Chapter 3 - Someone Inside the House
Maria grabbed Sophie.
"Bathroom. Now."
She carried her daughter inside and locked the door.
Then she called Dmitri.
"Someone's outside my room."
"I'm coming."
Footsteps approached.
Maria held Sophie against her chest.
"Mommy?"
"Quiet, baby."
The bedroom door opened.
A floorboard creaked.
Then Dmitri's voice.
"Maria?"
She waited.
"It's me."
Maria unlocked the bathroom.
Dmitri stood alone.
"Who was here?"
"No one when I arrived."
Maria showed him the photograph.
His attention fixed on the date.
"What happened then?" she asked.
Dmitri didn't answer immediately.
"Alexei's father died."
Maria knew the name.
Nikolai Petrov.
Founder of Petrov Logistics.
Officially killed in a highway accident.
"What does that have to do with my father?"
"Maybe everything."
They went downstairs.
Viktor reviewed the interior cameras.
At 12:08, a figure entered Maria's corridor.
A woman.
Baseball cap.
Loose coat.
Face hidden.
She stopped outside Maria's room.
Then the feed glitched.
Three seconds later, the hallway was empty.
"Again?" Maria asked.
Viktor nodded grimly.
"Someone knows the security system."
Dmitri looked toward him.
"How many people?"
"Five."
"Names."
"Me. You. Alexei. Elena."
He stopped.
"And?"
Viktor looked uncomfortable.
"Sergei Petrov."
Alexei's uncle.
Maria had met Sergei twice.
He was in his sixties, silver-haired, charming, and somehow colder when smiling.
He sat on the boards of several Petrov companies.
"Where is he?"
"Milwaukee."
"Verify it."
Viktor made the call.
Maria sat beside Sophie.
Her daughter had returned to coloring as though mysterious intruders were simply another adult inconvenience.
"Mommy?"
"Yes?"
"Mr. Alexei will wake up?"
Maria swallowed.
"I hope so."
"He needs his doctor."
Maria almost smiled.
"He has real doctors now."
Sophie frowned.
"I am real."
Maria kissed her forehead.
"Of course you are."
Dmitri returned.
"Hospital says he's improving."
"Can we see him?"
"Not yet."
Maria showed him the letter again.
"Then tell me about 2009."
Dmitri finally did.
Seventeen years earlier, Petrov Logistics had been much smaller.
Nikolai Petrov was expanding aggressively.
Rafael Alvarez worked in building systems and industrial maintenance, but he also had a gift for numbers.
He discovered irregularities involving warehouses supposedly purchased for renovation.
Millions moved through shell companies.
Rafael believed someone was stealing from Nikolai.
"He reported it?" Maria asked.
"Apparently."
"To Nikolai?"
"Yes."
"What happened?"
"Three weeks later Nikolai died."
Maria stared.
"And my father?"
"Lost his job."
Her voice dropped.
"He died six months later."
Dmitri nodded.
Maria remembered those months.
Her father afraid.
Curtains closed.
Phone calls that ended when she entered rooms.
Then a sudden illness.
A hospital.
A funeral she barely understood.
"Was he murdered?"
"I don't know."
"Don't protect me."
"I'm not."
"Then why did Alexei hire me?"
Dmitri looked away.
That hurt more than an answer.
"He knew who I was."
"Yes."
"From the beginning?"
"Yes."
Maria stood.
"Nineteen months."
"Maria—"
"He watched me clean his house for nineteen months while knowing my father."
"It wasn't like that."
"Then what was it like?"
"Alexei spent years looking for you."
She stopped.
"What?"
"Your mother changed your surname briefly after Rafael died. You moved twice. Alexei didn't find you until two years ago."
"Why?"
"Because he believed his family owed yours something."
Maria laughed bitterly.
"So he hired me as a maid?"
"He offered you the job because he wanted you somewhere he could protect you while he reopened the investigation."
"Without telling me."
"That part was wrong."
The honesty silenced her.
Dmitri continued.
"He intended to tell you today."
Maria looked toward the study.
The letter.
Her name.
The coffee.
"Someone knew."
"Yes."
"And they tried to stop him."
"Yes."
Her phone rang.
Hospital.
Maria answered.
A doctor informed her that Alexei was awake.
He had asked for her.
An hour later, Maria entered his private hospital room.
Dmitri waited outside with Sophie.
Alexei looked smaller in a hospital bed.
Not weak.
Human.
His eyes opened.
"Maria."
She folded her arms.
"You have a lot to explain."
"I know."
"My father."
"I know."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I didn't know which truth would hurt you more."
"Try me."
Alexei stared toward the window.
"Your father saved my life."
Maria said nothing.
"I was twenty-four. Stupid. Angry. I believed everyone around my father was loyal because they were afraid of him. Rafael knew better."
"What did he discover?"
"Someone was stealing from my father and using his companies to hide it."
"Who?"
"I never knew."
"You've had seventeen years."
"And someone has spent seventeen years destroying evidence."
Maria moved closer.
"Was my father killed?"
Alexei's eyes met hers.
"I believe so."
The room seemed to tilt.
"Who?"
"I was hoping today's records would tell me."
"What records?"
Alexei looked alarmed.
"The folder."
"Police have the study."
"Not that folder."
Maria frowned.
"There was another one?"
"Blue leather. Locked drawer."
She remembered.
Top drawer.
The place Alexei kept Sophie's drawing.
"What was inside?"
"Original documents Rafael gave my father."
"Why weren't they with your lawyers?"
"Because I trusted the wrong person once."
"Who?"
Alexei looked toward the door.
"Where's Sophie?"
"With Dmitri."
"Bring her."
"Why?"
"Because she saw something."
Maria stiffened.
"The woman?"
"No."
Alexei shook his head.
"Before I collapsed, Sophie came into the study."
Maria hadn't known that.
"What happened?"
"She was looking for a blue crayon. She crawled under the desk."
His voice weakened.
"Then?"
"She told me there was a man hiding behind the wall."
Maria felt cold.
"Did you see him?"
"No."
"Did Sophie?"
"I thought she was imagining it."
The hospital-room door suddenly opened.
Dmitri stood there.
Alone.
Maria's heart stopped.
"Where's Sophie?"
Dmitri's face had lost all color.
"She was right beside me."
Maria ran into the hallway.
Sophie's pink medical kit sat on the floor.
Open.
Empty.
Except for one black button.
May you like
Maria recognized the crest engraved on it.
She had seen it on Sergei Petrov's coat.
