Chapter 3 - The Man in the Hallway
Clare did not understand her daughter at first.
“What man?”
Ellie pointed toward the empty corridor.
“The other one.”
Dominic heard her.
So did Vincent.
Within seconds, Vincent was at the doorway.
Nobody was there.
“Which way?”
Ellie pointed toward the servants’ stairs.
Vincent signaled two guards.
They moved.
Dominic remained seated.
“Ellie, come here.”
Clare hesitated.
Dominic noticed.
“You can come with her.”
They approached together.
Ellie stood beside the walnut table, small enough that her eyes barely cleared its edge.
Dominic placed his phone down.
“Who did you see?”
“The man from yesterday.”
“The orange man?”
She shook her head.
“No.”
Dominic exchanged a look with Vincent.
“What did this man look like?”
Ellie frowned, searching for the right description.
“Blue.”
Clare closed her eyes.
“She means clothes sometimes. Ellie, was he wearing blue?”
“Yes.”
“What kind?”
Ellie touched her chest.
“Like Daddy’s old one.”
Clare went still.
Dominic saw it.
“What did her father wear?”
Clare took a second before answering.
“A maintenance uniform.”
Her husband had died two years earlier in a construction accident.
Dominic knew that from her employment file.
Ellie remembered blue work shirts.
“Estate maintenance?” Vincent asked.
Clare nodded.
Dominic turned to security.
“How many maintenance employees are on the property?”
“Four today.”
“Bring them.”
Arthur gave an exasperated sigh.
“This is absurd.”
Dominic looked at him.
“A child noticed my brace had been altered. That same child saw someone near my rehabilitation room yesterday. I’m going to listen to her.”
Arthur shook his head.
“You’re interrogating employees based on the observations of a preschooler.”
“No.”
Dominic’s eyes hardened.
“I’m checking whether she’s right.”
Five minutes later, three maintenance employees stood in the great room.
Not four.
Vincent noticed immediately.
“Where’s Peter Lang?”
The supervisor looked confused.
“He was fixing the ventilation controller in the west wing.”
“When?”
“About twenty minutes ago.”
“Find him.”
They searched the west wing.
Then the basement.
Then the garage.
Peter Lang was gone.
His work van remained outside.
His phone was found inside his locker.
And the service door beside the laundry room had been opened eleven minutes earlier.
Dominic’s estate had become a sealed building with people escaping from it.
That realization changed the atmosphere.
The council members were moved to separate rooms.
Phones were collected.
Arthur protested.
Dominic ignored him.
Clare and Ellie were taken to the library with two guards outside.
Clare paced beside the fireplace.
“What have I done?”
Ellie looked up from her toy.
“You didn’t do it.”
Clare stopped.
Her daughter returned to her buckle.
The simplicity of the answer almost broke her.
She sat beside Ellie.
“You listen to me. You didn’t do anything wrong either.”
Ellie nodded.
“Mr. Vale’s buckle was wrong.”
“Yes.”
“And I fixed it.”
Clare looked at her.
“You noticed it.”
“Doctor fixed it.”
A laugh escaped Clare before she could stop it.
Even now, Ellie insisted on technical accuracy.
The library door opened.
Dominic entered alone.
Clare immediately stood.
“You don’t have to do that,” he said.
“Do what?”
“Look like you’re about to be fired every time I walk into a room.”
She swallowed.
“Habit.”
“Bad habit.”
Ellie studied his leg.
“You don’t have it.”
“The brace?”
She nodded.
“The doctor took it.”
“Good.”
Dominic sat across from them.
He looked tired.
Not weak.
Clare was beginning to understand there was a difference.
“I need to ask Ellie something.”
Clare sat beside her daughter.
“Okay.”
Dominic showed Ellie four employee photographs.
“Do you see the blue man?”
Ellie touched one immediately.
Peter Lang.
Dominic exchanged a glance with Clare.
“When did you see him?”
“Yesterday.”
“Where?”
“Orange man’s room.”
“Daniel’s therapy room?”
Ellie nodded.
“What was Peter doing?”
She thought.
“He gave Orange Man a bag.”
“What kind of bag?”
“Brown.”
“Then what?”
“Orange Man put the black thing in.”
Dominic’s heartbeat slowed.
Not from calm.
From focus.
“What black thing?”
Ellie pointed at his leg.
“The strap.”
Clare stared at her.
“Ellie, why were you near that room?”
“I dropped Bunny.”
Her gray stuffed rabbit.
Clare remembered.
Ellie had lost it yesterday morning.
One of the kitchen workers found it near the west corridor.
Clare had thought nothing of it.
Dominic stood.
“Thank you.”
“Mr. Vale?”
He looked at Clare.
“Is she in danger?”
He did not insult her with a quick answer.
“She saw something people didn’t expect anyone to see.”
Clare’s face tightened.
“That means yes.”
“It means you’re both staying where Vincent can protect you until we know.”
“I want to leave.”
“No.”
Her fear turned into anger.
“You don’t get to tell me I can’t take my daughter home.”
“Your apartment address is in your employment records.”
That stopped her.
“If someone inside this house is involved,” Dominic continued, “they can find you there before you finish packing a bag.”
Clare sat down again.
Dominic softened his voice.
“You’re safer here.”
“Safe?”
She looked toward the guarded door.
“My four-year-old saw someone tampering with your medical equipment. Two men disappeared today. You call this safe?”
“No.”
Dominic answered without hesitation.
“I call it safer.”
That honesty mattered.
Clare looked away.
Dominic started toward the door.
Ellie called after him.
“Mr. Vale?”
He turned.
“Your stick is wrong too.”
Dominic stared at his cane.
Clare almost groaned.
“Ellie.”
But Dominic did not dismiss her.
“What’s wrong with it?”
She walked over.
Then pointed to the rubber tip.
“It’s new.”
Dominic’s face changed.
He had owned the cane for six weeks.
The rubber ferrule at the bottom had been worn along one edge.
He remembered noticing it.
This one was perfectly smooth.
Vincent was called immediately.
The cane went into an evidence bag.
A replacement was brought.
Then the original was examined.
The result arrived that afternoon.
The cane had been altered.
The shaft looked identical, but the replacement was slightly shorter.
Less than half an inch.
Enough to shift Dominic’s posture.
Enough to increase strain on his injured side.
Not one alteration.
Two.
The brace.
The cane.
Someone had constructed his “failed recovery” piece by piece.
Then security found Peter Lang.
Not physically.
On video.
A traffic camera captured him getting into the same dark SUV that had collected Daniel Price.
The two missing men were together.
Vincent traced the vehicle across three cameras until it disappeared near an industrial district on the West Side.
Then another discovery arrived.
A payment.
Twenty-five thousand dollars deposited into Peter’s sister’s account.
The sender was a shell corporation.
The corporation had one authorized accountant.
The same accountant who handled Arthur Voss’s private holdings.
Dominic looked at the evidence spread across his desk.
It was becoming too obvious.
And obvious made him suspicious.
Arthur had survived for decades because he was careful.
He would not leave a trail this clean.
Unless someone wanted Dominic to find it.
“Vincent.”
“Yeah?”
“What if Arthur is supposed to look guilty?”
Vincent frowned.
“You think he isn’t?”
“I think somebody who knows Arthur knows exactly how to frame him.”
“Price worked for his company.”
“Which means either Arthur planned this badly…”
Dominic looked toward the rain-darkened window.
“…or somebody built a trail directly to him.”
Vincent’s phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
Then slowly looked at Dominic.
“What?”
“They found Daniel Price.”
“Where?”
“Mercy Harbor Clinic.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
Vincent paused.
“He walked into the emergency department ten minutes ago.”
Dominic stood.
“What did he say?”
“He asked for police protection.”
“From whom?”
Vincent’s expression hardened.
“From Arthur Voss.”
Dominic reached for his replacement cane.
Then Vincent added the part that changed everything.
“Price says Arthur didn’t order him to alter your brace.”
Dominic stopped.
“He says Arthur paid him to do something else.”
“What?”
Vincent looked toward the hallway where Ellie sat with her mother.
“To keep you alive.”
May you like
And for the first time that day, Dominic wondered whether the person trying to destroy him was someone much closer than Arthur Voss.
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