Chapter 14 - The Door That Should Have Been Locked)
The scream belonged to Rachel.
Domenico reached the upstairs hall in seconds.
Josie's bedroom door stood open.
The balcony doors were moving in the wind.
Josie was there.
Eli was there.
Both frightened but unharmed.
Rachel stood beside the dressing room.
"What happened?"
"Someone was inside."
Marcus entered behind Domenico.
"Who?"
Rachel pointed toward the balcony.
"A woman."
Domenico ran outside.
The balcony overlooked the east garden.
A service path disappeared behind hedges.
Security teams spread across the property.
No one was found.
Inside Josie's room, something had been placed on the bed.
A blue scarf.
Serena's scarf.
Domenico recognized it immediately.
Impossible.
The original scarf should have been locked in the storage chest downstairs after Josie began taking it from Serena's closet.
He checked.
The chest was still locked.
The original scarf remained inside.
This was another one.
Josie touched it.
"Mommy had two."
Domenico looked at her.
"What?"
"One got lost."
"When?"
"At the lake house."
His skin prickled.
Attached to the scarf was a tiny folded piece of paper.
Only six words were written.
DO NOT LET CELESTE TAKE HER.
Rachel read it.
"Take who?"
Everyone looked at Josie.
The six year old immediately moved closer to Domenico.
Marcus ordered the villa sealed.
Police searched the grounds.
Detectives questioned Helena.
By midnight, the estate resembled a command center.
Gareth remained in custody on assault and child endangerment charges.
Investigators had also opened financial fraud cases connected to Halcyon.
Conrad agreed to cooperate.
Helena gave a formal statement.
Within forty eight hours, authorities froze several accounts.
Marissa Cole became the subject of an international warrant request.
For the first time, pieces of the conspiracy were becoming public.
Domenico did not care about the headlines.
He cared about Josie sleeping through one night without fear.
She did not.
At three in the morning she entered his bedroom again.
"Daddy?"
He lifted the blanket.
She climbed beside him.
"Is Gareth coming back?"
"No."
"Promise?"
"I promise he won't be allowed near you."
"What about the lady?"
Domenico hesitated.
"We have people watching."
Josie touched her injured hand.
The doctor had found severe bruising but no fracture.
It would heal.
Domenico could not stop looking at the small bandage.
"I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"For not seeing."
Josie looked at him.
"You were working."
"That's not an excuse."
"Gareth said you wouldn't believe me."
Domenico swallowed.
"He was wrong."
"I know now."
Those three words almost destroyed him.
I know now.
Not I always knew.
Trust had been damaged.
Domenico understood he would have to rebuild it slowly.
"I will believe you even when what you say is difficult."
Josie considered that.
"What if I say Mommy is alive?"
Domenico's heart stopped.
"Do you think she is?"
Josie nodded.
"Why?"
"Because I heard her."
"When?"
"Tonight."
He sat up.
"What?"
Josie pointed toward the balcony.
"Before the lady came in."
"What did you hear?"
"My name."
"Serena's voice?"
Josie nodded.
Domenico immediately called Marcus.
They checked exterior audio recordings.
At 2:11 in the morning, one microphone near the east garden captured a woman's voice.
Faint.
Almost lost beneath wind.
"Josie."
Domenico played it repeatedly.
Rachel listened.
Helena listened from another room.
Each reacted differently.
Rachel covered her mouth.
Helena began crying.
Domenico felt nothing.
His mind refused to accept hope without proof.
A voice could be imitated.
A recording could be played.
Celeste sounded similar to Serena.
He would not build Josie's heart around uncertainty.
The following morning, Gareth's attorney requested a private meeting.
Domenico almost refused.
Then the lawyer said Gareth was prepared to give him something belonging to Serena.
At the detention center, Gareth sat behind reinforced glass.
His arrogance was gone.
He looked exhausted.
Domenico did not sit.
"What do you have?"
Gareth placed a small brass key against the glass.
"Recognize it?"
Domenico did.
Serena's antique writing desk had used a key like that.
"Where did you get it?"
"She gave it to me."
"When?"
"The night at the lake."
Domenico stared.
"You said you fought."
"We did."
"Why would she give you a key?"
"She told me if anything happened to her, I was supposed to give it to you."
Domenico almost struck the glass.
"You waited eighteen months."
"I was scared."
"Of prison."
"Yes."
"Of Celeste?"
Gareth hesitated.
"Yes."
"Of your mother?"
"No."
"Who else?"
Gareth looked toward the camera in the corner.
Then shook his head.
"I won't say here."
Domenico laughed coldly.
"You don't control the conversation anymore."
"I know."
"Then speak."
Gareth leaned closer.
"Celeste wasn't working alone."
"Who?"
"Someone inside Pierce Development."
"Conrad?"
"No."
"Marissa?"
"No."
"Who?"
Gareth's eyes met his.
"Someone who knew Serena's movements before I did. Someone who authorized transfers even I couldn't access."
"Name."
"I never knew the real name."
"Convenient."
"I knew a code."
Domenico waited.
Gareth whispered, "Orion."
The word meant nothing.
"What's Orion?"
"Serena thought it was a person."
"And you?"
"I thought it was an account."
"Which is it?"
Gareth gave a tired smile.
"That's the problem. Nobody knows."
He pushed the brass key closer to the glass.
"The answer might be in her desk."
Domenico returned to Villa Aurelia.
Serena's antique desk stood in the library.
He had never opened the locked lower drawer because he assumed the key was lost.
The brass key fit.
Inside were letters.
Bank records.
Photographs.
A small digital recorder.
And a sealed envelope addressed in Serena's handwriting.
TO DOMENICO IF I CANNOT COME HOME.
His hands trembled.
Everyone else left the room.
He opened it alone.
May you like
The letter began with six words.
Domenico, Gareth is not the danger.
