Chapter 3 - When the East Wall Opened
Emergency lights should have activated within three seconds.
They did not.
That told Lorenzo almost everything he needed to know.
Someone had disabled systems from inside.
“Stay here,” Tony whispered.
“No.”
“Lorenzo—”
“This is my house.”
“That’s exactly why they want you moving through it.”
Another crash sounded downstairs.
Then a scream.
Not pain.
Surprise.
Lorenzo recognized Alfred’s voice shouting orders.
A few seconds later red emergency lighting finally flickered along the corridor.
Tony pulled a compact pistol from beneath his jacket.
Lorenzo noticed.
“You came to dinner armed?”
“I come to breakfast armed.”
Normally Lorenzo would have mocked him.
Tonight he simply moved.
They left the study.
Two guards appeared from the southern corridor.
“Boss.”
“Report.”
“West wing secure. Main entrance secure. Cameras offline.”
“Clara and Mia?”
“Second-floor servants’ wing.”
“Get them to the safe room.”
The guard hesitated.
“Which safe room?”
Lorenzo understood the question.
The obvious one might be compromised.
“Library annex.”
Tony looked at him.
“That room hasn’t been used in years.”
“Which is why nobody plans for it.”
The guards ran upstairs.
Lorenzo continued toward the central staircase.
“Where are your five men?” he asked Tony.
“I don’t know.”
“You selected them.”
“Yes.”
“You positioned them.”
“Yes.”
“And now they vanished.”
Tony stopped.
“You want to accuse me, do it.”
“I want answers.”
“So do I.”
Lorenzo looked into his oldest friend’s face.
He saw anger.
Fear.
Something else.
Guilt?
Before he could decide, Rocco emerged from the kitchen carrying a heavy wooden rolling pin.
Tony stared at him.
“What are you planning to do with that?”
“At my age? Mostly look threatening.”
“Go back to the kitchen.”
“You go back to the kitchen.”
“Rocco.”
The old man looked at Lorenzo.
“The pantry door is open.”
Lorenzo frowned.
“So?”
“It locks automatically after nine.”
Tony’s expression changed.
“Service route.”
Rocco nodded.
“There’s an old delivery corridor behind it.”
The three men moved.
The pantry appeared empty.
Lorenzo examined the rear door.
No damage.
No forced entry.
Someone had unlocked it properly.
Tony touched the electronic panel.
“Internal authorization.”
“Whose?”
“The system log will show once power returns.”
Rocco crouched near the floor.
“Come here.”
Mud.
A faint line of wet dirt crossed the tile and disappeared toward the wine cellar.
Lorenzo followed.
The cellar door stood open.
That bothered him more than anything.
The cellar led nowhere.
At least officially.
They descended.
Rows of wine bottles disappeared into shadows.
Water dripped somewhere behind the stone.
Tony swept his flashlight across the far wall.
Then stopped.
A section of shelving had been moved.
Behind it was darkness.
Rocco muttered a curse in Italian.
Lorenzo knew the passage.
It was not the Prohibition tunnel Tony had used for his hidden team.
It was older.
His grandfather once claimed the original owners had built escape corridors beneath the mansion during the 1920s.
Lorenzo always assumed half the stories were exaggerations.
Apparently not.
“How many people know about this?” Tony asked.
“I didn’t.”
That silenced everyone.
They entered.
After twenty yards, they found the first missing security man sitting against the wall.
Alive.
Dazed.
Hands tied.
Tony knelt beside him.
“Eddie.”
The guard blinked.
“They knew.”
“Who?”
“They knew every position.”
“Did you see them?”
“Two.”
“Silas?”
“No.”
Eddie struggled to focus.
“One wore our uniform.”
Lorenzo’s stomach tightened.
“Who?”
“I couldn’t see his face.”
“What happened to the others?”
“They split us.”
Footsteps sounded from the darkness.
Tony raised his weapon.
“Don’t.”
A voice came from ahead.
One of the other hidden guards emerged slowly with his hands raised.
“Boss.”
Bloodless bruise across his cheek.
No weapon.
“Marcus,” Tony said.
“They took Dean and Paul.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
Marcus looked ashamed.
“They came from behind us.”
“How?”
“There’s a junction halfway down the passage. Somebody opened it from inside.”
Lorenzo looked toward Tony.
Tony looked back.
No words were necessary.
The traitor knew not merely schedules.
He knew architecture Lorenzo himself did not know.
A low vibration came from Lorenzo’s pocket.
His phone had reconnected.
Security system restarting.
Messages arrived at once.
One from the guard assigned to Clara.
LIBRARY ANNEX SECURE. MOTHER + CHILD SAFE.
Lorenzo exhaled.
Then another message appeared.
EAST WALL BREACHED.
He turned toward Tony.
“So they did come through the wall.”
Tony looked grim.
“Then this was coordinated.”
Rocco spoke softly.
“They wanted everybody looking one direction while someone entered from another.”
Lorenzo climbed back upstairs.
By the time he reached the ground floor, power had returned.
Security screens showed movement near the east wall.
Three intruders had been intercepted.
Two escaped into neighboring woods.
One was caught.
Lorenzo went to the garage security room.
A young man sat handcuffed to a chair.
He looked twenty-five.
Maybe younger.
Rainwater dripped from his jacket.
Tony entered behind Lorenzo.
The prisoner looked up.
Fear flashed across his face.
Not at Lorenzo.
At Tony.
Lorenzo noticed.
Tony noticed Lorenzo noticing.
“Name,” Lorenzo said.
The prisoner remained silent.
“Who sent you?”
Nothing.
Lorenzo pulled another chair over and sat across from him.
He did not shout.
Men expected shouting.
Quiet scared them more.
“You entered my property knowing Silas Kane was involved.”
The prisoner’s eyes flickered.
“You were told there would be almost no resistance.”
Still nothing.
“You were also told the security team near the east wall would be redirected.”
The man swallowed.
Lorenzo leaned forward.
“But something went wrong.”
The prisoner stared at the floor.
“What did Silas promise you?”
Nothing.
“What did the person inside this house promise you?”
That did it.
The young man looked up.
“Man, I don’t know anybody inside.”
“You trusted someone enough to walk into a fortified estate.”
“We were told the route was clear.”
“By whom?”
The prisoner shook his head.
Lorenzo waited.
Tony stood against the wall.
Five seconds.
Ten.
Twenty.
Finally the prisoner whispered, “Richie.”
The room changed.
Tony stepped forward.
“What did you say?”
The prisoner recoiled.
“Richie.”
“First name.”
“I don’t know.”
Tony grabbed the edge of the table instead of the man.
“Who gave you that name?”
“Viper.”
Tony looked at Lorenzo.
“This is planted.”
Lorenzo’s face revealed nothing.
The prisoner continued desperately.
“He said Richie would clear the tunnel. He said Richie had been inside forever.”
Tony’s face hardened.
“You’re lying.”
“I’m telling you what I heard.”
“Who else heard it?”
“Everybody.”
Tony looked as though someone had struck him.
Lorenzo dismissed the guards.
“Take him downstairs. Separate room. No communication.”
When the prisoner was gone, Tony closed the door.
“You don’t believe him.”
Lorenzo said nothing.
“Lorenzo.”
“I believe Silas wants me to believe him.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
“No.”
Tony paced.
“He used my name because he knows what I am to you.”
“Probably.”
“Probably?”
Lorenzo’s gaze sharpened.
“What do you want me to say?”
“That you know I didn’t do this.”
“I don’t know anything tonight.”
Tony stopped.
For the first time in decades, there was genuine hurt in his expression.
“I took a bullet for you in Queens.”
“Twenty-one years ago.”
“I stood beside your father’s grave.”
“I remember.”
“I held your mother’s hand when she died.”
“I remember that too.”
“And you think I might sell you to Silas Kane?”
“I think someone did.”
Tony stepped closer.
“Then look me in the eye.”
Lorenzo did.
Tony’s voice lowered.
“Do you think it was me?”
Before Lorenzo could answer, a guard entered quickly.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“We checked the security authorization for the pantry door.”
Tony went still.
The guard looked uncomfortable.
“What code?”
The guard glanced at Tony.
Then back to Lorenzo.
“Mr. Richie’s.”
Silence.
Tony whispered, “That’s impossible.”
The guard continued.
“It was entered manually at 9:57.”
Tony pulled out his wallet.
“My access card is here.”
“Not card access,” the guard said. “Your six-digit override.”
Only Tony knew that number.
At least he was supposed to.
Lorenzo looked at his oldest friend.
Tony looked genuinely shocked.
But shock could be performed.
Lorenzo had built an empire by knowing when men lied.
Tonight he could not read the man he knew best.
Then Clara’s voice came through the doorway.
“Mr. Duca?”
Lorenzo turned sharply.
She stood there holding Mia.
“You were told to stay upstairs.”
“Mia remembered something.”
Lorenzo looked at the little girl.
Her head rested sleepily on Clara’s shoulder.
“What did you remember?”
Mia pointed at Tony.
Everyone froze.
Tony’s face drained.
Mia rubbed her eyes.
“That man.”
Clara looked at her daughter.
“What man, sweetheart?”
“At the wall.”
Lorenzo felt his heartbeat slow.
Mia pointed toward Tony again.
“He had the same shiny thing.”
Tony glanced down.
At his wrist.
His watch.
A rare stainless-steel watch Lorenzo had given him ten years earlier.
“What shiny thing?” Lorenzo asked.
Mia touched her wrist.
“The silver clock.”
Tony stared at Lorenzo.
“Boss—”
Mia yawned.
“The man with Viper had one too.”
Nobody spoke.
Lorenzo looked at Tony’s watch.
Then at Tony.
The prisoner had named Richie.
Tony’s override code had opened the internal door.
Now Mia remembered a man beside Silas wearing the same distinctive watch.
Three clues.
All pointing toward the same person.
May you like
And Lorenzo had learned long ago that coincidences were usually just truths nobody wanted to accept.
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