Chapter 8 - The Name in the Security Log
Nobody moved.
The voice came again.
“Dominic.”
He stared at the intercom.
“Show yourself.”
A laugh answered him.
“You still think you're in control.”
The lights went out.
Gunfire erupted.
I dropped beside Leo.
Dominic grabbed me and pulled me behind a concrete pillar.
“Stay down.”
I heard guards shouting.
Then silence.
Emergency lights flickered on.
Three men were unconscious.
One guard was missing.
Calvin was gone.
And Leo was shaking.
Dominic looked at me.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
He touched my face.
His fingers trembled.
For the first time, I realized something.
He had been afraid.
Not for himself.
For me.
A security officer rushed in.
“Boss!”
“What?”
“We traced the transmission.”
“Where?”
“Inside the mansion.”
Dominic's eyes hardened.
“Show me.”
We returned to the control room.
The security system displayed dozens of access logs.
Most were ordinary.
Then one name appeared.
BEATRICE GALLAGHER.
I stared.
“That isn't possible.”
Dominic looked at the screen.
“You have access to the emergency corridor.”
“I never used it.”
The officer pointed.
“Your card was used six times.”
“When?”
The first date was two months after I started working there.
The last was the night before the attack.
I felt sick.
“I didn't do this.”
Dominic looked at me.
“I know.”
The officer looked surprised.
“You're certain?”
Dominic didn't answer.
He stepped toward the screen.
“Pull the camera footage.”
The video appeared.
A woman entered the corridor.
Same height as me.
Same clothes.
Same hair.
My heart stopped.
The footage showed her opening the emergency cabinet.
Then she turned.
Her face became visible.
It was mine.
I stepped backward.
“That isn't me.”
Dominic stared at the screen.
The woman smiled directly at the camera.
Then the footage froze.
A message appeared:
SHE HAS BEEN HERE LONGER THAN YOU THINK.
I couldn't speak.
Dominic turned toward me.
“Beatrice.”
“I swear.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Because you were with Leo that night.”
The officer interrupted.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“There is another file.”
He opened it.
It contained a photograph of me.
Taken before I ever applied for the nanny position.
I stared.
The date was six months earlier.
The location was outside the Russo estate.
I had never been there.
At least, I didn't remember being there.
My hands began to shake.
Dominic stepped beside me.
“Do you recognize this?”
“No.”
He enlarged the image.
There was a woman beside me.
I couldn't see her face.
But she was holding something.
A necklace.
The same necklace Elena had worn.
Then I noticed something else.
The woman had her hand on my shoulder.
And on her wrist was a tattoo.
Three tiny black stars.
I knew that tattoo.
I had seen it on someone inside the mansion.
Someone who had comforted Leo.
Someone everyone trusted.
Someone who had been standing beside Dominic during every family dinner.
I whispered her name.
“Clara.”
Dominic turned.
“Clara?”
I nodded.
“She's the one.”
The control room door opened.
Clara stood there.
She smiled.
May you like
Then she raised a gun.
And pointed it directly at Dominic...
