Chapter 4 - someone came back for the phone
Mercer House did not sleep that night.
Neither did Gabriel.
The police took copies of Julia's files but left the originals sealed in the nursery compartment.
Detective Shaw stationed two officers outside the mansion.
Gabriel doubled private security.
Caroline was ordered to stay away from the property.
Malcolm left shortly after midnight.
Before departing, he told Gabriel one thing.
"Do not turn grief into paranoia."
Gabriel almost laughed.
They were the same words doctors had used about Julia.
According to Caroline, Julia had become paranoid before her death.
According to Malcolm, grief was now making Gabriel paranoid.
The repetition felt deliberate.
At two in the morning, Gabriel entered Lily's room.
She was awake.
Her black smartphone rested on the nightstand.
The forensic team had returned it after making an encrypted copy.
Lily stared at the ceiling.
"Is Aunt Caroline going to jail?"
"I don't know."
"She did it."
Gabriel sat beside her.
"We know she touched the stroller."
"I saw her face."
"What do you mean?"
"Before she touched it."
Lily turned toward him.
"She looked down the hallway."
Gabriel remembered the reflection Detective Shaw had noticed.
"At someone?"
"I think so."
"Did you see who?"
"No."
"Why didn't you tell the detective?"
"I forgot."
Gabriel brushed hair from her forehead.
"That's okay."
Lily's eyes filled with tears.
"Did someone hurt Mom?"
Gabriel wished he could lie.
He wished he could tell her that adults always knew how to protect children.
He wished he could say Julia's death had been meaningless but natural.
Instead, he said, "I don't know yet."
Lily nodded.
Then whispered, "Mom knew."
Gabriel looked at her.
"What?"
"Mom knew something bad was going to happen."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because she made me promise something."
Gabriel's heart accelerated.
"What did she make you promise?"
Lily sat up.
"She told me that if she ever went away and you got scared, I should give you the blue box."
Gabriel stared at her.
"What blue box?"
Lily looked confused.
"I thought you knew."
Before he could answer, the lights went out.
The entire mansion became black.
Gabriel stood instantly.
"Lily, stay here."
A second later, emergency lights activated in the hallway.
Then an alarm sounded downstairs.
Gabriel grabbed his phone.
No signal.
The security system app was disconnected.
He opened Lily's door.
A guard was already running toward him.
"Sir, someone cut the exterior power feed."
"Generator?"
"Not responding."
"Where's Nora?"
"With Emma."
"Lock this floor."
Gabriel turned back.
"Lily, come with me."
He would not leave her alone.
They moved toward the nursery.
Nora stood inside holding Emma.
Mrs. Parker was beside her.
Gabriel locked the door.
"Nobody leaves this room."
Then a sound came from the hallway.
Glass breaking.
Lily flinched.
Gabriel stepped outside and closed the door behind him.
Two guards approached from the staircase.
One carried a flashlight.
"Movement near the west gallery."
They advanced slowly.
The mansion seemed entirely different without its warm chandelier light.
Shadows stretched across the marble floor.
Wind moved through a broken window.
Then Gabriel saw someone.
A dark figure crossed the far end of the gallery.
"Stop!"
The figure ran.
The guards followed.
Gabriel reached the top of the staircase.
A door slammed downstairs.
Thirty seconds later, one of the guards shouted from the rear entrance.
"Gone!"
Gabriel returned upstairs.
Nothing looked disturbed.
Until he entered Lily's bedroom.
The nightstand drawer was open.
Her smartphone was gone.
Gabriel felt ice in his chest.
The intruder had ignored jewelry.
Ignored cash.
Ignored art worth millions.
They had entered Mercer House during a power failure and stolen one object.
The phone containing the stroller video.
Detective Shaw arrived twenty minutes later.
Her forensic copy was safe.
But she was furious.
"Someone wanted you to believe the evidence was gone."
Gabriel stood beside the broken west window.
"Or they didn't know you copied it."
"Possibly."
Lily sat downstairs with Nora and Emma.
Shaw examined the broken glass.
"The alarm was disabled before the power was cut."
Gabriel looked at her.
"Meaning?"
"Whoever did this knew your security system."
"Caroline."
"Maybe."
"Who else?"
Shaw did not answer.
Instead, she pointed toward the floor.
A small piece of black fabric had caught on the broken window frame.
Then one of Gabriel's guards approached.
"Sir."
"What?"
"We found something near the rear gate."
He held out a silver cuff link.
Gabriel recognized it immediately.
He had seen that design hundreds of times.
An engraved letter M surrounded by a laurel wreath.
It was part of the executive set worn by members of the Mercer Holdings board.
Gabriel took it.
"Malcolm."
Shaw looked at him.
"Could be planted."
Gabriel closed his hand around it.
Then Lily shouted from the foyer.
"Dad!"
Gabriel and Shaw ran toward her.
Lily stood beside the fireplace.
Her face was pale.
"What happened?"
"The lion opened."
Gabriel looked at the secret compartment.
It was open again.
The black envelope was gone.
But something new had been placed inside.
A white card.
Gabriel removed it.
On the front was a single sentence.
STOP LOOKING AT JULIA'S DEATH.
May you like
On the back was another.
NEXT TIME THE STROLLER WILL BE EMPTY.
