Chapter 5 - The Music Box Sophia Left Behind
For the next six days, nothing happened.
That frightened Gabriel more than an obvious attack would have.
He quietly replaced two security guards.
He ordered duplicate camera logs stored off-site.
He told Victor nothing.
When Victor asked why new technicians were at the estate, Gabriel said an insurance company had requested updated equipment.
Victor accepted the explanation.
Too easily.
Gabriel began coming home earlier.
At first, Leo seemed uncomfortable with the change.
The boy would look toward Evelyn whenever Gabriel entered a room, as if checking whether this new routine was safe.
Gabriel noticed.
He resisted the instinct to force progress.
Instead he sat.
At breakfast.
At dinner.
During drawing.
He stopped asking Leo to speak.
He asked simple questions that could be answered by pointing.
Red pencil or blue?
Apple or banana?
One story or two?
Slowly, Leo began responding.
Sometimes with gestures.
Sometimes with drawings.
And eventually with tapping.
On the seventh evening, Gabriel sat beside him on the living-room floor while Leo built a wooden train track.
The final piece would not fit.
Gabriel reached for it.
Leo pulled his hand back.
Gabriel stopped.
“Okay.”
He withdrew.
Leo looked at him.
Gabriel waited.
Then Leo pushed the piece toward him.
Permission.
Gabriel connected the track.
The train rolled.
Leo smiled.
It lasted less than two seconds.
Gabriel would have traded four million dollars for those two seconds.
Across the room, Evelyn watched.
When Gabriel looked at her, she pretended to be reading.
“You can stop spying,” he said.
“I’m supervising.”
“Me?”
“Mostly.”
Gabriel raised an eyebrow.
Evelyn smiled.
Their relationship had changed since the confrontation.
Not trust.
Not yet.
But the boundaries were different.
Gabriel now knew who she was.
Evelyn knew he had not fired her.
Neither discussed why.
Late that night, Gabriel returned to the financial records.
His accountants had discovered that several fraudulent companies were linked through one insurance broker.
The broker had died nine months earlier.
Natural causes.
Possibly.
Another name appeared repeatedly in communication logs.
Miles Harker.
Former security consultant.
Gabriel recognized it.
Harker had worked for one of Victor’s subcontractors.
He called Victor.
“You remember Miles Harker?”
A pause.
“Security guy?”
“Yes.”
“What about him?”
“When did he leave?”
“Maybe a year ago.”
“Why?”
“Daniel recommended terminating his contract.”
Gabriel’s fingers tightened around the phone.
“Daniel did?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t I know?”
“You had other things happening.”
Sophia had been alive when Harker was fired.
“What exactly did Daniel say?”
“That Harker was asking questions about the camera network.”
Gabriel looked toward his home security screen.
“Where is he now?”
“No idea.”
“Find out.”
After ending the call, Gabriel searched archived staff records.
Harker’s photograph appeared.
Forty-two.
Lean.
Dark hair.
Former military communications specialist.
No criminal record.
Last known Chicago address vacant.
He emailed the photograph to his private investigator.
Then heard footsteps.
Evelyn entered the study doorway.
“You’re still awake.”
“So are you.”
“I came for water.”
“The kitchen isn’t in my study.”
She nodded toward the bottle beside his desk.
“You have better water.”
Gabriel almost laughed.
She entered.
Her gaze landed on Harker’s photograph.
She froze.
Gabriel noticed.
“You know him.”
Evelyn moved closer.
“I’ve seen him.”
“Where?”
She pointed.
“Outside Leo’s school.”
Gabriel stood.
“When?”
“Maybe three weeks ago.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“I didn’t know who he was.”
“What was he doing?”
“Sitting in a car.”
“Watching Leo?”
“I don’t know.”
“What car?”
“Gray sedan.”
“Plate?”
“I wrote it down.”
Of course she had.
Evelyn returned five minutes later with a notebook.
Gabriel entered the plate into his investigator’s database.
Registered to a rental company.
Returned two weeks earlier.
Gabriel’s phone rang almost immediately.
His investigator.
“Harker’s in Chicago.”
Gabriel’s eyes remained on Evelyn.
“Where?”
“Hard to say. He used a card at a gas station north of the city yesterday.”
“How far from my estate?”
“Twenty minutes.”
Gabriel ended the call.
Evelyn looked toward the hallway.
“Leo.”
“Yes.”
She started moving.
Gabriel caught her wrist.
“Wait.”
She looked down at his hand.
He released her immediately.
“You can’t change your behavior.”
“If someone’s watching?”
“Yes.”
“You think Harker is.”
“I think someone wants whatever Sophia hid.”
Evelyn looked toward the stairs.
“The music box.”
Gabriel nodded.
“We should open it.”
“No.”
She stared.
“No?”
“If someone believes we don’t know what’s inside, I want them to keep believing that.”
“What if the compartment is empty?”
“Then they’ll find that out.”
“And Leo is in the room.”
“He won’t be.”
Gabriel devised a plan.
The next afternoon the music box would be moved downstairs under the excuse of cleaning Leo’s shelves.
A duplicate box would replace it.
But the plan failed before it began.
At breakfast, Leo carried Sophia’s music box downstairs himself.
He placed it in front of Evelyn.
Gabriel stared.
Evelyn touched the lid.
“You want to hear it?”
Leo nodded.
She wound the key.
A soft melody filled the room.
Gabriel remembered Sophia humming it while pregnant.
He looked away.
Leo watched him.
Then pushed the box toward his father.
Gabriel hesitated.
He opened the lid.
A tiny dancer rotated slowly.
The melody continued.
Nothing unusual.
Then Leo reached beneath the box.
His fingers pressed the felt.
Gabriel’s heart stopped.
Leo tapped one spot.
Then another.
Not the hidden catches.
Close.
Evelyn noticed too.
“How did you know to look there?” she asked softly.
Leo stared at the box.
His mouth moved.
No sound.
He lifted a pencil and drew on his napkin.
A woman.
Sophia.
Beside her, a box.
Then he drew a man.
Gabriel leaned closer.
The man had something square in his jacket.
A pocket square.
Again.
Gabriel’s phone vibrated.
Victor.
He answered.
“What?”
“I found Harker.”
Gabriel looked at Evelyn.
“Where?”
“He’s dead.”
Silence.
“Since when?”
“According to what I’m seeing? Eight months.”
Gabriel’s gaze returned to the computer image he had studied hours earlier.
If Miles Harker had been dead for eight months, Evelyn could not have seen him outside Leo’s school three weeks ago.
Unless somebody had gone to considerable effort to look like him.
Or Victor was lying.
That night Gabriel installed one additional camera himself.
No technician.
No security staff.
No Victor.
A tiny device hidden inside a decorative vent with a clear angle into Leo’s room.
He told nobody.
Not even Evelyn.
Three nights passed.
On the fourth, Gabriel fell asleep in his study chair shortly after midnight.
At 2:16 a.m., an automated motion alert woke him.
He opened his eyes.
The bedroom feed had activated.
Evelyn Reed entered Leo’s room.
She did not turn on the light.
She did not hesitate.
She crossed the floor without touching the board that creaked near the window.
Then she knelt beside Sophia’s music box.
Gabriel slowly straightened in his chair.
On the screen, Evelyn turned the box upside down.
Her fingers found two nearly invisible brass catches beneath the felt.
The false bottom opened.
A tiny memory card dropped into her palm.
Gabriel stopped breathing.
Evelyn stared at it.
Not surprised.
Not confused.
She had known exactly what she was looking for.
Then Gabriel’s second monitor flashed.
Motion.
East hallway.
A man dressed in black stepped into view.
Gloves.
No household identification.
The stranger hugged the wall, moving through narrow gaps between permanent security cameras.
Gabriel’s hand moved toward the pistol beside him.
The man reached Leo’s bedroom.
Then removed a key.
Not tools.
Not a lockpick.
A key.
Inside the room, Evelyn suddenly raised her head.
The stranger inserted the key.
Three taps sounded against the bedroom door.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
Gabriel went cold.
It was almost Leo and Evelyn’s private signal.
Almost.
And in the next heartbeat, Gabriel understood why Evelyn’s face had changed.
The man had learned the signal.
May you like
But he had never learned the rhythm.
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