Chapter 6 - 2:17 in the Morning
At exactly 2:17 a.m., Gabriel Marino understood that the difference between life and disaster could be less than one second of silence.
The false signal came again.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
Evenly spaced.
Wrong.
Inside Leo’s room, Evelyn did not answer.
She slid the memory card into her sleeve.
Then crossed to the bed.
Gabriel grabbed his pistol and called the security room.
No answer.
He tried again.
Nothing.
That was worse.
He selected another camera.
Two guards sat at the monitors.
Motionless.
At first Gabriel thought they were asleep.
Then he noticed one man’s head resting unnaturally against the chair.
Drugged?
Unconscious?
He could not tell.
Gabriel hit the internal lockdown control.
A red warning appeared.
SYSTEM OVERRIDE ACTIVE.
Someone had already disabled central control.
The man outside Leo’s door turned the key.
Evelyn touched Leo’s shoulder.
The boy opened his eyes.
Her lips moved.
Gabriel turned up the camera audio.
“Leo. Wake up.”
The child blinked.
“Stay close to me.”
The door handle moved.
Evelyn tapped three times against the side of the bed.
Tap-tap.
Pause.
Tap.
Leo’s eyes widened.
From outside came the wrong reply.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
Evelyn whispered, “That isn’t our signal.”
Gabriel was already moving.
He left the study.
The mansion was almost completely dark.
Automatic hallway lighting should have activated.
It did not.
Someone had disabled that too.
Gabriel knew the house better than anyone.
He avoided the main staircase and moved through a side corridor.
His phone vibrated.
A text.
Unknown number.
Stay downstairs if you want the boy alive.
Gabriel stopped.
The message confirmed two things.
The intruder knew Gabriel was awake.
And there was more than one person involved.
He deleted nothing.
Forwarded the message to his investigator.
Then continued upstairs.
Inside Leo’s room, Evelyn moved the boy toward the adjoining bathroom.
The door opened half an inch.
Evelyn froze.
A man’s voice came from the hallway.
“Evelyn.”
She did not respond.
“I know you’re in there.”
Leo gripped her cardigan.
The door moved another inch.
Evelyn reached behind her without looking and unlocked the bathroom.
“Go,” she whispered.
Leo shook his head.
“Leo.”
He held tighter.
Evelyn crouched.
Three taps against his wrist.
Their rhythm.
“I’m here. You’re safe.”
His eyes filled with tears.
She pointed toward the bathroom.
He finally moved.
The bedroom door opened.
The stranger entered.
Gabriel watched through the phone feed while approaching from the opposite hallway.
The man wore a black cap and half-mask.
His height matched Harker’s file.
But Gabriel knew now that the file might be another lie.
The intruder looked at the empty music-box shelf.
Then at Evelyn.
“Where is it?”
She stepped between him and the bathroom.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Don’t.”
He closed the door behind him.
“You’ve spent seven months looking.”
Evelyn’s face remained calm.
“You have the wrong person.”
The man smiled beneath the mask.
“No. Daniel’s sister is exactly the right person.”
Gabriel stopped outside the corridor corner.
So the intruder knew.
Not merely about the music box.
About Evelyn.
The man stepped closer.
“Give me the card.”
Evelyn backed toward the dresser.
“What card?”
“You were always a terrible liar.”
His voice triggered something.
Gabriel had heard it before.
Not recently.
Years earlier.
He could not place it.
The intruder reached toward Evelyn.
She knocked a lamp from the dresser.
It crashed.
Leo flinched in the bathroom.
The man grabbed Evelyn’s arm.
She twisted away.
Gabriel entered the room.
“Let her go.”
The stranger froze.
Gabriel held the pistol low but steady.
Evelyn moved immediately toward the bathroom door.
The masked man turned slowly.
“You’re supposed to be downstairs.”
“And you’re supposed to know the rhythm.”
The man’s eyes narrowed.
Gabriel could see them now.
Brown.
A thin scar beneath the right one.
Memory clicked.
“Harker.”
The stranger smiled.
“So Victor told you I was dead.”
Gabriel’s face revealed nothing.
Behind him, Evelyn opened the bathroom.
Leo came out and ran to her.
Gabriel kept his attention on Harker.
“Take Leo.”
Evelyn hesitated.
“Now.”
She lifted the boy and moved toward the far door leading to a dressing room.
Harker shifted.
Gabriel raised the pistol.
“Don’t.”
Harker stopped.
“You won’t shoot with your son in the room.”
Gabriel’s voice remained cold.
“Try me.”
Evelyn disappeared with Leo.
Harker’s smile vanished.
“What does Victor want with the card?”
Harker said nothing.
Gabriel moved closer.
“Interesting. I didn’t mention his name until now.”
“You just did.”
“And you didn’t ask why.”
For the first time, Harker looked uncertain.
Gabriel had his answer.
Then every light in the mansion went out.
Complete darkness.
A second later, Gabriel heard movement.
He stepped sideways.
Something struck the wall where his head had been.
Gabriel caught Harker’s arm.
The two men collided against the dresser.
No gunshot.
Too much risk with Leo nearby.
Harker drove an elbow toward Gabriel’s ribs.
Gabriel blocked most of it.
They struggled in the darkness.
Then a beam of light flashed from the hall.
Evelyn.
She held Leo behind her with one hand and Gabriel’s heavy flashlight in the other.
The light hit Harker’s eyes.
He turned.
Gabriel used the instant.
He drove Harker against the floor and pinned his wrist.
“Move again,” Gabriel said, breathing hard, “and you’ll regret it.”
Security alarms suddenly activated.
Backup power.
Footsteps thundered downstairs.
Gabriel’s replacement guards had arrived from the outer station.
Minutes later Harker sat restrained in a downstairs room.
Leo was in Evelyn’s arms.
Gabriel approached.
The boy stared at him.
Then reached out.
Gabriel froze.
Leo’s fingers touched his hand.
Three taps.
Tap-tap.
Pause.
Tap.
Gabriel answered immediately.
For the first time.
Without thinking.
Leo did it again.
Gabriel repeated it.
Evelyn watched both of them.
Her eyes were wet.
Gabriel looked at her sleeve.
“The card.”
Her expression changed.
“You saw.”
“I saw everything.”
She slowly removed the tiny memory card.
“I wasn’t trying to steal it.”
“Then what were you doing?”
“Finding what Sophia wanted Daniel to find.”
“You knew it was there.”
“I suspected.”
“How?”
Evelyn looked at the old music box across the room.
“Because Sophia told Daniel one sentence before she died.”
“What sentence?”
Evelyn’s voice dropped.
“She said, ‘If I can’t tell Gabriel, let the music remember for me.’”
Gabriel stared at the memory card.
Fourteen months of grief.
Fourteen months of unanswered questions.
Fourteen months of believing Daniel Kesler had betrayed him.
All of it now rested on something smaller than his fingernail.
They entered Gabriel’s study.
He used an offline laptop.
No network.
No security system.
No outside connection.
The card contained only three files.
A spreadsheet.
A photograph.
And one video.
The video thumbnail showed Sophia.
Alive.
Sitting exactly where Gabriel was sitting now.
Evelyn covered her mouth.
Gabriel stopped moving.
For fourteen months he had avoided recordings of Sophia because hearing her voice felt unbearable.
Now her face filled the screen.
She looked frightened.
Behind her, the study clock showed 1:08 a.m.
The recording had been made six days before she died.
Gabriel pressed play.
Sophia looked directly into the camera.
“Gabriel, if you’re watching this, then I was right to be afraid.”
Gabriel’s hand tightened around the edge of the desk.
Sophia took a breath.
“There is someone inside our house helping move money through your companies.”
Evelyn sat very still.
Sophia continued.
“I don’t know how far it goes yet. Daniel is helping me. He didn’t betray us.”
Gabriel closed his eyes.
The words struck with physical force.
Daniel was innocent.
Sophia had known.
And Gabriel had never listened.
Then Sophia said the name that changed everything.
May you like
“The person I’m afraid of is Victor.”
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