Chapter 3 - The Camera That Went Dark
Vincent did not move.
Neither did the stranger.
Brother.
One word had rearranged the room.
Dominic positioned himself between the newcomer and Mia.
“Hands where I can see them.”
The man lifted both hands.
“I didn’t come here to hurt anyone.”
Vincent’s eyes stayed on his face.
“Who are you?”
“Gabriel Marchetti.”
“No.”
Gabriel gave a tired smile.
“That was pretty much my reaction when I learned about you.”
Salvatore stepped forward.
“Gabriel.”
The newcomer looked at him.
“You got old.”
“So did you.”
“Not by choice.”
Vincent turned toward Salvatore.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
“Since before you were born.”
Vincent’s jaw flexed.
Gabriel removed his wet coat slowly and placed it on a chair.
Underneath he wore plain dark clothing.
No visible weapon.
No dramatic threat.
Just a man who looked enough like Vincent to make denial difficult.
Their father had been married briefly before Vincent’s mother.
The marriage ended quietly.
Gabriel had been born months later.
Vincent’s father supported him financially but kept his existence private, partly because of conflicts surrounding the family businesses.
When Gabriel was seventeen, he left Illinois.
For decades, the brothers lived separate lives.
Vincent knew none of it.
“Why were you under my SUV?” Vincent asked.
Gabriel looked toward Mia.
“Because I was removing something.”
Silence.
Dominic frowned.
“Removing?”
“I saw another man attach it.”
Vincent’s expression changed.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No. I expect you to check it.”
Gabriel explained that he had returned to Illinois after receiving an anonymous envelope containing old photographs of Vincent’s father and a recent photograph of Vincent.
Written on the back were six words:
THE SON HE CHOSE WILL FALL.
Gabriel initially assumed the message was intended to provoke him.
Then he began watching the estate from a distance.
Three nights ago, he saw someone enter through the east service gate.
He followed.
The stranger placed something beneath Vincent’s SUV.
Gabriel waited until the man left, then crawled beneath the vehicle.
“But Mia saw you,” Alina said.
Gabriel nodded.
“I noticed her at the window.”
“You pointed at her.”
“I pointed for her to move away from the glass.”
Mia studied him.
Then whispered, “Rain man.”
Gabriel smiled gently.
“That was me.”
Vincent asked the obvious question.
“If you removed the object, why was it still there this morning?”
Gabriel’s smile vanished.
“Because somebody put it back.”
The room went silent.
Dominic immediately checked the timeline.
If Gabriel was telling the truth, someone had returned after he left.
Someone with access.
Someone who knew the object had been disturbed.
The security blackout lasted from 1:43 until 2:19.
Gabriel left at approximately 2:03.
That left sixteen minutes.
Frank had claimed to be asleep in his apartment.
Dominic had been inside the main house.
Alina and Mia were in the carriage building.
Vincent had been in Chicago.
Salvatore had supposedly been hundreds of miles away.
Vincent looked around the room.
“Where’s Frank?”
Nobody answered.
Dominic checked his phone.
Frank was gone.
His phone remained on the marble console where he had been ordered to leave it.
But Frank himself had disappeared during the outage.
Dominic sent two men to search.
They found the side door open.
Frank’s car remained in the employee lot.
Vincent stared at the empty driveway.
“He left on foot?”
“Or someone picked him up.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“Frank isn’t the one.”
Vincent turned.
“You know him?”
“I watched him for three days.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
“Frank’s nervous. He’s hiding something. But the man I followed was taller.”
Dominic folded his arms.
“You didn’t see his face?”
“No.”
“Anything useful?”
“He favored his left leg.”
Mia suddenly looked up.
“Click.”
Everyone turned toward her.
“What, baby?” Alina asked.
“Man go click.”
She tapped one boot against the floor.
Click.
Drag.
Click.
Drag.
Vincent crouched.
“The man near your window?”
Mia shook her head.
“Other man.”
Alina stared at her.
“You saw another man?”
Mia nodded.
“At door.”
“What door?”
Mia pointed toward the rear of the house.
The service corridor.
Vincent stood immediately.
They followed her.
Past the kitchen.
Past the laundry room.
Past a storage pantry.
Mia stopped beside a narrow door leading to the old wine cellar.
“Here.”
Dominic opened it.
Stone stairs descended into darkness.
Vincent switched on the lights.
Nothing moved.
They went down carefully.
At the bottom, the cellar appeared untouched.
Rows of bottles.
Wooden shelves.
Dust.
Then Mia pointed.
“Click man.”
There was no one there.
But on the stone floor lay something metallic.
Dominic picked it up with a gloved hand.
A small silver piece.
Salvatore recognized it.
“It’s from a walking cane.”
Vincent looked at him.
“Who uses a cane?”
Salvatore didn’t answer.
Vincent’s patience disappeared.
“Who?”
Salvatore looked toward the old shelves.
“Your father did, during his final year.”
Vincent stared.
“That doesn’t help us.”
“It might.”
Salvatore walked toward the back wall.
He removed three bottles from a rack.
Behind them was a small brass keyhole.
Vincent’s eyes narrowed.
“What is that?”
“Something your father built.”
Salvatore inserted a key from his pocket.
A section of shelving clicked.
Then moved.
Behind it was a narrow room.
Vincent stared at Salvatore.
“You carried that key for twelve years?”
“I promised him.”
The hidden room contained filing cabinets, an old desk, and sealed document boxes.
Vincent walked inside.
On the desk sat a photograph.
His father.
A much younger Gabriel.
And a teenage Vincent.
Vincent picked it up.
The photograph had been taken from a distance.
He had never seen it before.
On the back, his father had written:
MY SONS. KEEP THEM APART UNTIL IT IS SAFE.
Vincent looked at Gabriel.
Gabriel looked equally shaken.
Alina remained beside Mia.
“This isn’t about a car,” she said.
Vincent turned.
“No.”
Salvatore opened one filing cabinet.
Empty.
His face changed.
“What?”
“These files were here.”
“What files?”
“Records your father collected during his final years.”
“About what?”
“People inside his own companies.”
Vincent stared at the empty drawers.
Someone had discovered the room.
Someone had removed the records.
Then Dominic’s phone rang.
One of his men had found Frank.
“Where?”
Dominic listened.
His expression hardened.
“Garage.”
They hurried upstairs.
Frank was sitting on the garage floor.
Alive.
Unhurt.
Terrified.
He had not run.
Someone had locked him inside a maintenance closet during the blackout.
“I didn’t see his face,” Frank said.
“Did you hear him?” Vincent asked.
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
Frank looked toward Mia.
“He asked where the little girl was.”
Alina pulled Mia close.
Vincent’s voice dropped.
“Anything else?”
Frank nodded.
“He said she had something.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
Mia suddenly looked toward her woven basket.
Alina noticed.
“Mia?”
The child reached inside.
Past the blocks.
Past the blue rabbit.
Past a handful of crayons.
Then she pulled out a folded piece of paper.
“I found.”
Vincent took it carefully.
“Where?”
“Rain night.”
“Where did you find it?”
Mia pointed toward the carriage house.
“Window.”
Vincent unfolded the paper.
It was not a note.
It was a photograph.
Vincent’s father stood beside another man.
The second man’s face had been scratched away.
On the bottom, someone had written a date.
The day before Vincent’s father died.
Then Dominic turned the photograph over.
There was one sentence on the back.
Vincent read it.
His face changed.
Alina stepped closer.
“What does it say?”
Vincent raised his eyes toward Salvatore.
“Ask Salvatore what he did.”
Everyone turned.
Salvatore went pale.
Then the cellar door upstairs slammed shut by itself.
May you like
A lock clicked.
And from behind the hidden wall came the unmistakable sound of someone opening another door.
