Chapter 2 - The Voice at Three A.M.
The mansion went into lockdown within ninety seconds.
Steel barriers sealed the lower exits.
Vincent’s guards moved floor by floor.
Every member of staff was taken to the west dining room and searched.
Every phone was placed in a locked case.
Celeste Starks was nowhere to be found.
That fact alone turned suspicion into something darker.
Vincent stood in the nursery while Marcus examined the hole behind Sophia’s photograph.
Elena remained with the twins.
They had finally stopped crying.
Neither would let go of her.
“Where is my sister?” Vincent asked.
Marcus checked his radio.
“Her guest suite is empty.”
“Car?”
“Still outside.”
“Security footage?”
“Reviewing.”
Pike sat in a chair beneath guard supervision.
He had stopped protesting.
That worried Elena more than his earlier arguments.
A guilty man might panic.
A trapped man might bargain.
Pike looked like a man waiting for something.
Vincent noticed too.
He crouched in front of him.
“You know something.”
Pike stared at the carpet.
Vincent waited.
No threats.
No raised voice.
Just silence.
Finally Pike said, “This family has enemies.”
“So?”
“So you’re assuming the danger came from inside.”
“The bear came from Celeste.”
“That doesn’t prove she altered it.”
Vincent leaned closer.
“You’re defending her.”
“I’m trying to prevent you from destroying your family because a maid found electronics in a toy.”
Elena stood.
“A maid?”
Pike glanced at her.
She handed Lily to Marcus’s wife, who had been called from another wing to help.
Then Elena walked toward Pike.
“You knew where the bear was before you entered the room.”
He frowned.
“You told me to leave it before I had even touched it.”
Pike said nothing.
“You knew.”
Vincent’s gaze shifted to him.
Pike’s jaw tightened.
Elena continued.
“And when Lily pointed at the picture, you told me not to take it down.”
“That is your interpretation.”
“No.”
She stared at him.
“That’s exactly what happened.”
Vincent stood.
“Take him downstairs.”
Marcus nodded.
Two guards lifted Pike.
The doctor finally reacted.
“Vincent, listen to me.”
Vincent turned away.
“You had your chance.”
“They are trying to make you suspicious.”
Vincent stopped.
“Who?”
Pike’s mouth closed.
Vincent turned back.
“Who is trying?”
For a moment Pike looked frightened.
Then a guard’s radio crackled.
“Marcus, we found something.”
They moved to the security room.
Elena stayed with the twins until Vincent surprised her.
“Bring them.”
She looked at him.
“Are you sure?”
“I’m not leaving them alone again.”
So Elena carried Rose while Vincent carried Lily.
The security room occupied a windowless chamber beneath the library.
Monitors covered one wall.
Marcus rewound footage from the previous evening.
Celeste appeared on screen at 10:17 p.m.
She entered the nursery.
Stayed four minutes.
Left carrying nothing.
“Zoom,” Vincent ordered.
Marcus enlarged the image.
Celeste wore a cream robe.
Her face was visible.
She approached the teddy bear.
Touched it.
Then adjusted Sophia’s photograph.
Elena felt Rose tighten around her neck.
“That’s Aunt Cece,” she whispered.
Vincent’s expression did not change.
Marcus advanced the footage.
At 10:24 p.m., Celeste went downstairs.
At 10:31, she entered the kitchen.
At 10:35, Pike arrived.
The two met beside the pantry.
No audio.
Celeste handed him something.
Pike put it in his pocket.
Vincent’s hand tightened around Lily.
“Again.”
Marcus replayed it.
This time Elena focused on Celeste’s face.
She was afraid.
Not secretive.
Afraid.
“Wait,” Elena said.
Marcus paused.
“She’s looking over her shoulder.”
Vincent watched.
Elena pointed.
“Someone else was there.”
The edge of a dark sleeve was visible behind the pantry door.
Marcus changed camera angles.
The next camera had gone offline for exactly twelve minutes.
Someone had planned the meeting.
Someone had also planned what the cameras would miss.
Vincent looked toward his security chief.
“Who can disable individual cameras?”
Marcus hesitated.
“Me.”
“Who else?”
“Your sister has administrative access. Mr. Dorian does too.”
Elena recognized the name.
Dorian Starks.
Vincent’s uncle.
The family accountant.
The soft-spoken man who had practically raised Vincent after his father died.
Dorian lived in the east wing.
He was also one of the few people who entered the nursery without being searched.
Vincent looked at Marcus.
“Where is Dorian?”
“Library.”
“Bring him.”
Before Marcus could move, another guard rushed into the room.
“We found Ms. Starks.”
Vincent’s shoulders stiffened.
“Where?”
“Old wine cellar.”
“Alive?”
The pause answered first.
“Yes.”
They found Celeste tied to a chair.
Tape covered her mouth.
Her wrists were bruised.
A shallow cut marked her forehead.
When Vincent ripped the tape away, she gasped one sentence.
“I didn’t put anything in that bear.”
Vincent stared at her.
“Then why were you touching it?”
Celeste began crying.
“Because I found it making noise.”
Elena stepped forward.
“What noise?”
“A woman’s voice.”
Vincent’s face changed.
Celeste swallowed.
“I heard Sophia.”
The room seemed to shrink.
Vincent said nothing.
“She said my name,” Celeste whispered. “From inside the bear.”
Elena stared.
“That’s impossible.”
“I know what my sister-in-law sounded like.”
Vincent’s grief hardened into anger.
“Sophia is dead.”
“I know.”
“Then you didn’t hear her.”
Celeste looked directly at him.
“I heard her say, ‘Celeste, help my babies.’”
Vincent stepped back.
Elena felt gooseflesh rise on her arms.
Not because she believed in ghosts.
Because voices could be recorded.
And someone had access to Sophia’s voice.
“What did you give Pike in the kitchen?” Vincent asked.
Celeste hesitated.
“A recording chip.”
Pike, who had been brought down under guard, looked away.
Vincent saw him.
“You took it from the bear?”
“Yes,” Celeste said. “I opened a smaller seam days ago. I found a chip. I panicked. Pike told me he could identify it.”
Elena frowned.
“Why didn’t you tell Vincent?”
Celeste looked ashamed.
“Because the voice said if I told him, the girls would die.”
Silence.
Vincent stared at his sister.
“You believed that?”
“I believed someone had already gotten into their room.”
That stopped him.
Celeste continued.
“They knew Sophia’s voice. They knew what she used to call me. They knew where the girls slept. And they knew when you were away.”
Vincent looked at Pike.
“What did you find?”
Pike finally spoke.
“It wasn’t only a recording.”
Marcus stepped closer.
“What was it?”
“A programmable audio module linked to an external transmitter.”
Elena felt cold.
Meaning the voice could change.
Someone could speak live.
“Why didn’t you tell Vincent?” she asked.
Pike laughed once without humor.
“Because I was threatened too.”
“By whom?”
“I don’t know.”
Vincent grabbed the front of his jacket.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“They sent me photographs of my granddaughter leaving school.”
Vincent released him.
Pike reached into his breast pocket.
Marcus immediately aimed his weapon.
Pike lifted both hands.
“My wallet.”
Marcus removed it himself.
Inside was a folded photograph.
A little girl outside a school gate.
On the back were three words.
KEEP THEM ASLEEP.
Elena stared.
“The medication.”
Pike nodded.
“I was told to keep the twins sedated enough that they wouldn’t remember clearly.”
Vincent’s face became murderous.
“You drugged my daughters.”
“I reduced the dose.”
“You drugged them.”
“They knew where my granddaughter lived.”
Vincent turned away before his anger became action.
Elena looked at the photo again.
“Who delivered this?”
“No one. It appeared in my car.”
Marcus studied the image.
Then he froze.
“What?”
Vincent turned.
Marcus pointed to the corner of the photograph.
A reflection in a parked car window.
A man stood across the street.
Only part of his face was visible.
But Vincent knew him.
“No,” he whispered.
Elena looked at him.
“Who is it?”
Vincent took the photograph.
For the first time since she had known him, he looked frightened.
“That man is dead.”
Celeste stood.
“Who?”
Vincent’s eyes remained on the reflection.
“My brother.”
Elena stared.
Vincent Starks had one brother.
Adrian.
Dead seven years.
Killed during the same gang war that had made Vincent head of the family.
Marcus enlarged the photograph.
Facial scar.
Left cheek.
Adrian had carried the same scar.
Vincent turned toward the guard.
“Find Dorian.”
The library was empty.
So was Dorian’s bedroom.
His phone lay on the desk.
His wallet remained beside it.
But a hidden panel behind his bookcase was open.
A narrow staircase descended beneath the mansion.
Marcus switched on his flashlight.
Vincent handed Lily to Celeste.
“Elena stays here.”
Elena shook her head.
“The twins trust me.”
“That’s exactly why.”
“And whoever did this has been entering their room while I was inside this house.”
Vincent stared at her.
She did not look away.
Finally he nodded.
“Stay behind me.”
They descended.
The staircase ended at an old corridor no current floor plan showed.
Electrical wires ran along the walls.
Fresh wires.
Marcus followed them.
They led to a steel door.
Vincent reached for the handle.
A sound came through the other side.
A woman singing.
Softly.
A lullaby.
Vincent went white.
Elena recognized it.
Sophia’s voice.
May you like
The dead mother of his children was singing behind the door.
Then the lock clicked from the inside.
