Chapter 5 - The House Had a Second Security Team
Vincent ripped the nearest smoke detector from the ceiling.
Nothing.
A guard searched the lamp.
Another checked the wall clock.
Dominic looked at the photograph again.
Ellie was standing beside Clare in the basement corridor.
Taken from above.
From an angle no visible camera covered.
“There’s another system.”
Vincent stopped.
“What?”
“Somebody installed surveillance we don’t control.”
Arthur looked around the basement.
“In your own house?”
Dominic stared at him.
“They didn’t start yesterday.”
He turned to Vincent.
“Who renovated the estate security after my father died?”
Vincent thought.
“Bell Systems.”
“Who approved them?”
Vincent’s face changed.
“Your brother.”
Dominic went still.
Nicholas Vale.
His older brother.
Dead for seven years.
Arthur whispered, “That system was replaced.”
“Was it?”
Dominic looked toward the ceiling vent.
Vincent called two technicians.
They removed a panel.
Behind the modern camera wiring sat an older fiber line.
Still powered.
Still active.
Vincent swore.
“This wasn’t in the diagrams.”
“Follow it.”
The hidden cable led them behind a basement storage wall.
The wall looked solid.
Ellie walked toward it.
Clare grabbed her.
“Sweetheart, no.”
Ellie pointed.
“Door.”
Dominic looked.
He saw nothing.
Ellie touched a wooden molding strip.
“Like the toy.”
A latch.
Tiny.
Almost invisible.
Vincent pressed it.
The wall released.
Behind it was a narrow stairway.
Arthur stared.
“I’ve been in this house thirty years.”
Dominic looked at him.
“Apparently not all of it.”
They descended.
The stairway ended in an old security room.
Dust covered most of the consoles.
Most.
One desk was clean.
Fresh coffee.
Three active monitors.
Live feeds from the great room.
The bedrooms.
The rehabilitation suite.
And the basement.
Clare hugged Ellie.
“Someone’s been watching us.”
Vincent searched the drawers.
“Recently.”
Dominic found a stack of printed schedules.
His appointments.
Mercer’s shifts.
Clare’s housekeeping hours.
Council arrivals.
Everything.
Arthur pulled a photograph from the wall.
His daughter.
Lydia.
Dominic found another.
His SUV before the crash.
Marked in red pen.
BRAKE MODULE.
Vincent looked over his shoulder.
“So the pills weren’t the whole plan.”
“No.”
The crash had been engineered in layers.
Drug him.
Compromise the vehicle.
Make sure that if one failed, the other worked.
On another board were names.
Arthur.
Vincent.
Mercer.
Angela.
Each had notes beside them.
Pressure points.
Weaknesses.
Family.
Money.
Fear.
Then Dominic saw his own file.
A single phrase was written across the front.
OBSTACLE UNTIL SIGNATURE.
Vincent opened a cabinet.
Inside were copied contracts.
Ownership documents.
Transfer authorizations.
Dominic recognized his signature.
Except he had never signed them.
“Forged.”
Arthur took one.
“This transfers controlling interest in Vale Shipping.”
“To who?”
Arthur read the entity name.
“North Coast Development Holdings.”
Dominic froze.
He knew that company.
Every man in Chicago business knew it.
A private investment vehicle controlled by one person.
“Elias Vale,” Dominic said.
Arthur stared at him.
“Your uncle?”
Dominic nodded.
His father’s younger brother.
A man who had spent twenty years claiming he wanted nothing to do with the family organization.
A man Dominic had trusted precisely because he seemed uninterested in power.
Vincent found another document.
“Dom.”
It was a succession agreement.
Dated six months earlier.
If Dominic became permanently disabled or medically incompetent, management authority over several holding companies would move to Elias.
Dominic’s voice went cold.
“I never approved this.”
Arthur stared.
“I witnessed it.”
Dominic looked at him.
Arthur’s face lost all color.
“I never witnessed this.”
Then a sound came from the stairs.
Vincent turned with his weapon raised.
A shadow moved.
“Stop!”
The figure ran.
Vincent chased.
Dominic followed as fast as his knee allowed.
They reached the upper basement corridor in time to see the service door slam.
Vincent fired no shot.
Too many people in the house.
They burst outside.
Rain hammered the loading court.
A black sedan accelerated toward the gate.
Security barriers began lowering.
Then suddenly stopped.
The sedan smashed through.
Vincent yelled into his phone.
“Track that car!”
Dominic noticed something lying in the rain.
A phone.
Dropped by the fleeing intruder.
The screen was cracked but active.
One message was open.
From a contact labeled E.V.
YOU FAILED TO GET THE SIGNATURE.
DO NOT FAIL AGAIN.
Below it was another message.
MAKE THE CHILD LOOK LIKE AN ACCIDENT.
Clare saw it.
Her knees nearly gave out.
Dominic caught her arm.
“No one touches Ellie.”
Clare looked at him through tears.
“You said this house was safe.”
Dominic had no answer.
Because somebody had been inside his walls.
Inside his medication.
Inside his car.
Inside every system he trusted.
Then Vincent’s phone rang.
He listened for three seconds.
“What do you mean?”
Dominic looked at him.
Vincent lowered the phone.
“The sedan wasn’t running from the estate.”
“What?”
“It was heading toward the east gate from inside the property.”
Dominic understood.
The person in the security room hadn’t broken into the mansion.
They lived there.
Or worked there.
Arthur whispered, “Who?”
May you like
Vincent looked at Dominic.
“The license plate is registered to Dr. Samuel Mercer.”
