Chapter 3 - The Message at the Door
Marcus jumped backward.
Helen screamed again.
Robert raised the golf club as though he intended to strike the box.
“Everyone move away from it,” Amelia said.
Marcus looked at her.
“How do you know what it is?”
“I don’t.”
“You just told me not to touch it.”
“Because unknown packages that beep should not be handled.”
She forced her voice to sound frightened rather than trained.
The black box beeped three times.
Then the lid opened by itself.
There was no explosion.
Inside sat an old military challenge coin.
Amelia recognized it immediately.
The front bore the silver wolf insignia. The reverse contained the number of her former unit.
Beneath the coin was a folded note.
Marcus picked it up before she could stop him.
He read aloud.
“Colonel Brooks, your family is not what you believe.”
Silence filled the foyer.
Helen slowly turned toward Amelia.
“Colonel?”
Marcus looked from the note to his wife.
“What does this mean?”
Amelia took the paper from his hand.
The message was printed, leaving no handwriting to identify. The paper itself was ordinary.
“It may be a prank.”
“Who would call you colonel?” Robert asked.
“I left the service as a captain,” Amelia lied.
Marcus laughed once, but there was no humor in it.
“You told me you were a lieutenant.”
“I was promoted before I resigned.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because my rank never mattered to you.”
Helen folded her arms.
“A captain is hardly a colonel.”
Amelia looked down at the challenge coin.
The message had not been sent by General Grant. His people would never expose her through an unsecured delivery.
Someone else knew.
She checked the street through the open doorway.
A dark sedan turned the corner.
Its rear license plate was covered in mud.
“Marcus, close the door.”
He did not move.
“What else have you lied about?”
Amelia looked at him.
“Is that really the question you want to ask tonight?”
His face flushed.
Helen stepped between them.
“My son has made mistakes, but at least he did not enter this family under a false identity.”
Amelia slipped the coin into her pocket.
“What false identity?”
“You pretended to be harmless.”
Robert stared at the note.
“What does it mean by our family is not what you believe?”
Marcus looked sharply at him.
“You tell me.”
“I have no idea.”
Amelia watched Robert.
His confusion seemed genuine.
Helen’s did not.
Her hand had tightened around her necklace. Her eyes remained fixed on the challenge coin hidden in Amelia’s pocket.
“You recognize the symbol,” Amelia said.
Helen’s expression changed for only a fraction of a second.
Marcus noticed.
“Mother?”
“I have never seen it.”
“You looked like you had.”
“I was frightened.”
Amelia stepped closer.
“Where have you seen it?”
Helen raised her chin.
“I said nowhere.”
Robert lowered the golf club.
“Enough. Call the police.”
“No,” Amelia said.
Marcus turned on her.
“Why not?”
“Because whoever delivered this wants attention. Calling local police may destroy any evidence outside.”
“You sound very certain.”
Amelia ignored him and walked toward the door.
“What are you doing?”
“Checking the entry point.”
She examined the lock.
There were no signs of forced entry.
The security keypad showed the door had been opened using a valid code at 1:23 a.m.
Only five people knew that code.
Marcus.
Amelia.
Helen.
Robert.
And Olivia.
Amelia looked at Marcus.
“Who gave Olivia the security code?”
He hesitated.
Helen answered for him.
“She is practically family.”
Amelia’s stomach tightened.
“How long has she had it?”
“A few months.”
Marcus moved toward the keypad.
“That doesn’t prove she delivered the box.”
“No. It proves someone you are sleeping with can enter this house at any hour.”
Robert closed his eyes.
Helen looked offended.
Marcus gripped Amelia’s arm.
“You will not speak about Olivia like that.”
Amelia’s gaze dropped to his hand.
“Let go.”
“Not until you explain the note.”
“Marcus.”
His fingers tightened.
Amelia could have broken his grip in less than two seconds.
She could have dropped him to the marble floor before Helen took another breath.
But she was pregnant, exhausted, and surrounded by people who would immediately make her the aggressor.
So she spoke quietly.
“You are hurting your children.”
Marcus released her.
Not because he cared.
Because Robert was watching.
“I’m going to bed,” he said.
Amelia blocked the staircase.
“No one should be alone tonight.”
Helen scoffed.
“You do not give orders in this house.”
The front security alarm suddenly activated.
Every exterior light came on.
A warning flashed across the control panel.
MOVEMENT DETECTED: EAST GARDEN.
Amelia moved to the window.
A figure ran between the hedges.
Marcus reached for the door.
“Don’t,” Amelia said.
He opened it anyway.
The garden was empty.
Amelia saw the movement before Marcus did.
A second figure appeared near the side wall.
There was a flash.
Amelia lunged.
She pulled Marcus backward as a bullet struck the stone beside the door.
The sound exploded through the foyer.
Helen screamed.
Robert fell to the floor.
Amelia shoved the door closed and locked it.
“Everyone down!”
The command left no room for argument.
They obeyed.
Amelia crawled toward the window, staying beneath the line of sight. She pulled a decorative mirror from the wall and angled it toward the garden.
Two shooters.
One near the east hedge.
One behind the stone fountain.
Professional spacing.
Suppressors.
No attempt to enter.
They were not trying to kill the family.
They were testing Amelia’s response.
She realized it when the second shooter deliberately exposed his position for half a second.
He wanted her to see him.
Amelia reached beneath the foyer table and removed the emergency pistol Robert believed was hidden from her.
Marcus stared.
“How did you know that was there?”
She checked the magazine.
“Because it’s poorly concealed.”
Another bullet struck the window.
Amelia returned fire through the lower pane.
The garden lights shattered.
By the time local police arrived, the shooters were gone.
They left no shell casings.
No footprints.
No useful camera image.
Only one object remained near the fountain.
A photograph.
It showed Amelia standing beside General Grant seventeen years earlier.
She wore a colonel’s uniform.
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On the back, someone had written:
ASK HELEN WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR FATHER.
