Chapter 4 - Someone Inside Blackridge
Roman followed the footprints.
Ethan moved ahead.
Claire remained between them, clutching the flashlight.
The passage narrowed until the finished stone walls became raw concrete.
Roman remembered exploring parts of these tunnels as a child, but his father had sealed most of them after Roman’s mother died.
He had always assumed it was because the structure was unsafe.
Tonight he questioned everything Vincent Vale had ever told him.
The footprints ended beside a steel door.
Ethan examined it.
“Recently opened.”
Roman looked at the dust.
“You can tell?”
“Dust is disturbed around the hinges.”
Claire crouched.
“There’s something else.”
She picked up a small white thread.
Roman recognized it immediately.
Security uniform stitching.
Ethan’s face tightened.
“Whoever escaped the cellar came through here.”
Roman opened the door.
They emerged behind the estate’s old laundry room.
That explained how the intruder had disappeared.
Blackridge contained pathways even Roman’s modern cameras did not cover.
A perfect route for someone who knew the old architecture.
Ethan called his control team.
“Marcus Reed. Bring me everything.”
Minutes later the answer came.
Marcus Reed was gone.
His SUV remained.
His uniform locker was empty.
And six hours earlier, his access card had opened the east service corridor.
Claire said, “So Marcus was the man we saw?”
“Maybe,” Roman replied.
Ethan frowned.
“Maybe?”
“Evidence this obvious makes me suspicious.”
“You think he was framed?”
“I think somebody who can fake a death for seven years can steal an access card.”
Claire leaned against the counter.
Exhaustion was catching up with her.
Roman noticed.
“You need sleep.”
She stared at him.
“You have a dead man threatening me, your security staff may be compromised, somebody locked us in a greenhouse and we just found a secret room beneath the house.”
“Yes.”
“And you think I’m going to sleep?”
“It was optimistic.”
“Very.”
Roman looked at Ethan.
“Put two guards outside Claire’s room.”
Claire shook her head.
“I’m not going to my room.”
“Where are you going?”
“With you.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
Roman stared.
Claire lifted her bruised wrist.
“The intruder targeted me because I saw something. Gabriel sent you my photograph. I’m already involved.”
Roman disliked how correct she was.
Ethan interrupted.
“She stays in the study. It’s one of the most secure rooms.”
Claire nodded.
Roman reluctantly agreed.
By sunrise, Blackridge looked normal again.
That was almost worse.
The marble hallways glowed in morning light.
The kitchen staff prepared coffee.
Groundskeepers crossed lawns wet with rain.
Nobody outside Roman’s inner circle knew that an intruder had died below the east wing.
Nobody knew Gabriel Kane might still be alive.
Roman preferred it that way.
Until he understood the attack, panic would only help his enemy.
At seven thirty, Chef Daniel entered the study carrying breakfast.
He stopped when he saw Claire.
“Good God.”
Daniel was in his sixties, round-faced and perpetually irritated by anyone who interfered with his kitchen.
He put the tray down.
“What happened to your wrist?”
“Long night.”
“I can see that.”
He turned toward Roman.
“Sir, whoever destroyed my preserved tomatoes owes me thirty-seven dollars.”
Roman stared at him.
Daniel frowned.
“Was that inappropriate?”
Claire covered a smile.
“It was perfect.”
Daniel poured coffee.
Then his expression became serious.
“Claire never returned with the rosemary.”
Roman looked at him.
“When did you ask her to get it?”
“About one forty-five.”
“Why from the cellar?”
“It’s stored in the dry cabinet beside the wine room.”
Roman’s gaze sharpened.
“Who knew she was going down there?”
Daniel thought.
“Anyone in the kitchen.”
“How many?”
“Six.”
“Names.”
Daniel listed them.
Two cooks.
A dishwasher.
A pastry assistant.
Claire.
And a newly hired overnight porter.
Roman asked, “Name?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Adam Cole.”
Ethan, standing by the window, turned.
“There is no Adam Cole on the approved staff roster.”
Daniel stared at him.
“I hired him through operations three weeks ago.”
Ethan crossed the room.
“You cannot hire staff independently.”
“I didn’t. Marcus Reed sent the approval.”
There it was again.
Marcus.
Roman asked, “Where is Cole now?”
Daniel looked confused.
“I haven’t seen him since midnight.”
Ethan ordered a search.
They found Adam Cole’s employee badge in a trash bin behind the service garage.
The photograph was fake.
The address did not exist.
The social security number belonged to a man who had died eight years earlier.
Claire stared at the file.
“So whoever planned this had somebody working in the house for weeks.”
Roman nodded.
“Maybe longer.”
She looked at him.
“How many employees do you have?”
“Forty-three full-time.”
“And you know all of them?”
“Yes.”
Claire’s eyebrows rose.
“You know everybody?”
“People who enter my home matter.”
Her expression softened briefly.
Ethan returned.
“Marcus’s apartment is empty.”
“Anything useful?”
“One thing.”
He handed Roman a photograph.
Marcus stood beside a woman outside a restaurant.
Roman did not recognize her.
Claire did.
Her face lost its color.
Roman noticed instantly.
“Who is she?”
Claire did not answer.
“Claire.”
She took the photograph.
“My mother.”
Roman stared at her.
“What?”
“That’s my mother.”
Ethan looked between them.
“When was this taken?”
Claire turned it over.
A date was stamped on the back.
Eight years earlier.
Claire whispered, “She died six years ago.”
Roman took the photo.
“You knew Marcus?”
“No.”
“Your mother knew him.”
“Apparently.”
“What was her name?”
“Evelyn Bennett.”
Ethan suddenly became very quiet.
Roman caught it.
“You know that name.”
Ethan hesitated.
“Ethan.”
“Vincent had an employee named Evelyn Bennett.”
Claire stared.
“My mother never worked here.”
“Yes,” Ethan said slowly. “She did.”
“No.”
“For less than a year.”
Claire shook her head.
“She was a bookkeeper for a construction company.”
Ethan looked at Roman.
Roman understood first.
“What company?”
Claire answered.
“Northstar Construction.”
Ethan swore under his breath.
Roman walked toward his father’s old records.
Northstar Construction had been one of Vincent Vale’s shell companies.
Claire’s mother had worked for Roman’s father.
And Claire had somehow ended up employed in the same house years later.
Coincidence had just become impossible.
Claire looked at Roman.
“You hired me.”
Roman shook his head.
“No.”
“What?”
“I approved your employment after the household manager selected you.”
Claire’s fear returned.
“Who recommended me?”
Ethan opened the personnel file.
The referral field contained one name.
Marcus Reed.
Claire whispered, “He brought me here.”
Roman stared at the photograph of Marcus standing beside Evelyn Bennett.
Someone had planted Claire inside Blackridge seventeen months earlier.
The question was why.
Then Claire’s phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
One message.
She opened it.
A photograph appeared.
Claire as a little girl standing beside her mother.
Next to them was Gabriel Kane.
And beneath it, one sentence:
ASK ROMAN WHAT HIS FATHER DID TO YOUR MOTHER.
Claire slowly looked up.
Roman realized whatever game Gabriel Kane had started was no longer about a ledger.
May you like
It was about Claire.
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