Chapter 2 - The Man Dominic Trusted
Theo closed the door behind him.
“You look like you’re about to shoot the monitor.”
Dominic did not smile.
The technician quietly moved away from the console.
Theo noticed the room’s tension.
“What happened?”
Dominic pointed at the screen.
Theo walked closer.
Then stopped.
His name stared back at him.
EAST SECURITY OVERRIDE
AUTHORIZED USER: THEODORE MASON
23:41
Theo’s face lost color.
“That wasn’t me.”
Dominic watched him.
Theo turned.
“You know that.”
“I know what the system says.”
“The system can be manipulated.”
“You built half of it.”
“Exactly.”
Silence.
The technician suddenly became extremely interested in another monitor.
Theo stepped closer.
“At eleven forty-one I was downstairs.”
“Doing what?”
“Talking to Marcus.”
“About?”
“The Boston property.”
“Who saw you?”
Theo’s jaw tightened.
“Marcus.”
Dominic almost laughed.
The man currently defending Theo’s innocence was one of the other three people with access to the same security system.
Convenient.
“Anyone else?”
“A kitchen worker may have passed through.”
“May have?”
“I wasn’t writing down witnesses.”
Dominic leaned against the desk.
“Start.”
Theo stared at him.
“Start what?”
“Convincing me.”
Something sharp flashed in Theo’s eyes.
Then anger.
Real anger.
“I’ve been with you fourteen years.”
“So?”
“I took a bullet outside Baltimore for you.”
“And?”
Theo blinked.
Dominic continued.
“Loyalty yesterday doesn’t prove loyalty tonight.”
Theo looked away.
For several seconds neither man spoke.
Then Theo exhaled.
“Fine. Check my phone. Check the hallway. Check every call I made. Tear my room apart.”
“I will.”
Theo looked back at him.
“Good.”
Dominic believed the anger.
That didn’t mean he believed the man.
A guard appeared at the doorway.
“Boss.”
Dominic turned.
“Dr. Keller wants you.”
Theo followed him toward the medical wing.
Dominic stopped.
“You stay here.”
Theo stared.
“Seriously?”
“Yes.”
The door closed between them.
Sophie was sitting on a leather chair outside the private medical suite.
Someone had found slippers for her.
They were too large.
Her feet barely reached the edge.
The brown rabbit rested in her lap.
When she saw Dominic, she stood.
“Mommy awake?”
“Not yet.”
Her face fell.
Dominic crouched.
“Doctor Keller is helping her.”
“Did I make her sick?”
The question hit him unexpectedly.
“No.”
“I gave her water.”
Dominic paused.
“What water?”
Sophie pointed vaguely toward the staff wing.
“She said her head hurt. I got her cup.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
“From where?”
“The kitchen.”
“Did someone help you?”
She thought.
Three-year-old concentration tightened her whole face.
Then she nodded.
“A man.”
Dominic kept his voice gentle.
“What man?”
“I dunno.”
“What did he look like?”
She hugged the rabbit.
“Big.”
That described half of Dominic’s staff.
“Hair?”
She touched her own head.
“Not lots.”
Bald or short-haired.
“Did he talk to you?”
She nodded.
“What did he say?”
“He said Mommy needs special sugar.”
Dominic froze.
“Special sugar?”
Sophie nodded.
“He put it in.”
The world inside Dominic became very quiet.
“What did it look like?”
“White.”
“Powder?”
She didn’t understand.
He tried again.
“Like tiny snow?”
“Yes.”
“And then you took it to Mommy?”
“She drank some.”
Dominic felt a cold wave move through his chest.
Someone had used Sophie.
A three-year-old child.
Not merely to reach Elena.
To ensure Elena would drink whatever had been placed in that glass.
Dr. Keller stepped into the corridor.
“Dominic.”
He stood.
Keller glanced toward Sophie.
“We need to talk somewhere private.”
Dominic looked at the girl.
A housekeeper named Mrs. Avery sat nearby.
She had worked in Vale House for thirty-one years.
Dominic trusted her more than almost anyone.
Almost.
“Stay with Mrs. Avery.”
Sophie grabbed his sleeve.
“You come back?”
“Yes.”
“Promise?”
Dominic hesitated.
Promises had always irritated him.
They were usually spoken by people who needed to compensate for having no control over the future.
But Sophie waited.
“Promise.”
She let go.
Inside Keller’s office, Dominic closed the door.
“What did you find?”
“Her blood pressure is improving. She’s breathing independently.”
“What was in her system?”
Keller rubbed his jaw.
“Midazolam.”
Dominic knew enough to understand.
“A sedative.”
“Yes. But that’s not all.”
“What else?”
“A second compound. Something designed to interact badly with the first.”
“Kill her?”
Keller hesitated.
“Possibly.”
Dominic’s expression darkened.
“Possibly?”
“The dose wasn’t high enough.”
“Then why is she unconscious?”
“She may have only consumed part of it.”
Dominic thought of Sophie.
She said Elena drank some.
Maybe someone expected her to finish the glass.
“Would it look natural?”
“In the right circumstances? Yes. Especially if no one found her for several hours.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
Someone expected Elena to die quietly in her room.
The body would have been found at morning shift.
Maybe called an accidental overdose.
Maybe exhaustion.
Maybe a hidden medical condition.
Except Sophie had woken up.
Except Sophie had crossed half the mansion barefoot.
Except she had knocked on the one door no one else dared touch.
Keller moved closer.
“There’s something else.”
Dominic waited.
“Elena has bruising behind her right ear.”
“From falling?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Someone hit her?”
“Possibly before she drank the sedative. Or after she started becoming disoriented.”
Dominic turned toward the window.
Rain covered the glass.
“Can she wake up?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Could be an hour. Could be six.”
Dominic looked back at him.
“Then you stay.”
“I wasn’t planning to leave.”
By three in the morning, Vale House had become a locked machine.
Nobody entered.
Nobody left.
Dominic questioned the eastern guards personally.
One claimed Theo had ordered him to inspect the perimeter.
Another said Marcus Reed had called him downstairs over a financial courier.
The third had vanished.
His name was Daniel Croft.
Thirty-eight.
Six years of service.
Former military.
No known disciplinary problems.
Dominic stood inside Croft’s room while two guards searched everything.
Nothing.
No suitcase.
No passport.
No obvious signs of escape.
Then one guard opened the closet.
“Boss.”
Behind a row of dark jackets was a wet coat.
Dominic touched it.
Still damp.
Mud marked the sleeve.
One shoe sat beneath the bed.
Size twelve.
The tread pattern looked exactly like the wet footprint near Elena’s room.
Theo stood in the doorway under guard.
Dominic looked at him.
“You know Croft well?”
“No.”
“Did you order him away from the east wing?”
“No.”
“Did you ever give him your security code?”
Theo laughed once.
“No.”
The sound had no humor in it.
Dominic looked at the wet coat again.
“Someone did.”
A phone rang.
Not Dominic’s.
Theo’s.
The guard holding it looked at the screen.
“Unknown number.”
Dominic extended his hand.
The guard gave him the phone.
Dominic answered.
Silence.
Then a distorted voice.
“Dominic Vale.”
Dominic looked at Theo.
“Who is this?”
“You should have let the maid sleep.”
Dominic’s eyes hardened.
“Where is Croft?”
A soft laugh.
Then—
“You’re asking the wrong question.”
“What question should I ask?”
“Why did Elena Hart recognize Gabriel Kane?”
The call disconnected.
Dominic stared at the phone.
Theo’s expression changed.
“You didn’t tell me she recognized Kane.”
“I didn’t tell anyone.”
Theo stepped closer.
“Dominic.”
The guards raised their weapons slightly.
Theo stopped.
“How does whoever called know?”
Dominic said nothing.
That bothered him more than the call itself.
Only three people knew about the photograph.
Dominic.
Sophie.
And whoever had hidden it inside the rabbit.
Elena.
Unless someone had watched her hide it.
A guard hurried down the hall.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“We found Croft.”
Dominic turned.
“Where?”
The guard’s face looked unsettled.
“In the old wine cellar.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Bring him.”
“He can’t walk.”
Minutes later, Daniel Croft was carried into a downstairs room.
His hands were bound behind him.
His mouth had been taped.
A swelling darkened the side of his head.
When the tape came off, he coughed violently.
Dominic stood across from him.
“Who did this?”
Croft looked around wildly.
“I don’t know.”
“Try again.”
“I swear.”
“Why were you off post?”
Croft swallowed.
“I got a radio call.”
“From?”
“Theo.”
Theo stiffened.
“It wasn’t me.”
Croft looked at him.
“I heard your voice.”
Theo stepped forward.
“You know my voice.”
“I know what I heard.”
Dominic held up one hand.
Everyone stopped.
“What did the voice say?”
Croft closed his eyes.
“Said there was a breach near the south garden. Told me to take Edwards and Mills with me.”
“All three eastern guards?”
“Yes.”
“Then what?”
“I reached the cellar corridor. Someone hit me.”
Dominic stared at him.
“Did you see who?”
“No.”
“Anything?”
Croft struggled to remember.
Then his eyes opened.
“A smell.”
“What smell?”
“Cigars.”
Theo swore under his breath.
Dominic’s mind moved instantly.
Only one man in Vale House still smoked cigars indoors despite Dominic’s rules.
His uncle.
Julian Vale.
But Julian had supposedly been asleep in the north wing all evening.
Dominic left the room without speaking.
By the time he reached the medical suite, Sophie was asleep across two chairs, curled around her rabbit.
Mrs. Avery had covered her with a blanket.
Dominic stopped.
For a moment, the investigation disappeared.
He saw only a tiny child who had walked through a dark mansion because her mother would not wake up.
He adjusted the blanket over her shoulder.
Something fell from the rabbit.
A tiny brass button.
Dominic picked it up.
Not a toy part.
Not from Elena’s clothing.
A crest was stamped into the metal.
An old V surrounded by ivy.
Dominic recognized it.
Twenty years earlier, Vale House security uniforms had used those buttons.
The uniforms had been retired after his father died.
Only one person still owned an original coat from that era.
Julian Vale.
Sophie stirred.
Her eyes opened halfway.
Dominic showed her the button.
“Where did you get this?”
She blinked sleepily.
“Man dropped it.”
“What man?”
“The sugar man.”
Dominic stopped breathing for a second.
“Did you see his face?”
Sophie shook her head.
“He wore hat.”
“What kind of hat?”
She touched the top of her head.
“Black.”
Dominic looked toward the rain-darkened window.
His uncle wore no hats.
Theo wore no hats.
But the man in the photograph beside Dominic’s mother had always worn one.
Black.
Wide-brimmed.
Gabriel Kane.
Dominic slowly closed his fist around the brass button.
Maybe someone was framing Theo.
Maybe someone was framing Julian.
Or maybe a dead man had returned to Vale House wearing the past like a disguise.
Then Sophie whispered something that made Dominic turn back.
“He called Mommy Nellie.”
Dominic frowned.
“What?”
“The man said, ‘Nellie, don’t make trouble.’”
Dominic stared at her.
Elena’s name was Elena Hart.
Nobody in Vale House called her Nellie.
But Dominic remembered something from the photograph.
On the back, beneath Elena’s warning, there had been a faint line almost erased by time.
A handwritten dedication.
To Nellie, when she’s old enough to understand.
Dominic had assumed it belonged to someone else.
Now he understood.
Elena Hart had not simply found the photograph.
It had belonged to her.
May you like
And whatever connection she had to Gabriel Kane had started long before she ever stepped inside Vale House.
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