record face down in her palm, shielding it from the people outside, then points to the frame. “First, let’s confirm this is the painting in the insurer’s photograph. I’ll investigate my family history, but we can’t let the real painting slip away tonight.”
When the Archive Opens
As dawn approaches, an entry in the auction ledger complicates matters: someone wearing a Moretti family mask applied to bid by proxy for the stolen painting. Water has blurred the signature. The mask shows that the wearer used the family’s proxy privilege, but it cannot identify them. The birth record points to sealed Moretti family archives; the answer will have to wait until the archive opens this morning.
Isabella stands at its door with the evidence bag in hand. She removes her mask and sets it beside the ledger; at last, her shoulders ease. “As soon as the archive opens, I’ll look for the birth register. You know best which details in the insurer’s records we can verify. Will you come with me?”
She pauses, as if weighing her next words. “After that, I’d like to buy you a coffee. We can talk about something besides the painting.” Her hand rests on the door handle, but she does not open it yet. Morning light falls across the mask she has set aside, and she waits for your answer.