Chapter 2 - THE DARK HALLWAY
“Lock the house!”
Salvatore’s order cracked through the darkness.
Emergency lights flickered on.
Red.
Dim.
Wrong.
Marco touched his earpiece.
“North team, upstairs. South team, seal every exit.”
Ruby clung to Salvatore.
“Daddy?”
“I’ve got you.”
Lucinda backed toward the wall.
Salvatore caught the movement.
“Don’t.”
“I’m not doing anything.”
“That would be a first tonight.”
Marco raced toward the stairs.
Salvatore followed, carrying Ruby.
Lucinda shouted behind them.
“You can’t keep treating me like a criminal!”
Salvatore didn’t turn around.
“Then stop giving me evidence.”
They reached the second floor.
Ruby’s bedroom door was open.
The alarm shrieked from inside.
Marco entered first.
“Clear!”
Salvatore carried Ruby in.
Nothing seemed disturbed.
Stuffed animals lined the shelves.
A half-finished drawing sat on the little desk.
Then Marco noticed the closet.
“Boss.”
The back panel stood open.
Salvatore stared.
“There’s no door there.”
“There is now.”
Behind Ruby’s dresses was a narrow maintenance passage built decades earlier when the mansion had belonged to Salvatore’s grandfather.
Someone had opened it from the inside.
Ruby began shaking.
Salvatore felt it.
“Sweetheart?”
Her fingers dug into his shirt.
“She comes through there.”
His entire body went still.
“Who?”
Ruby looked toward Lucinda, who had just reached the doorway.
Her lower lip trembled.
“Her.”
Lucinda snapped.
“That is ridiculous.”
Ruby flinched.
Salvatore saw it.
That tiny movement broke something inside him.
He handed Ruby to Marco.
“Take her downstairs.”
“Daddy, don’t go.”
Salvatore touched her cheek.
“I’m not leaving you. Marco’s taking you where I can see you on the cameras.”
Ruby whispered, “Promise?”
“I promise.”
Marco carried her away.
Salvatore entered the passage.
Dust coated most of the wooden floor.
Except for a narrow path.
Fresh footprints.
High heels.
He turned.
Lucinda was gone.
“Marco!”
The radio crackled.
“We have her downstairs.”
“Keep her there.”
Salvatore followed the passage until it ended behind the old linen room.
A second hidden panel stood open.
Inside the linen room, he found a small cardboard box.
Children’s pain medication.
Ruby’s missing physical therapy schedule.
Three replacement straps from her brace.
And a notebook.
He opened it.
Dates.
Times.
Short entries.
SAL AWAY — 2 HRS.
SAL MEETING — CITY.
SAL DINNER — 7 PM.
Beside several entries was one word.
SESSION.
Salvatore felt cold.
This wasn’t random cruelty.
Lucinda had scheduled it.
He turned the page.
A photograph slipped out.
Ruby, asleep in a hospital bed after the accident that injured her leg.
On the back, written in Lucinda’s handwriting:
HE CHANGED AFTER THIS.
Salvatore stared at it.
Marco’s voice came through the radio.
“Boss, you need to come downstairs.”
“What happened?”
“We checked the main archive.”
“And?”
“Someone deleted six weeks of footage.”
Salvatore closed the notebook.
“Recover it.”
“We’re trying.”
A pause.
Then Marco lowered his voice.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“The deletion didn’t happen tonight.”
Salvatore walked into the hallway.
“When?”
“Three months ago.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“It gets worse.”
Marco hesitated.
May you like
“The person who deleted it used your security code.”
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