Chapter 4 - The Fourth Man
Marin stopped breathing.
Nobody outside that cellar should have known that name.
Elias pulled the metal panel open.
Behind it was a narrow passage.
Empty.
"Who said it?" Dominic asked.
No answer.
Marin switched on her phone light.
"There's airflow."
That mattered more than the voice.
They moved Adelaide into the passage.
Thirty feet later, they found a hidden stairwell leading to a service corridor behind the kitchen.
By the time Elias's guards opened the cellar, everyone was already out.
But the person who had whispered Marin's old name was gone.
The estate entered lockdown.
Nobody left.
Nobody entered.
Elias assembled every employee in the main dining room.
Forty-three people.
Cooks.
Housekeepers.
Drivers.
Security personnel.
Medical staff.
Marin stood beside Adelaide.
She hated crowds.
She hated locked doors more.
Elias placed Nathan's audit on the table.
"Someone in this house helped three men enter last night."
Silence.
"Someone shut down the cellar tonight."
Still nothing.
"I'm going to find out who."
A young guard near the wall shifted.
Marin noticed.
Not guilt.
Fear.
She crossed toward him.
"What's your name?"
"Caleb."
"Why are you scared?"
Elias frowned.
"Marin."
She ignored him.
Caleb's eyes moved toward Dominic.
That was enough.
Dominic stepped forward.
"Talk."
Caleb swallowed.
"I saw something."
"When?"
"Yesterday."
"What?"
"A fourth man."
The room changed.
Everyone had assumed three intruders.
Caleb had seen another.
He described a man leaving the service corridor minutes before the blackout.
No mask.
No hurry.
He wore estate security clothing.
"Face?" Elias asked.
Caleb shook his head.
"He kept his back to me."
"Why didn't you report it?"
Caleb looked ashamed.
"His badge was executive level."
Only five people had executive security badges.
Dominic was one.
Elias was another.
The estate manager, Raymond Cross, was the third.
The chief driver was fourth.
The fifth badge had belonged to Elias's father.
That badge had supposedly been destroyed twelve years ago.
"Supposedly?" Marin repeated.
Dominic nodded.
"No physical record exists."
Elias ordered every badge disabled.
Then Raymond Cross failed to answer roll call.
His room was empty.
His car remained in the garage.
His phone lay on his desk.
The search began.
Marin returned Adelaide upstairs.
"You should leave," Adelaide said.
"You've suggested that before."
"I mean permanently."
"Because someone knows who I am?"
"Because I brought you into this."
"You didn't."
"My husband did."
"He saved me."
"And now his secrets have found you."
Marin adjusted the blanket.
"Secrets usually do."
Adelaide watched her.
"You remind me of Nathan."
Marin stopped.
"Please don't."
"He stayed too."
"My father died."
"I know."
"Then don't tell me I'm like him when I'm doing something that might get me killed."
Adelaide's eyes filled.
"I'm sorry."
Marin sat beside her.
After a moment, she took Adelaide's hand.
"I'm scared."
"I know."
"I've been scared for six years."
"Then why did you come back tonight?"
Marin thought about it.
"Because someone sent me your picture."
"That should have made you run."
"It did."
Adelaide frowned.
Marin smiled faintly.
"I just ran in the wrong direction."
A knock sounded.
Elias entered.
He had removed his jacket.
For the first time, he looked tired rather than powerful.
"Mother, I need to speak with Marin."
"Here."
"Privately."
"Anything you say to her can be said in front of me."
"Mother."
Adelaide smiled.
"I've waited seventy-one years to become difficult. Let me enjoy it."
Elias almost smiled.
Almost.
He handed Marin a photograph.
Raymond Cross.
"Do you recognize him?"
Marin studied it.
"No."
"He hired you."
"What?"
"The nursing agency sent three candidates. Raymond selected you."
Marin's skin prickled.
"I thought your mother chose."
"She chose after interviews. Raymond determined which files reached her."
Adelaide sat upright.
"He brought Marin to this house?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
Nobody knew.
Raymond had worked for the Ferrantes for eighteen years.
He had access to Vittorio's records.
He might have known exactly who Marin had been.
"Then he wanted me here," Marin said.
"Or someone using him did."
Elias's phone rang.
Dominic.
Raymond had been found.
Alive.
Inside the unused greenhouse.
He was unconscious.
They brought him into the estate infirmary.
Marin examined him.
No serious injuries.
A sedative.
When Raymond woke, he panicked.
"They're inside."
"Who?" Elias demanded.
"I don't know."
"You selected Marin."
Raymond looked at her.
Confusion.
"No."
"Records say you did."
"I never saw her application."
Elias's face hardened.
"Then someone used your credentials."
Raymond nodded desperately.
"Yes."
"Who?"
"I don't know."
Marin noticed something beneath Raymond's fingernail.
Blue ink.
She held up his hand.
"What's this?"
Raymond stared.
Then remembered.
"Before they drugged me, I grabbed him."
"Who?"
"The man wearing the old badge."
"Did you see his face?"
"No. But I tore something from his pocket."
"Where?"
Raymond pointed weakly toward his jacket.
Dominic searched it.
Nothing.
Then Marin checked the inner lining.
A folded scrap of paper had slipped through a tear.
She pulled it free.
A partial document.
At the top was a nursing agency logo.
Below it was Marin's name.
And beneath her name:
REQUESTED BY: A. FERRANTE.
Everyone looked at Adelaide.
The old woman's face went white.
"I didn't request her."
Elias took the paper.
"A. Ferrante."
Marin whispered, "Adelaide Ferrante."
"Or someone wanted us to think that."
There had been another Ferrante whose first name began with A.
Elias's uncle.
Anthony Ferrante.
Dead for seventeen years.
At least, according to the family.
Adelaide began trembling.
"No."
Elias looked at her.
"Mother?"
"No."
"What?"
Adelaide stared at the paper.
Then she whispered something Elias had never heard.
"Anthony didn't die."
The infirmary door opened behind them.
A guard stood there, pale.
"Mr. Ferrante."
"What?"
"We found someone in the east wing."
Elias turned.
May you like
The guard swallowed.
"He says his name is Anthony."
