CHAPTER 4 — THE WOMAN IN THE LOCKED ROOM
Adrian entered the mansion through the east wing.
“Stay behind me,” he told Milo.
“I’m not scared of her.”
“You should be scared of anyone who has nothing left to lose.”
The hallway was silent.
Celeste’s bedroom door stood open.
The room was empty.
A silk robe lay across the bed. The balcony doors were still swinging in the wind.
Luis checked the bathroom.
“She’s gone.”
Adrian walked to the closet.
One wall of shoes had been pulled away, revealing a narrow service passage.
His own wife had built an escape route inside his house.
Milo pointed toward the dark opening.
“She went that way.”
“How do you know?”
“I saw blue dust.”
Adrian looked down.
Tiny pieces of painted plaster covered the carpet.
Milo touched the wall.
“Old houses use blue chalk behind hidden repairs. My dad taught me.”
They followed the passage down a steep staircase to the basement.
At the bottom, they found a locked steel door Adrian had never seen.
Luis broke the handle with a fire axe.
The room beyond contained six surveillance screens.
Every camera feed showed a different part of Adrian’s estate.
The gatehouse.
The garage.
His private office.
His bedroom.
Milo’s face appeared on one screen, recorded weeks earlier outside the estate wall.
Adrian felt sick.
“She’s been tracking him.”
Luis opened a filing cabinet.
Inside were copies of Adrian’s medical reports, insurance policies, corporate voting schedules, and a revised will Adrian had never signed.
According to the document, Celeste would inherit controlling interest in Vale Dynamics if Adrian died before the upcoming merger vote.
“That meeting this morning,” Luis said. “Wasn’t the board voting on the defense contract?”
Adrian nodded.
“If I didn’t appear, my proxy would transfer to my spouse.”
“So she gets your vote and your shares.”
“Only temporarily.”
Milo picked up a photograph from the desk.
It showed Jonah Hayes sitting in a chair, holding that day’s newspaper.
The photo had been taken eleven days earlier.
“He’s alive,” Milo whispered.
Adrian turned the picture over.
An address was written on the back.
Harbor Storage — Unit 614.
Luis reached for his phone.
“I’ll call the police.”
“No,” Adrian said. “Someone inside the department helped fake Jonah’s death.”
Milo stared at the screens.
One feed showed Celeste leaving the basement through an exterior tunnel.
She climbed into a white SUV parked beyond the estate wall.
Adrian recognized the man driving.
Marcus Kane.
Chief Operating Officer of Vale Dynamics.
Adrian’s oldest friend.
The man currently waiting at the corporate meeting to take Adrian’s seat.
On the screen, Marcus leaned over and kissed Celeste.
Milo looked up at Adrian.
“I’m sorry.”
Adrian watched his wife disappear with the man he had trusted like a brother.
Then the basement computer made a soft sound.
A countdown appeared on every monitor.
REMOTE DATA PURGE: 04:59
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Under it flashed another message:
HARBOR STORAGE DETONATION ARMED.
