Chapter 6 - Someone Inside the Mansion
The photograph changed everything.
Not because it proved the ledger existed.
Caleb had already told us that.
Sophie’s note had told us that.
The fire at Dockland Storage practically confirmed someone feared it.
What mattered was the kitchen table beneath the ledger.
I recognized it.
Declan did too.
Black marble.
A thin gold vein running diagonally through the center.
A shallow scratch near the edge.
The photograph had been taken inside Declan’s mansion.
Mason zoomed in.
“That’s the staff kitchen.”
Declan’s eyes went cold.
The message beneath the photograph seemed almost mocking now.
SOPHIE MADE MORE THAN ONE COPY.
Someone inside the house possessed it.
Someone who knew we were searching.
Someone who had photographed me asleep.
I wrapped my arms around myself.
“Maybe we should stop.”
Declan looked at me.
I hated the relief I felt when he didn’t immediately disagree.
He understood fear.
“Do you want to?”
I thought of Sophie.
I thought of the four hundred and twelve borrowers Caleb mentioned.
I thought of eleven million dollars.
“No.”
“Then we don’t.”
Mason began reviewing staff access.
Declan’s mansion employed twenty-eight people between security, housekeeping, maintenance, cooking, drivers, and administrative staff.
Twenty-eight suspects.
I had worked beside many of them.
Mrs. Ellison, the cook who always saved me soup when I cleaned late.
Tyler, the twenty-year-old groundskeeper who talked constantly about motorcycles.
Ana from housekeeping, who sent half her wages to her parents.
Mr. Ford, the house manager who had hired me.
The idea that one of them had entered my room while I slept made my skin crawl.
Declan noticed me staring at the staff list.
“No one will know what we’re doing.”
“How do you investigate twenty-eight people secretly?”
“Poorly.”
I looked at him.
He gave me the faintest hint of a smile.
It disappeared quickly.
“We don’t need to identify everyone involved. We need whoever sent that email.”
Mason nodded.
“The attachment contains metadata.”
“Can you trace it?”
“Already trying.”
For the next three hours, I did something I had never expected to do.
I investigated a criminal enterprise with a mafia boss.
Mason examined financial records.
Declan made calls.
I went through staff names.
Then I noticed something.
“Wait.”
They both looked at me.
“Why is Ana’s address different?”
Mason frowned.
“What?”
“Ana lives on West Forty-Second.”
The file listed Birch Avenue.
“You’re sure?”
“She takes the same bus as me some nights.”
Mason opened a second database.
“Ana Torres moved six months ago.”
“She never mentioned it.”
“That doesn’t mean anything.”
“No.”
Then I remembered.
“She borrowed money.”
Declan became still.
“What?”
“Last winter.”
I looked at Mason.
“Her father needed surgery.”
“How much?”
“I don’t know.”
“From whom?”
“I hadn’t asked.”
My stomach tightened.
“What if it was Caleb?”
Mason pulled Ana’s payroll records.
Her direct deposits looked normal.
Then he found deductions.
Three hundred dollars.
Every Friday.
Labeled voluntary savings transfer.
Destination?
Northline Consulting.
One of the companies in Sophie’s library note.
“Oh God.”
“She’s paying them,” I whispered.
Declan was already standing.
“Where is she?”
Mason checked staff schedules.
“Off today.”
“Call her.”
“No.”
Both men looked at me.
“If she’s involved because she owes them, calling from your phones could scare her.”
Declan considered that.
“You call.”
I had Ana’s number.
My hands trembled as I dialed.
She answered on the fourth ring.
“Nora?”
“Hey.”
“Are you okay? Everyone is saying something happened at the house.”
“I’m okay.”
Silence.
“Are you alone?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
She was lying.
I knew because Ana always repeated questions when nervous.
Am I alone? Yes.
Instead she answered too quickly.
“Do you know Caleb Morrow?”
The line went silent.
“Ana?”
“Why are you asking me that?”
My pulse accelerated.
“He loaned you money, didn’t he?”
Another silence.
Then she whispered, “Nora, stop.”
“Why?”
“Please.”
“Did you send me an email?”
Her breathing changed.
Declan and Mason watched me.
“Ana?”
“I didn’t know they were going to hurt your sister.”
My stomach dropped.
Declan stepped closer.
“What did you say?”
“I didn’t know,” she repeated.
“Ana, where are you?”
“I can’t.”
“Please.”
“They told me if I helped, they’d erase my father’s debt.”
“Help with what?”
“Watching you.”
My skin turned cold.
“Since when?”
“Six months.”
Six months.
Before I collapsed.
Before Caleb came to the mansion.
Someone had been monitoring me.
“Why?”
“They thought Sophie gave you something.”
“I didn’t know anything.”
“I know.”
Her voice cracked.
“I figured that out.”
“Did you take my boxes?”
“No.”
“Did you photograph me asleep?”
Silence.
“Ana.”
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes.
Declan swore quietly.
“Who told you to?”
“A man from finance.”
“Julian?”
“No.”
The answer surprised us.
“Who?”
“I never got his name.”
“What did he look like?”
“I only met him twice.”
“Where?”
“Raven & Rose.”
The restaurant where Sophie met Declan.
Declan turned toward Mason.
Mason immediately started checking cameras.
“Ana, listen to me. You need to come somewhere safe.”
“I can’t.”
“They’ll hurt my dad.”
“Declan can help him.”
A bitter laugh.
“That’s what they told us before. That Declan could help anyone. Then they said Declan wanted his money.”
I looked at him.
Pain crossed his face.
His name had become a weapon without him knowing.
“Ana, Declan never authorized your loan.”
Silence.
“What?”
“None of these loans were his.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No, Caleb showed me papers.”
“They showed me papers too.”
Her breathing became uneven.
“What have I done?”
“You can fix it.”
“How?”
“Tell us about the ledger.”
She went quiet.
Then she whispered, “I have it.”
Mason grabbed the table.
“Where?”
“I stole it from Mr. Vane’s office.”
Declan’s eyes widened.
“You broke into Julian’s office?”
“I clean there.”
“Why?”
“Because I heard them talking about burning the storage unit.”
The pieces clicked.
“You sent the photograph.”
“Yes.”
“Why not give it to us?”
“Because I didn’t know who to trust.”
“What changed?”
“You.”
I swallowed.
“What about me?”
“You collapsed.”
Ana began crying.
“I saw him carry you upstairs. I saw him sit beside you. Nobody told him to. Nobody was watching him. That’s when I realized maybe everything they said about him wasn’t true.”
Declan looked away.
“Where’s the ledger?”
“I hid it.”
“Where?”
“In the mansion.”
Mason looked around as if walls might answer.
“Where in the mansion?”
Ana whispered two words.
“The chapel.”
Declan’s head snapped up.
His mansion had a small private chapel built by his grandmother.
No staff went there except once a week.
“I put it behind the old memorial plaque.”
Mason grabbed his jacket.
“We’ll get it.”
Ana suddenly gasped.
A male voice sounded faintly in the background.
My pulse stopped.
“Ana?”
She whispered, “They’re here.”
“Ana, where are you?”
No answer.
“Ana!”
The line disconnected.
Mason tried tracing.
Declan was already issuing orders.
Then my phone rang again.
Ana.
I answered instantly.
But it wasn’t Ana’s voice.
A man spoke.
Calm.
Educated.
Almost friendly.
“Ms. Bell.”
Every person in the room froze.
“Who is this?”
“You’ve become inconvenient.”
Declan stepped closer.
The voice continued.
“If you want Ana Torres alive and free to return to her family, bring the ledger to Raven & Rose tonight.”
I looked at Declan.
He shook his head.
The voice added one final condition.
“And come without Declan Walsh.”
Then the call ended.
Declan stared at me.
“You’re not going.”
I looked back.
“Ana helped me.”
“It’s a trap.”
“I know.”
“Nora.”
“They have her because of me.”
“No. They have her because of them.”
I moved closer.
“If Sophie were here, she’d go.”
Declan’s expression hardened.
“That may be exactly why Sophie died without finishing this.”
Silence.
Then Mason entered from the hallway.
His face was pale.
“What?”
Declan asked.
Mason held a folder.
“We checked the chapel.”
My stomach tightened.
“The ledger?”
“Gone.”
Declan stared.
Mason looked directly at me.
“Someone removed it fifteen minutes before Ana called.”
And the security footage showed exactly who had taken it.
Declan’s oldest friend.
His financial director.
May you like
Julian Vane.
---
