Chapter 5 - THE DEAD MAN WHO NEVER DIEDDominic did not believe him.
“Stay here!”
He drew his weapon and shouted into his radio.
Three guards moved toward the east staircase.
Another covered the service hall.
Dominic heard the commotion downstairs and immediately stood.
“What happened?”
The security feed showed him leaving Gabriel in the library.
Autumn locked the security room door.
Wren clung to her waist.
“What did he put in my bed?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is it bad?”
“We’re not going near it.”
The camera feed flickered.
The intruder disappeared from Wren’s bedroom.
Then Camera Twelve went black.
Camera Eleven.
Black.
Camera Ten.
Black.
One after another.
Someone was disabling the system from inside.
Dominic reached the security room.
Autumn unlocked the door.
“What?”
She pointed toward the monitors.
“He was in Wren’s room.”
Dominic looked at the dark screens.
“Who?”
“We couldn’t see his face.”
Dominic’s expression became lethal.
He pressed the radio.
“Nobody leaves this property.”
Marco’s voice crackled back.
“Bedroom clear.”
“What was under the pillow?”
“Checking.”
“Don’t touch it.”
Silence.
Then:
“Photograph.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“Bring it.”
Gabriel arrived upstairs.
“What happened?”
Dominic turned on him.
“You stay where I can see you.”
Gabriel lifted his hands.
“Fine.”
Marco appeared two minutes later carrying a plastic evidence sleeve.
Inside was another photograph.
This one showed Autumn leaving the employee entrance that morning.
A red X had been drawn across her face.
Wren screamed.
Autumn’s chest went cold.
Written below:
SHE LEAVES TONIGHT OR SHE DIES TOMORROW.
Dominic stared at Autumn.
Then at Wren.
The child began sobbing.
“It’s my fault!”
“No,” Autumn said immediately.
“He said—”
“No.”
“He said people get hurt!”
Autumn knelt and took Wren’s hands.
“Look at me. Whoever wrote this wants you to believe your fear controls what happens to everyone. It doesn’t.”
“You’ll die!”
“I’m standing right here.”
“For now!”
The words were far too old for an eight-year-old.
Autumn’s heart broke.
Dominic crouched beside them.
“Wren.”
She would not look at him.
“Birdie.”
Finally she did.
Dominic took the photograph.
“This person wants me to be afraid too.”
Wren sniffled.
“Are you?”
“Yes.”
Everyone in the room looked at him.
Dominic Calloway admitting fear was almost unimaginable.
He continued.
“I’m afraid because I love you.”
Wren’s lip trembled.
“But being afraid doesn’t mean we obey bad people.”
“What if they hurt Autumn?”
“Then I protect Autumn.”
“What if they hurt you?”
“Then Marco protects me.”
Marco almost smiled.
“And who protects Marco?” Wren asked.
For the first time in days, Dominic’s mouth twitched.
“Apparently nobody.”
Wren let out a tiny, broken laugh.
The tension eased for half a second.
Then every light in the mansion went out.
Wren screamed.
Autumn pulled her close.
Emergency generators should have activated immediately.
They did not.
Dominic’s radio died.
The mansion fell into complete darkness.
Then, somewhere inside Wren’s bedroom, the music box began to play.
Dominic moved toward the door.
Autumn grabbed his sleeve.
“Don’t.”
“That thing is in there.”
“That’s exactly why you shouldn’t walk toward it in the dark.”
Marco handed Dominic a flashlight.
They waited.
A voice came through the music box speaker.
Distorted.
Slow.
“Wren.”
The child buried her face in Autumn’s shoulder.
The voice continued.
“You broke the rule.”
Dominic’s face became stone.
“You told Daddy.”
Wren shook uncontrollably.
“And now someone has to pay.”
Dominic moved toward the bedroom.
Autumn stepped in front of him.
“Listen.”
“What?”
The speaker crackled again.
But Autumn had noticed something.
The voice was too clear.
There was almost no electronic distortion from transmission.
“It’s nearby.”
Marco understood instantly.
“Bluetooth range.”
Dominic looked around.
“How nearby?”
“Could be fifty feet.”
The man threatening Wren was still inside the house.
Marco signaled two guards with flashlights.
They spread through the upstairs hallway.
Autumn stayed with Wren.
The distorted voice began counting.
“Ten.”
Dominic entered the bedroom.
“Nine.”
Marco checked the closet.
“Eight.”
The bathroom.
Empty.
“Seven.”
A guard looked beneath the bed.
“Six.”
Autumn saw something move near the curtain.
“Dominic!”
He turned.
A shadow rushed past the window.
Glass shattered.
Marco fired no shot because the figure was too close to the outer ledge.
Dominic ran toward the broken window.
A rope hung outside.
“Roof!”
Security men raced downstairs.
The voice continued.
“Five.”
Autumn looked at the music box.
“Four.”
She grabbed a blanket and threw it over the device.
“Three.”
Then she heard a faint beep from beneath Wren’s bed.
Not the box.
Something else.
“Everyone out!” she shouted.
Dominic turned.
“Move!”
Autumn lifted Wren and ran.
Marco followed.
They reached the hall just as smoke erupted from beneath the bed.
Not an explosion.
A smoke device.
Thick black clouds filled the room.
An alarm screamed.
Chaos erupted downstairs.
Sprinklers activated.
Guards rushed everywhere.
When emergency power finally returned three minutes later, Gabriel Calloway was gone.
His car remained outside.
His phone sat in the library.
But Gabriel had disappeared.
Dominic stared at the empty room.
“He ran.”
Marco shook his head.
“Maybe.”
Autumn noticed something on the floor near the back service door.
Blood.
Only a few drops.
They followed the trail.
Through the pantry.
Into the servants’ corridor.
Down the narrow stairs leading toward the basement.
The blood ended beside a storage closet.
Dominic pulled the door open.
Gabriel fell forward.
His wrists were bound.
His mouth was taped.
Blood ran from a cut above his eyebrow.
He looked at Dominic wildly.
Dominic ripped away the tape.
Gabriel gasped.
“He’s here.”
“Who?”
Gabriel struggled for breath.
“He knew you’d blame me.”
Dominic grabbed his shoulders.
“Who is he?”
Gabriel stared toward Wren.
Then at Autumn.
“I never killed Isabelle.”
“Then who did?”
Gabriel’s face crumpled.
“I helped cover it up.”
Dominic released him as though burned.
“What?”
“I thought I was protecting you.”
“From who?”
Gabriel swallowed.
“Your father.”
Dominic stared.
“That’s impossible.”
Their father, Vincent Calloway, had been dead for three years.
Gabriel shook his head.
May you like
“You buried an empty coffin.”
And somewhere upstairs, the music box began playing again.
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