Chapter 4 - The Man Who Shouldn’t Have Been There
At 12:43 a.m., Damen ordered every person in the estate into the ballroom.
Staff.
Security.
Drivers.
Cooks.
Groundskeepers.
No exceptions.
Forty-three people stood beneath crystal chandeliers while Jacoby’s trusted team searched the building room by room.
Talia sat beside Yolanda near the fireplace.
Damen stood in front of everyone.
“You all know what happened today.”
Nobody spoke.
“One of my employees was taken from this property. A man involved escaped through the cove. Another employee helped him.”
Eyes shifted.
Damen noticed every movement.
“If anyone here knows anything, now is the easiest moment you will ever have to tell me.”
Silence.
“After tonight, I will assume silence means participation.”
One man near the back raised his hand.
It was absurd enough that Jacoby almost smiled.
Damen nodded.
The man, a gardener named Luis, said, “I saw a car near the north gate two nights ago.”
“What kind?”
“Dark SUV.”
“Plate?”
“No.”
“Driver?”
“Couldn’t see.”
“Why didn’t you report it?”
“I thought it belonged to one of the meeting people.”
Damen looked at Jacoby.
“Check it.”
Jacoby nodded.
Another employee spoke.
Then another.
By two in the morning, they had twelve minor irregularities.
One mattered.
The estate’s longtime administrative manager, Helen Cross, remembered Elias Ward entering the property at 10:15 p.m. three weeks earlier.
He had not been scheduled.
Security records showed no entry.
Damen stared at her.
“You’re sure?”
“I opened the side door for him myself.”
“Why?”
“He said you were expecting him.”
“I wasn’t.”
Helen looked sick.
“I’m sorry.”
“You had no reason to suspect him.”
That was the problem.
Nobody did.
Elias Ward had known Damen since he was fourteen.
He had attended Damen’s father’s funeral.
He had helped guide Damen through the first brutal year after taking control.
If Elias was involved, this betrayal had roots far deeper than Caleb.
Damen dismissed the staff in groups after their phones and movements were checked.
At three, he returned to the east wing.
Talia was awake again.
This time she was drawing.
Yolanda slept beside her.
Damen leaned against the doorway.
Talia looked up.
“What are you drawing?”
She turned the paper.
Three stick figures.
One tall.
One with long hair.
One small.
Behind them was a house.
Damen pointed.
“Who’s that?”
“You.”
He did not know what to say.
“And that?”
“Mommy.”
“And you.”
She nodded.
Damen studied the picture.
“You put me in your house.”
“No.”
She looked confused.
“This is your house.”
Damen almost laughed.
“Right.”
She returned to coloring.
“Are you scared?”
“No.”
Children knew liars, too.
Talia gave him a look.
Damen corrected himself.
“Yes.”
“Me too.”
He sat across from her.
“What do you do when you’re scared?”
She thought.
“I find Mommy.”
Damen looked toward sleeping Yolanda.
“And if Mommy’s scared?”
“I find you.”
He stared at her.
That answer landed somewhere he kept guarded.
He changed the subject.
“Tell me about the man with the blue ring.”
Talia drew a circle.
“He smiles weird.”
“Weird how?”
“Like he’s pretending.”
“Did he talk to you before?”
She nodded.
Damen’s attention sharpened.
“When?”
“In the kitchen.”
“What did he say?”
“He asked if Mommy found something.”
Damen sat straighter.
“What did you tell him?”
“I said Mommy finds my socks.”
Despite everything, Damen smiled.
“What did he do?”
“He laughed.”
“Anything else?”
“He gave me candy.”
“Did you eat it?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Mommy says don’t take food from strangers.”
“Good.”
“I put it in my treasure box.”
Damen’s smile disappeared.
“Where is that?”
Talia pointed beneath the bed.
Inside a pink wooden box were toy jewelry, seashells, a broken watch, the missing shoe from earlier—and a wrapped piece of candy.
Damen picked it up with a tissue.
He called Jacoby.
Twenty minutes later, a security technician confirmed what Damen had feared.
A tiny tracking device had been hidden beneath the wrapper.
Caleb had not simply spoken to Talia.
He had tried to track her.
Yolanda woke to Damen standing near the window.
“What happened?”
He showed her.
She went pale.
“He gave that to her?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“We don’t know exactly.”
Yolanda sat upright.
“He could have followed us anywhere.”
“Yes.”
She covered her face.
“I brought this into her life.”
Damen looked at her.
“No.”
“I came here looking for answers.”
“And someone killed your husband before you ever came here.”
She lowered her hands.
“That doesn’t make me innocent.”
“It makes you a widow who wanted the truth.”
“And what does that make you?”
Damen did not answer.
Yolanda looked toward the windowsill in his study across the hall, where the small toy boat remained.
“Talia likes you.”
“So I’ve noticed.”
“She doesn’t trust easily.”
“Neither do I.”
“That might be why.”
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then Jacoby entered without knocking.
“We found the SUV.”
“Where?”
“Traffic camera outside Newport.”
“Owner?”
“Rental.”
“Name?”
Jacoby handed him a tablet.
Damen read.
He knew the name.
Anthony Marrow.
Victor Santoro’s chief logistics officer.
Providence.
The very organization sitting across from Damen when Talia screamed.
Yolanda saw his expression.
“Who?”
Damen handed her the tablet.
“The meeting wasn’t interrupted by this.”
He looked toward the dark hallway.
“The meeting was part of this.”
His phone rang.
Unknown number.
Damen answered.
No greeting.
A man’s voice.
“You should have finished your meeting.”
Damen recognized it immediately.
Caleb Ward.
“Where are you?”
Caleb laughed.
“You still think this is about me.”
“You took Yolanda.”
“I borrowed her.”
Damen’s hand tightened.
“Try that again and there won’t be enough coastline for you to hide.”
Caleb’s amusement vanished.
“You sound like your father.”
“Don’t.”
“That’s exactly what he said when Mateo Reyes started asking questions.”
Damen went still.
Across the room, Yolanda heard her husband’s name.
She rose.
“What did you say?”
Caleb continued.
“Ask your housekeeper who really owned the company that employed her husband.”
The call ended.
Damen looked at Yolanda.
She looked back.
Neither needed to speak.
The next morning, before sunrise, Damen’s investigators found the answer.
Mateo Reyes had worked for Baylight Stevedoring.
Baylight was owned by a holding company.
The holding company belonged to another company.
And behind three layers of paperwork was one final beneficial owner.
The Pharaoh family.
May you like
Damen Pharaoh had unknowingly owned the company where Yolanda’s husband died.
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