Chapter 3 - The House Went Dark.
Emergency lights flickered on along the baseboards.
The mansion changed from elegant to sinister in an instant.
Red strips of light cut across the marble floor.
Nathan looked toward the upper corridor.
"What was that?"
Helen pointed toward the stairs.
"Someone's upstairs."
One paramedic remained beside Elena while the other reached for a flashlight.
Dr. Pierce stood quickly.
Vanessa did not move.
That frightened Elena more than if she had run.
Everyone else looked confused.
Vanessa looked prepared.
Nathan started toward the stairs.
"Stay here."
Margaret caught his sleeve.
"Don't be stupid."
He pulled free.
"My wife was just pushed down those stairs."
"I'm done waiting for other people to tell me what's happening in my house."
Vanessa stepped into his path.
"Nathan, don't."
He looked at her hand against his chest.
Then at her face.
"Move."
She slowly lowered it.
Elena's phone vibrated beneath the blanket the paramedic had placed over her.
Detective Ruiz.
She could not answer openly.
So she pressed the side button twice, the signal they had agreed upon for immediate danger.
The response came seconds later.
Three short vibrations.
Police were already inside the property.
Nathan climbed the staircase.
Dr. Pierce followed despite Margaret's protest.
The remaining paramedic tried to wheel Elena toward the door.
Vanessa suddenly moved beside the stretcher.
"I'll help."
Elena's eyes opened fully.
"Don't."
The single word startled Vanessa.
For the first time, everyone knew Elena was conscious.
Margaret rushed forward.
"Elena."
Elena gripped the blanket.
"I'm okay enough to talk."
Vanessa's mouth parted.
"You were awake?"
Elena looked at her.
"For most of it."
The color drained from Vanessa's face.
Above them, Nathan shouted.
"Stop!"
Footsteps pounded across the second floor.
A figure appeared briefly at the balcony.
A man in dark clothing.
He vaulted over a decorative bench and ran toward the service stairs.
Helen screamed.
The paramedic pushed Elena's stretcher back instinctively.
Vanessa turned toward the rear hallway.
That one glance was enough.
Elena saw recognition again.
Not surprise.
Recognition.
"Caleb," Elena said.
Vanessa looked at her too quickly.
Margaret heard the name.
"Who is Caleb?"
Vanessa shook her head.
"I don't know."
Elena almost smiled.
"I didn't say you did."
Vanessa realized the mistake immediately.
But there was no time to recover.
A crash sounded from the service corridor.
Then a man's voice shouted.
"Police! Don't move!"
Detective Ruiz appeared from the rear entrance with his weapon lowered but ready.
Two officers rushed past him.
Vanessa backed toward the staircase.
Ruiz looked first at Elena.
She gave one small nod.
Then he looked at Vanessa.
"Ms. Cole."
His voice was calm.
"We need to talk."
Vanessa lifted her chin.
"About her attacking me?"
Ruiz's eyes did not change.
"About the man running from her bedroom."
Nathan reappeared above them.
He held a torn envelope in one hand.
His face looked as though he had seen a ghost.
"Elena."
She looked up.
Nathan raised the envelope.
"Why is my father's letter empty?"
Nathan did not answer immediately.
His eyes remained fixed on the empty envelope as if the missing pages might reappear if he stared hard enough.
Ruiz stepped between the stretcher and the stairs.
"Nobody touches the study, the bedroom, or that safe until my team photographs them."
Margaret tightened her grip on her cane.
"Detective, Robert's private papers are not police property."
"If someone broke into a room during an assault investigation, they are evidence now."
Vanessa stood several feet away and said nothing.
That silence bothered Elena more than another accusation would have.
Vanessa always filled empty space when she believed she could control it.
Now she seemed to be calculating whether the missing letter helped or endangered her.
Elena forced herself to think through the pain.
Robert's letter contained no confession to a crime.
It contained instructions.
He had written that the Mercer property must never be sold until an original transfer deed was located.
He had also warned Nathan not to trust any document bearing Daniel's signature after the date of the sailing accident.
At the time, the sentence had seemed like the paranoia of a dying father.
Now it sounded like a warning written for this exact night.
Ruiz crouched beside Elena.
"Who knew the letter existed?"
"Nathan."
"Margaret."
"Helen."
She looked toward Dr. Pierce.
"And Pierce knew Robert left sealed instructions, but I never told him where I kept them."
Pierce's face did not change.
"Robert mentioned several sealed documents before he died."
Margaret looked at him.
"You never told me that."
"You never asked me about his paperwork."
The answer was technically reasonable.
Elena had begun to distrust technically reasonable answers.
An officer called from upstairs.
The safe showed no signs of forced entry.
Its keypad log recorded a correct code at 2:14 that afternoon.
Nathan looked at Elena.
"You were downstairs with me at 2:14."
"Yes."
"Then somebody knew your code."
Elena remembered changing it after Vanessa once entered the bedroom without knocking.
Only Nathan knew the new combination.
Or that was what Elena had believed.
Ruiz asked whether the code had ever been written down.
Nathan shook his head.
"No."
Pierce looked toward the staircase.
"Robert used to hide combinations inside medical appointment dates."
Elena turned toward him.
"How would you know that?"
Pierce paused.
"Because he was my patient for twenty years."
Again, a reasonable answer.
Again, it left Elena colder than before.
Ruiz sent an officer to pull the mansion's access logs.
The security server had gone offline ninety seconds before the power failed.
Someone had disabled it from inside the property.
Nathan finally looked away from the envelope.
"This wasn't a burglary that happened because everyone was distracted."
Elena met his eyes.
"No."
The realization settled over the foyer.
Her fall had not interrupted the theft.
Her fall had been part of the timing.
Elena forgot the pain in her shoulder.
The letter had been inside the safe at midnight.
She knew because she had photographed it before Ruiz's technician installed the hidden cameras.
Now Nathan stood above her holding nothing but the envelope.
Detective Ruiz looked toward him.
"Don't touch anything else in that room."
Nathan came down the stairs slowly.
"Someone took it."
Elena pushed herself higher against the stretcher despite the paramedic's warning.
"What else is missing?"
"The red folder."
Her stomach tightened.
The red folder contained bank records connecting Vanessa to Caleb Mercer.
Ruiz already had digital copies.
But whoever entered the safe might believe the originals were the only evidence.
That meant the thief was still operating on incomplete information.
Which could be useful.
A police officer returned from the service hallway.
"We lost him beyond the greenhouse."
Ruiz's jaw tightened.
"Lock the property down."
Vanessa folded her arms.
"You can't detain everyone because some burglar broke in."
Ruiz turned toward her.
"Interesting choice of word."
Vanessa frowned.
"What?"
"Burglar."
"Nobody said anything was stolen until Nathan came downstairs."
The foyer became quiet again.
Vanessa's face barely moved.
But Elena saw the pulse jump in her neck.
"It was obvious," Vanessa said.
Ruiz nodded as though accepting the answer.
"Maybe."
Dr. Pierce came down behind Nathan.
He looked unsettled.
"The safe wasn't forced."
Nathan turned.
"What?"
"Whoever opened it used the code."
Nathan's eyes moved to Elena.
"Only we know the code."
Elena shook her head.
"Not anymore."
Margaret gripped the back of a chair.
"Who else could know it?"
Elena looked toward Vanessa.
Vanessa laughed once, sharply.
"Don't even try that."
"I have never been inside your bedroom alone."
Helen spoke from behind Margaret.
"That's not true."
Vanessa turned.
The housekeeper's hands were shaking.
"You asked me to bring Mrs. Howard's blue coat downstairs last Thursday."
"You went into the bedroom before I could get it."
Vanessa stared at her.
"For thirty seconds."
"Long enough to photograph a keypad," Ruiz said.
Vanessa's eyes flashed.
"Are you accusing me because a servant remembers me touching a coat?"
Margaret's expression became icy.
"Her name is Helen."
The rebuke cut through the room.
Vanessa looked away.
The paramedic again urged Elena toward the ambulance.
This time Elena agreed.
She needed the baby checked.
She also needed distance from the mansion before the next move.
Ruiz walked beside the stretcher as it rolled toward the doors.
"We recovered something near the greenhouse," he said quietly.
Elena looked at him.
"The letter?"
"No."
He opened his palm.
A small silver cuff link rested there.
It bore the Howard Industries crest.
Nathan saw it too.
His face changed.
"That's impossible."
Ruiz looked at him.
"Why?"
Nathan swallowed.
"Because those cuff links were made for only three men."
"My father."
"Me."
He paused.
"And my brother Daniel."
Elena stared at him.
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Daniel Howard had supposedly been dead for seven years.
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