Chapter 6 - Lorenzo’s House Was Already Compromised
Lorenzo evacuated the household staff by noon.
He did not explain why.
Mrs. Bell was told there had been a serious electrical problem affecting the security system. The cooks were sent home. Gardeners were dismissed for the day. Drivers were ordered to leave their vehicles and take taxis.
Emma watched the estate empty room by room.
She had never seen the mansion without people.
Usually it hummed quietly.
Vacuum cleaners.
Phones.
Footsteps.
Doors.
Today the silence made it feel abandoned.
Only Lorenzo, Emma, Adrian, and three people Lorenzo trusted from outside the regular security division remained.
Victor Hale had disappeared.
He had walked toward the security control room during the archive-room discovery and never returned.
One exterior camera caught him leaving through the garden gate.
After that, nothing.
Michael Dane was gone too.
Lorenzo had been forced to let him leave.
Keeping him there against his will would have crossed a line Emma had explicitly asked Lorenzo not to cross.
More importantly, Dane knew too much.
If Lorenzo acted recklessly, whatever evidence Dane possessed could surface before they understood it.
Krell remained missing.
Emma stood in the mansion’s empty kitchen while Lorenzo poured coffee for both of them.
“You know I can do that.”
“I know.”
“It’s literally my job.”
“Not today.”
She accepted the cup.
Her wrist hurt less than it had that morning.
Her nerves did not.
“What are your people checking?”
“Every room.”
“For cameras?”
“Cameras, microphones, network devices.”
“How long?”
“Hours.”
Emma glanced around.
“Do you think my room was recorded?”
Lorenzo stopped.
She had a small staff bedroom on the third floor for nights when events ran late.
“I don’t know.”
The possibility disturbed him visibly.
“I’m sorry.”
“You didn’t put them there.”
“No.”
“But?”
“But it was my house.”
Emma sat at the kitchen island.
“Everything is your responsibility, isn’t it?”
Lorenzo looked at her.
“That’s how this works.”
“Maybe that’s part of the problem.”
He frowned.
“You trust people, but only underneath you.”
“Meaning?”
“Dane managed money underneath you. Krell managed security underneath you. Hale managed staff access underneath you.”
“And?”
“Did any of them check each other?”
Lorenzo did not answer.
Emma understood.
“No.”
“No.”
“So they only had to hide things from one person.”
“Me.”
“Exactly.”
Lorenzo leaned against the counter.
“You should have been an auditor.”
“I failed algebra twice.”
“That seems unrelated.”
“It felt relevant.”
He almost smiled.
Then Adrian entered holding a tablet.
“We found nine devices.”
Lorenzo straightened.
“Nine?”
“Six microphones. Three cameras.”
Emma felt sick.
“Where?”
“Study. Main conference room. East archive. Library. Garage office.”
Adrian hesitated.
“Your mother’s sitting room.”
Lorenzo’s face changed.
“And?”
“Your bedroom.”
Silence.
Emma looked away instinctively.
Lorenzo’s expression became stone.
“How long?”
“Some are recent. Maybe six months. Others older.”
“Can we retrieve recordings?”
“They transmitted wirelessly.”
“To where?”
“We’re tracing it.”
“Local?”
“Possibly.”
Emma asked, “Why put one in the archive room?”
Adrian nodded.
“That one wasn’t aimed at documents.”
“At what?”
“The small conference table.”
Lorenzo remembered.
He had used the archive room for private meetings precisely because there were no standard security cameras there.
Dane knew that.
They had created a blind spot.
Then filled it with their own camera.
“What conversations?” Emma asked.
Lorenzo’s gaze darkened.
“Too many.”
Adrian continued.
“There’s another problem.”
“Of course there is.”
“The microphone in your study captured the desk.”
“So?”
“It was positioned close enough to record phone conversations on speaker.”
Lorenzo looked toward the ceiling.
Emma asked, “Could they hear everything?”
“Probably.”
Her stomach tightened.
“This morning?”
Adrian shook his head.
“That device was removed.”
“When?”
“Sometime overnight.”
Lorenzo turned.
“The rectangular mark.”
“Yes.”
Someone had anticipated discovery.
But not everything had been removed.
Why?
Emma asked the question.
“If they knew you were investigating, why leave eight devices?”
Adrian and Lorenzo looked at her.
“To make us find them,” she said.
Lorenzo understood first.
“A controlled discovery.”
Adrian nodded slowly.
“They removed whichever device mattered most.”
“So the others are distractions.”
“Or old.”
Emma sipped her coffee.
“What was different about the study device?”
Adrian answered.
“It appears larger.”
“Could it store recordings rather than only transmit them?”
“Possibly.”
“And somebody removed it last night.”
Lorenzo’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
“Moretti.”
Silence.
Then a distorted voice.
“Check your email.”
The call ended.
Lorenzo opened his laptop using a cellular connection rather than the house network.
An email waited.
No subject line.
No message.
One attachment.
A video file.
Adrian said, “Don’t open it here.”
Lorenzo ignored him.
The video began.
Lorenzo appeared on screen.
Older footage.
Eight months earlier.
He sat in the archive room across from a man Emma did not recognize.
The audio was clear.
The unknown man said, “The storefront becomes available if Russo stops paying.”
Emma’s heart jumped.
Russo.
On screen, Lorenzo answered:
“Then handle it.”
The video ended.
Emma stared.
Lorenzo’s face went pale.
“You said you didn’t know.”
“I didn’t.”
“But that was you.”
“Yes.”
“You said, ‘Then handle it.’”
“Yes.”
Adrian leaned closer.
“This is edited.”
“How do you know?” Emma asked.
“I don’t.”
Lorenzo closed the laptop.
Emma watched him carefully.
“Who was the man?”
“Real-estate broker.”
“What were you talking about?”
“A property acquisition on Hanover Street.”
“And Russo?”
Lorenzo shook his head.
“He never came up.”
Emma understood.
“They combined two conversations.”
“Probably.”
Adrian looked at Lorenzo.
“If this footage is released—”
“I know.”
Emma asked, “Would people believe it?”
Neither man answered.
That was the problem.
The clip looked authentic.
Lorenzo’s reputation would do the rest.
The unknown caller rang again.
Lorenzo answered without speaking.
The distorted voice said, “There are thirty-seven more.”
Lorenzo’s eyes hardened.
“What do you want?”
“A meeting.”
“With whom?”
“You already know.”
“Dane?”
Silence.
Then:
“Midnight.”
“Where?”
“You’ll receive instructions.”
The call ended.
Emma stood.
“You’re not going.”
Lorenzo looked at her.
“I have to.”
“No.”
“You told me this morning not to decide for you.”
“That doesn’t mean I can’t tell you when you’re being stupid.”
Adrian looked down to hide amusement.
Lorenzo ignored him.
“If Dane has recordings—”
“He wants you desperate.”
“Yes.”
“Then going alone gives him what he wants.”
“I didn’t say alone.”
Emma folded her arms.
“You’re planning something.”
“Of course.”
“What?”
“You are going somewhere safe.”
She stared.
“We are not having this argument again.”
“This time we are.”
“Why?”
“Because you are not part of the meeting.”
“I’m part of the reason it’s happening.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
Lorenzo’s expression softened.
“Emma.”
That softness made her more suspicious.
“What?”
“You were right this morning.”
“About?”
“You don’t belong to me.”
She waited.
“So I cannot order you to stay.”
“Good.”
“But I can ask.”
There was no command in his voice now.
No assumption.
“Please stay somewhere safe tonight.”
Emma looked at him.
This was different.
He was actually asking.
She could say no.
He would accept it.
That changed everything.
“Fine.”
Lorenzo exhaled.
“With Mr. Russo?”
“Yes.”
“No guards?”
“One person outside. You choose who.”
Emma considered.
“Adrian.”
Adrian’s head snapped up.
“I’m an accountant.”
“Exactly.”
Lorenzo almost laughed.
Emma pointed at him.
“See? Nobody expects the accountant.”
Adrian muttered, “I hate both of you.”
The tension broke for a moment.
Then a sound echoed through the empty mansion.
A door closing upstairs.
All three froze.
“No one else should be here,” Adrian whispered.
Lorenzo moved toward the hallway.
Emma followed.
“Stay.”
“No.”
He looked back.
She raised an eyebrow.
Lorenzo sighed.
They climbed the staircase.
The sound had come from the third floor.
Near the staff rooms.
Near Emma’s room.
Lorenzo reached the corridor first.
Her door was open.
Emma knew she had closed it.
Inside, nothing appeared disturbed.
Bed made.
Uniform hanging.
Shoes beneath the chair.
Then Emma saw the mirror.
A sentence had been written across it in black marker.
GO BACK TO BEING INVISIBLE.
Emma stopped in the doorway.
Lorenzo stepped beside her.
His expression became terrifyingly calm.
The message echoed the exact words Emma had spoken in the study that morning.
Words only Lorenzo had heard.
Unless the hidden microphone had been active.
Emma whispered, “They heard us.”
Lorenzo looked toward the ceiling.
“No.”
“What?”
“The study device was already gone when we checked.”
“So?”
“So if someone heard you say that this morning…”
He turned toward the corridor.
“They weren’t listening through a recording device.”
Emma understood.
Someone had been physically close enough to hear through the door.
Someone still inside the house.
A floorboard creaked behind them.
Lorenzo spun.
At the far end of the corridor, a shadow disappeared around the corner.
May you like
And for the first time that day, Lorenzo Moretti ran.
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