Chapter 4 - Someone Threatened Lily, So I Closed the Mansion and Told Every Employee the Same Thing: Nobody Leaves Until I Know the TruthThe gates closed at 7:00 a.m.
Nobody left.
Nobody entered.
Every employee received the same message:
Remain on the property.
By eight, the household was terrified.
By nine, Evelyn was furious.
By ten, Marco arrived.
He placed a folder in front of me.
“We found the sender.”
“Who?”
“Daniel Voss.”
I opened the folder.
Former maintenance supervisor.
Dismissed five years earlier.
Criminal record.
Debt.
Connections to several shell companies.
And one disturbing detail.
His daughter attended the same rehabilitation clinic as Lily.
My eyes hardened.
“Coincidence?”
“No.”
“Who paid him?”
“We don't know.”
“Find out.”
Marco nodded.
I looked at the employee list.
“Bring everyone into the dining room.”
Thirty minutes later, every employee stood in front of me.
Evelyn.
Norah.
Thomas.
The cooks.
Security.
Cleaners.
Everyone.
I stood at the head of the room.
“You're all wondering why you're here.”
Nobody spoke.
“Someone has been stealing from me.”
Silence.
“Someone has been threatening a child.”
Evelyn looked down.
“And someone inside this house has been helping them.”
Several employees exchanged nervous glances.
I continued.
“I don't care who you think I am.”
A few people looked at me.
“You know my reputation.”
They did.
Everyone did.
“But today, I'm not interested in punishment.”
I paused.
“I'm interested in truth.”
I placed the accessibility request on the table.
“This was buried.”
Then the invoices.
“These were forged.”
Then the message.
“This was a threat.”
Nobody moved.
I looked around.
“Someone knows something.”
Silence.
“Who?”
Nothing.
I waited.
Then Norah stepped forward.
“I do.”
Evelyn turned sharply.
“Norah.”
I raised my hand.
“Let her speak.”
Norah's voice trembled.
“I saw Daniel Voss talking to Evelyn.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“That's a lie.”
“When?”
“Three nights ago.”
Norah looked at me.
“In her room.”
Evelyn's face went white.
I turned to her.
“Anything you want to say?”
She didn't answer.
Then suddenly the kitchen alarm sounded.
Everyone turned.
Smoke.
I ran.
The staff kitchen was filling with smoke.
Lily was inside.
“LILY!”
I found her beneath the table.
Crying.
I grabbed her.
She wrapped her arms around my neck.
“Mr. Moretti!”
“I've got you.”
Her leg brace was damaged.
A metal hinge had snapped.
I carried her outside.
Anna ran toward us.
“Lily!”
“She’s okay.”
Anna took her.
I looked at the broken brace.
Then at the smoke.
Someone had tampered with the kitchen equipment.
This wasn't theft anymore.
It was an attack.
I turned toward Evelyn.
She was gone.
My blood went cold.
“Find her.”
Security moved.
But Evelyn had already disappeared.
A side door was open.
On the floor was one thing.
A black envelope.
Inside was a photograph.
Lily.
Taken two days earlier.
And beneath it, a note.
YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT THE MONEY ALONE.
I crushed the paper in my fist.
Marco looked at me.
“What now?”
I looked toward Lily.
Then toward the open gate.
“Now?”
I smiled.
“Now we stop waiting.”
I picked up my phone.
“Find Evelyn.”
“And Voss?”
“Both.”
Marco nodded.
“And if they run?”
I looked at the photograph.
“They won't.”
Because the people who had threatened Lily had made one mistake.
They thought money was what I cared about.
They were wrong.
They had touched the one thing in my house that had made me remember what protection meant.
And I would tear apart every secret in the city before I let anyone hurt that child again.
The investigation had begun as an audit.
It had become a war.
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And the first person I intended to question was the woman who had been standing inside my home for eight years, smiling while she watched a little girl limp across a doorway she could have fixed for $1,180.
To be continued in Chapter 5...
