Chapter 3 - The Room Without a Lock
Vivian gave Isabella her childhood bedroom.
The room looked almost exactly as Isabella remembered it. The pale curtains had been replaced, and the photographs of Elena had disappeared, but the old wooden desk still stood beneath the window.
The familiarity was deliberate.
Vivian wanted Isabella to feel like a visiting child rather than a legal threat.
A tray of tea waited beside the bed.
Isabella did not touch it.
She locked the bedroom door and opened the silver suitcase. Beneath the original trust was a narrow compartment containing the small camera Richard had mentioned.
It was disguised as a black stone no larger than a coin. Once activated, it could transmit encrypted video to Isabella’s phone.
She had intended to hide it in Richard’s study the following morning.
Now she could not wait.
At one thirty, the mansion became quiet.
Isabella slipped into the corridor.
Richard’s bedroom was located at the end of the eastern wing. When she reached it, she discovered that the door had no lock on the inside. The original brass mechanism had been removed and replaced with an electronic system controlled from the hallway.
A green light glowed above the handle.
Isabella pressed it.
The door remained sealed.
She heard movement inside.
“Dad?”
Silence.
She pressed her ear against the wood.
A faint voice whispered, “Camera.”
Isabella looked toward the ceiling.
A security camera faced the door.
She stepped away and pretended to check her phone.
After returning to her room, she opened the mansion’s old network access panel from her laptop. She had helped design the house’s original automation system when she was studying engineering. The system had since been upgraded, but part of the underlying architecture remained unchanged.
Vivian had altered the passwords.
Marcus had altered the permissions.
Neither had replaced the emergency maintenance route.
Isabella entered through it.
She found seventy-two connected devices, including door controls, hallway cameras, thermostats, and medication dispensers.
Richard’s bedroom was listed as Medical Suite 2.
His door had been opened only four times that day.
At seven in the morning, Dr. Rusk entered.
At nine fourteen, Vivian entered.
At eleven thirty, a staff member delivered food.
At six forty, someone opened the door for less than a minute, likely when Richard appeared on the balcony.
Isabella checked the medication dispenser.
Three scheduled doses were listed.
A fourth dose had been administered manually at eight fifteen that evening.
The user account belonged to Marcus.
Isabella captured the record and sent it to Detective Bennett.
Bennett replied immediately.
This is useful, but we need proof that the dose was unauthorized or harmful.
Isabella searched the medical control panel.
The prescription authorization was signed by Dr. Rusk. It allowed additional medication if Richard displayed aggression or agitation.
Marcus could claim Richard had become difficult.
Isabella needed her father’s testimony, but she first needed to reach him while he was conscious.
She returned to the door control menu.
Richard’s room could be opened remotely, but doing so would trigger an alert on Vivian’s phone.
Isabella studied the system.
Then she disabled the mansion’s kitchen freezer.
Two minutes later, an alarm began ringing downstairs.
Staff members emerged from their rooms. A house manager hurried toward the kitchen. Vivian’s bedroom door opened.
“What is that noise?” Vivian demanded.
“The freezer alarm,” someone answered.
While the household’s attention shifted downstairs, Isabella released Richard’s door for eight seconds.
She ran down the hall and slipped inside.
The door sealed behind her.
Richard lay in a medical bed beneath the window. A glass of water sat beyond his reach. His wrists were not restrained, but a sensor had been attached to his arm. Any movement toward the door would likely trigger an alert.
“Isabella,” he whispered.
She crossed the room and embraced him carefully.
For a moment, she was no longer an investigator carrying legal evidence. She was a daughter holding a father who seemed to have aged twenty years in six months.
“I’m here,” she said.
“You shouldn’t have come.”
“You sent me to Zurich.”
“I sent those instructions before the accident.”
“Then someone else sent the photograph.”
Richard looked confused.
“What photograph?”
“The one of you on the floor.”
His eyes moved toward the dark corner near the bookshelf.
“I don’t know.”
Isabella followed his gaze.
The room’s security camera had been covered by a cloth, but a second tiny lens was hidden inside a clock.
Someone was watching them through a device not connected to the official network.
Isabella turned her body to block the lens.
“Dad, did Vivian force you to sign the amendment?”
Richard’s breathing became shallow.
“She said you were trying to take the company.”
“You know that isn’t true.”
“I know now.”
“What did she give you?”
“Pills. Injections. Sometimes I woke up and Marcus had documents beside the bed.”
“Do you remember signing?”
“Pieces.”
“Do you remember the accident?”
Richard shut his eyes.
“Rain. The road. Someone calling me.”
“Who?”
“I thought it was your mother.”
Isabella froze.
“My mother is dead.”
“That is what I believed.”
Before Isabella could question him, Richard grabbed her wrist.
“The original trust contains more than the protection clause.”
“What?”
“A schedule. Your mother added it before she disappeared.”
“What schedule?”
“I never opened it.”
“Why?”
“Because she made me promise.”
Footsteps sounded in the corridor.
Vivian was returning.
Richard pulled Isabella closer.
“Marcus removed the camera from my study after the accident, but he didn’t know Grace had already copied it.”
“I have the drive.”
“Then listen beneath the main recording. There was someone else in the room.”
“The woman’s voice?”
Richard stared at her.
“You heard it?”
“Only fragments.”
His grip tightened.
“Do not trust the voice just because it sounds familiar.”
The door panel flashed red.
Someone was attempting to enter.
Isabella moved toward the bathroom.
Richard stopped her.
“No. They will search there.”
“Where can I go?”
He pointed toward a narrow service panel beside the wardrobe.
It led to an old passage once used by household staff.
Isabella pulled it open.
Before stepping inside, she looked back.
“Who sent me the photograph?”
Richard’s face changed.
“I think the person who sent it is still inside this house.”
The bedroom door opened.
Isabella closed the panel just as Vivian entered with Marcus and Dr. Rusk.
Through a thin gap, she watched Marcus approach Richard’s bed.
“You opened the door,” Marcus said.
“I did not.”
“The system says it was released.”
Richard remained silent.
Dr. Rusk prepared a syringe.
Vivian stood beside the bed.
“If Isabella visited you,” she said softly, “you need to tell us.”
Richard looked directly toward the service panel.
Then he turned back to Vivian.
“My daughter hasn’t come home,” he said.
Marcus studied him.
“She arrived this evening.”
Richard allowed confusion to enter his expression.
“Isabella is in Singapore.”
Vivian relaxed.
Dr. Rusk injected medication into Richard’s arm.
Within seconds, his eyes began closing.
Isabella covered her mouth to stop herself from making a sound.
As Dr. Rusk placed the syringe into a case, Marcus’s phone illuminated.
A message appeared on the screen.
May you like
The angle allowed Isabella to read it through the gap.
She found the suitcase. Move Grace tonight.
