Chapter 2 - Nobody Leaves
The ballroom doors locked with a heavy click.
That sound offended half the room.
"Dominic, this is outrageous," Councilman Peter Shaw snapped. "You cannot detain people because a toddler tells a story."
I looked at the poisoned frosting on the floor.
"She's three," I said. "She had no reason to lie. You have several."
He stopped talking.
Vincent's team quietly collected phones at the exits. Nobody liked that either. I didn't care. I wanted a list of every person who had entered the kitchen corridor during the previous hour.
Sophia lifted Lily into her arms. "Can I take her somewhere quiet?"
"Not yet."
Her eyes hardened. "She's terrified."
"So is my son."
The words came out sharper than I intended.
Sophia flinched. Lily buried her face against her mother's neck.
I hated myself immediately.
Ethan tugged my sleeve. "Dad, she saved me. Don't be mad at her mom."
At eight years old, he still had the irritating habit of being a better man than most adults I knew.
I crouched beside him. "I'm not mad at Sophia."
He looked toward the broken plate. "Are you scared?"
I had lied in boardrooms, courtrooms, hospitals, and funerals. I couldn't lie to him.
"Yeah."
He nodded, accepting that.
Vincent returned with a tablet. "Kitchen camera is clean until 7:12. Then it loops the same forty-three seconds until 7:23. Somebody edited the feed, not the recording afterward. Live access."
"How many people can do that?"
"Six. Me. Two senior guards. Your systems engineer. You. And your brother."
I looked across the ballroom.
Luca Moretti stood near the fireplace in a black tuxedo, speaking softly to two guests. My younger brother had been at my side since he was seventeen. He ran Moretti Holdings when I was out of the country. He was Ethan's godfather.
He noticed me staring and walked over.
"What's wrong?"
Vincent told him.
Luca's expression barely changed. "Then pull my access logs first."
Exactly what an innocent man would say.
Exactly what a smart guilty man would say too.
A guard approached from the service hall holding a clear evidence bag.
Inside it was a small silver vial.
Sophia's face drained of color.
"Where did you find that?" I asked.
The guard hesitated.
"In Ms. Carter's locker."
Every head in the room turned toward her.
Sophia stared at the bag. "That's not mine."
Lily lifted her head from her mother's shoulder.
"No," she said.
I looked at her.
She pointed at the vial.
"The man's box had a moon on it."
Vincent rotated the evidence bag.
On the bottom of the silver container was a tiny engraved crescent.
May you like
And I had seen that symbol before.
It was stamped on the cuff links my late wife had given Luca the night Ethan was born.
