Chapter 3 - The Man Roman Watched Die
Roman tried the greenhouse door once.
Locked.
Claire moved toward another exit.
“Don’t.”
She stopped.
“Why?”
“Because if somebody locked this door, they may be waiting at the others.”
Rain hammered the glass roof.
Roman looked around.
The greenhouse was old, built before electronic security had been installed throughout Blackridge.
That meant it still had mechanical ventilation windows.
Roman found the crank.
One window opened six inches.
Not enough.
Claire studied the metal frame.
“There’s a release lever on the outside.”
Roman looked at her.
“How do you know that?”
“I clean this building.”
Of course.
She picked up a gardening tool.
Roman understood immediately.
“No.”
“What?”
“You’re thinking of breaking the glass.”
“Yes.”
“And cutting yourself?”
“I was actually planning not to.”
Despite the situation, Roman laughed once.
Claire looked surprised.
“You can do that?”
“Rarely.”
She struck the lower pane.
The glass fractured.
Roman used his jacket to clear the remaining pieces safely.
They climbed outside.
No one attacked.
Which confirmed something important.
The person who had locked them in did not want them dead.
Not yet.
The lock had been a message.
You are not in control.
Roman hated messages like that.
Back inside the main house, Ethan met them at the corridor.
“What happened?”
Roman showed him the photograph.
Ethan stared.
“That was taken tonight.”
“Yes.”
“Inside the dining room.”
“Yes.”
Ethan’s face hardened.
Roman watched carefully.
No surprise beyond what seemed appropriate.
But Roman had known gifted liars.
Gabriel Kane had been one.
“Tell me everything you remember about Gabriel’s death,” Roman said.
Ethan frowned.
“Now?”
“Now.”
Ethan looked toward Claire.
Roman said, “She stays.”
Ethan inhaled.
“Seven years ago, Kane was running the northern operations for your family. He disappeared after the Albany accounts were compromised.”
“I know that.”
“Three weeks later, you received information he’d sold financial records to the Caruso organization.”
“I know.”
“You confronted him at Northbridge.”
“I was there.”
Ethan’s eyes narrowed.
“Then why are you asking me?”
“Because memories change when you discover the corpse got up and walked away.”
Silence.
Ethan glanced toward the photograph.
Roman continued.
“I saw Gabriel’s vehicle go over the railing.”
“So did I.”
“I saw it burning.”
“So did I.”
“Did you see Gabriel inside?”
Ethan did not answer immediately.
Roman noticed.
“No,” Ethan admitted.
Roman’s voice became colder.
“Did you identify the body?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
“Your father’s doctor.”
Roman felt a chill.
“Dr. Harlan?”
“Yes.”
“Who is dead.”
“Four years now.”
“Who signed the identification paperwork?”
Ethan thought.
“Vincent Vale.”
Roman looked away.
His father.
Vincent had died five years earlier.
Suddenly every person who could explain Gabriel’s survival was conveniently buried.
Except Gabriel.
Claire spoke.
“Could the body have been someone else?”
Roman looked at her.
“Yes.”
“Then your father knew?”
“I don’t know.”
Ethan interrupted.
“There’s something else.”
Roman turned.
“What?”
“Two weeks before the Northbridge crash, your father ordered me to remove Gabriel’s access to three estate systems.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You knew.”
“No.”
Ethan seemed genuinely surprised.
“Vincent told me you authorized it.”
Roman’s expression changed.
“Which systems?”
“Old financial archive. East-wing service network. And the underground storage level.”
Claire frowned.
“There’s an underground storage level beneath the cellar?”
Roman looked at her.
“Yes.”
“You never told staff?”
“There are things beneath old houses best left ignored.”
“Apparently dead men disagree.”
Roman looked back at Ethan.
“What was stored there?”
“Your father’s records.”
“What records?”
“I never knew.”
Roman walked toward the study.
Ethan followed.
Claire remained beside Roman.
Inside, Roman closed the doors.
His father’s portrait hung over the fireplace.
Vincent Vale had been an elegant man with silver eyes and a reputation for never forgetting either loyalty or insult.
Roman had spent half his life trying not to become him.
Now he wondered how much of his life had been built on Vincent’s lies.
Roman opened the safe behind a bookshelf.
Inside were legal files, deeds, passports, cash reserves and three old keys.
One was iron.
Claire pointed.
“That looks like the supply-room key.”
“It isn’t.”
Roman removed it.
Ethan stared.
“I haven’t seen that in years.”
“What does it open?”
“The underground archive.”
Roman closed the safe.
They returned to the wine cellar.
The dead intruder had been removed under Ethan’s supervision, but the broken shelf remained.
Roman approached the rear wall.
Behind a rack of old Bordeaux bottles, he found a keyhole.
Claire blinked.
“You’re kidding.”
Roman inserted the iron key.
A hidden door released.
Cold air moved through the opening.
Beyond it, stone steps descended.
Ethan reached for his weapon.
Roman held up a hand.
“Claire stays upstairs.”
She stared at him.
“You have tried that twice tonight.”
“This time I mean it.”
“So did you the other two times.”
Ethan looked between them.
Roman sighed.
“Fine. Stay between us.”
Claire smiled faintly.
“Progress.”
They descended.
The staircase ended in a long underground chamber.
Dust covered everything.
Metal filing cabinets lined the walls.
Old shelves held banker’s boxes.
At the center stood one desk.
On it sat an answering machine.
Ancient.
Claire whispered, “That thing still works?”
A red light blinked.
Roman approached.
One new message.
Ethan said, “Don’t touch it.”
Roman pressed play.
Static.
Then his father’s voice.
Roman went completely still.
“Roman.”
Claire looked at him.
The recording continued.
“If you are hearing this, then Gabriel has returned.”
Roman’s hand tightened around the edge of the desk.
Vincent had recorded this years ago.
His father had known.
“I lied to you about Northbridge,” Vincent said. “I did it because the truth would have put you in more danger than the lie.”
Roman closed his eyes briefly.
Typical.
Even dead, Vincent Vale was controlling information.
“Gabriel was not the traitor.”
Roman opened his eyes.
Ethan stared at the machine.
Vincent continued.
“I was.”
Claire inhaled.
Roman did not move.
“I gave Gabriel something to protect. Something that should never have existed. When I realized what it could do to our family, I tried to retrieve it. Gabriel refused.”
Static crackled.
“If he has returned, then he believes you possess it.”
Roman looked at Ethan.
“What?”
The recording answered.
“The ledger.”
Ethan whispered, “Oh, God.”
Roman turned.
“You know what that means.”
Ethan looked sick.
“Only rumors.”
Vincent’s voice continued.
“The original Vale ledger contains every payment, every agreement and every name tied to thirty years of business. Some legal. Some not. Some belonging to men who became judges, commissioners, executives and politicians.”
Roman’s expression hardened.
Not money.
Leverage.
“Gabriel believed destroying it would protect innocent people. I believed controlling it would protect you.”
Vincent paused.
“I was wrong.”
Then the recording changed.
A scrape sounded in the background.
Vincent’s voice dropped.
“Roman, if Gabriel comes for the ledger, he is not the person you should fear most.”
Roman leaned closer.
“Who?”
His father’s final words came through the speaker.
“Fear the man who convinced both of us that the other was the enemy.”
The message ended.
The underground room fell silent.
Then a metallic sound came from behind the filing cabinets.
Claire turned.
“What was that?”
Roman raised the flashlight.
A narrow door stood open at the far end of the chamber.
It had been closed when they entered.
Someone else was down there.
May you like
And on the dusty floor, fresh footprints led deeper beneath Blackridge.
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