Chapter 12 - The Shot in the Great Room
They drove back toward Chicago with Clare in the rear seat and Daniel's letter sealed inside Vincent's evidence case.
Dominic called the estate repeatedly.
No answer from Arthur.
No answer from Martin.
Mrs. Bell finally answered from a pantry phone.
Her whisper told Dominic something was wrong before the words did.
"There are men in the house."
Dominic sat forward.
"Whose men?"
"I do not know."
"Ellie?"
"With me."
Clare grabbed the phone from Dominic before he could stop her.
"Mommy is coming, sweetheart."
For several seconds there was only Ellie's crying.
Then her small voice came through.
"Mommy?"
Clare broke.
The sound she made was quiet, but Dominic felt it harder than shouting.
"I am here."
"The bad men came back."
Clare closed her eyes.
"Stay with Mrs. Bell."
"Mr. Cane too?"
Clare looked at Dominic.
"He is with me."
Ellie's voice became steadier.
"Tell him the blue man has two faces."
Dominic took the phone.
"Ellie, what did you say?"
"The blue man has two faces."
"What does that mean?"
"I saw him take one off."
Every adult in the vehicle went silent.
Dominic remembered the disguise materials in the greenhouse.
"Where did you see that?"
"Yesterday."
"In the hallway?"
"No."
Ellie paused as if the distinction mattered deeply.
"In the shiny door."
Clare understood first.
"The elevator."
Ellie had seen a reflection in the polished service elevator door.
She may not have seen the attacker directly.
She had seen him removing part of the disguise when he thought nobody was looking.
Dominic asked, "What face was underneath?"
Ellie whispered.
"The picture face."
Clare looked at Dominic.
"Elias."
Then a crash sounded through the phone.
Mrs. Bell gasped.
The line went dead.
Vincent accelerated.
They reached the estate twelve minutes later.
The north gate stood open.
The guard booth was empty.
Vincent did not use the main drive.
He took the vehicle across the service lawn and stopped behind the kitchen wing.
Dominic got out before anyone could tell him to wait.
His leg burned, but it held.
The kitchen door had been forced.
One Vale guard lay unconscious near the pantry.
Alive.
Clare ran toward Mrs. Bell's hiding place.
Dominic caught her arm.
"Behind Vincent."
She tore free.
"My daughter is in there."
Dominic stepped in front of her.
"And running into a room without knowing who is inside will not help her."
Clare stared at him with pure fury.
Then she nodded once.
Vincent cleared the corridor.
Mrs. Bell and Ellie were found behind a locked dry-storage door.
Clare dropped to her knees and pulled Ellie into her arms.
Dominic looked away for a second because the relief on Clare's face felt too private to witness.
Ellie reached over her mother's shoulder toward him.
"Mr. Cane."
Dominic crouched.
"You did well."
She touched his cane.
"I told you."
"You did."
A gunshot exploded from the great room.
The sound ripped through the house.
Vincent spun.
Dominic stood too quickly and nearly lost his balance.
A second shot followed.
Then silence.
"Stay here," Dominic told Clare.
She did not argue this time.
Vincent and the guards moved toward the great room.
Dominic followed.
They found Arthur Voss on the marble floor beside the conference room doors.
Blood spread across his white shirt near the shoulder.
Martin Keane stood ten feet away holding a pistol.
Four unfamiliar men surrounded him.
Martin pointed the gun at Dominic.
"Stop."
Vincent raised his own weapon.
"Drop it."
Martin smiled.
"Still security even after being fired?"
Dominic looked at Arthur.
The older man was conscious.
Barely.
His eyes moved toward Dominic.
"Martin."
The word was almost a breath.
Dominic stared at Keane.
"Daniel says you have wanted Arthur dead for fifteen years."
Martin's face changed.
Only slightly.
Enough.
"Daniel is dead."
"No."
Dominic took one step forward.
"You know he is not."
Martin's men shifted.
One looked at Keane as if this information was new.
Martin raised the gun higher.
"Stay where you are."
Dominic did.
"You helped him."
"You do not know what you are talking about."
"Keane Freight moved the false identities."
Martin's jaw tightened.
"Your father created that system."
"Wrong."
Dominic held up Daniel's handwritten letter.
"My brother did."
Martin looked at the letter.
This time the reaction was impossible to hide.
Fear.
Dominic continued.
"Arthur thought Daniel was exposing the network."
Arthur coughed from the floor.
"I did."
Martin looked down at him with disgust.
"You always were easy to fool."
Arthur smiled despite the blood.
"Apparently not as easy as you hoped."
Martin kicked him in the ribs.
Dominic moved.
The pistol snapped toward him.
"Do not."
Vincent's finger tightened on his trigger.
Dominic raised one hand to stop him.
"You shot Arthur because Daniel told me you would."
Martin laughed.
"Daniel tells people whatever keeps them moving."
"Then why prove him right?"
Martin's face hardened.
"Because Arthur has been living on borrowed time since he helped Daniel disappear."
Arthur looked up.
"You knew?"
"Of course I knew."
Martin's voice filled with fifteen years of contempt.
"You thought you were protecting Daniel from some imaginary traitor while you delivered him straight into the network he had built."
Dominic saw the history rearranging itself again.
Arthur had been used from the beginning.
Martin had been part of Daniel's operation.
But Martin's anger suggested the partnership had broken.
"Why kill Arthur now?"
Martin pointed the weapon toward Dominic's chest.
"Because Daniel wants his old life back."
"He said he does not want the organization."
"Daniel says a lot of things."
Martin laughed.
"He wants the Vale name clean enough to inherit again."
Dominic frowned.
"Inherit from whom?"
"You."
Arthur tried to sit up.
"Martin, stop talking."
Martin looked at him.
"Still protecting the wrong brother?"
He aimed down.
Dominic saw the movement before anyone else.
He swung the cane.
The heavy handle struck Martin's wrist.
The pistol fired into the marble.
Vincent moved at the same instant.
Two of Martin's men dropped their weapons immediately.
A third ran toward the service corridor.
A guard tackled him.
The fourth fired once at Vincent and missed.
Vincent returned fire into the wall beside the man's head, forcing him down without hitting him.
Martin lunged for his fallen pistol.
Dominic planted the cane across his hand.
Martin shouted.
Dominic pressed harder.
"Fifteen years ago, did you help my brother disappear?"
Martin glared up at him.
"Yes."
"Did you help sabotage my recovery?"
Martin smiled through pain.
"No."
"Did you know about it?"
"Not until tonight."
Dominic looked at Arthur.
"Did you?"
Arthur shook his head weakly.
Martin began laughing.
Dominic looked down.
"What is funny?"
"Both of you still think this house is the target."
Vincent grabbed Martin by the collar.
"What is the target?"
Martin's smile widened.
"The port."
Dominic's stomach tightened.
Vale Shipping operated one of the largest private cargo terminals on the south side.
Thousands of containers moved through its systems every week.
Identity records, customs data, payroll archives, and route access were all connected there.
Daniel's old network had been built through shipping.
Dominic looked at the wall clock.
1:58 a.m.
Martin whispered the final words like a man enjoying a secret he believed arrived too late.
May you like
"At two o'clock, every record your brother ever created becomes Dominic Vale's crime."
