Chapter 4 - THE GREENHOUSE CLOCK
For several seconds, the greenhouse seemed to lose all sound except the faint hiss of water moving through old irrigation pipes.
Vincent looked from the photograph to Dominic's wrist.
The watch was unmistakable.
Silver band.
Black face.
A pale crack running from the number two to the center pin.
Dominic did not try to hide it.
"I can explain."
Vincent's mouth tightened.
"That is what guilty men say when they need time."
"Then do not give me time."
Dominic unfastened the watch and placed it on the potting bench.
"Ask me now."
Marco moved subtly between the cousins.
Vincent held up the photograph.
"Were you with Sofia at the rear gate the night she disappeared?"
Dominic's answer came too slowly.
"Yes."
The word landed harder than denial would have.
Vincent took one step forward.
"You told me you were in Albany."
"I was supposed to be."
"You gave the police hotel records."
"I checked into the hotel, then drove back."
Vincent stared at him.
"Why?"
Dominic looked toward Marco.
"Because Charles called me."
Vincent laughed once without humor.
"Of course he did."
"He said Sofia was trying to leave with confidential family files."
"And you believed him."
"At the time, yes."
"So you came here to stop my wife from leaving."
"I came here to talk to her."
Vincent's voice dropped.
"What happened at the gate?"
Dominic looked down at the photograph.
"She told me Bellamy was stealing from the trust."
Vincent's eyes narrowed.
"Did she show you proof?"
"No."
"Did you ask?"
"I told her she needed to calm down."
The regret on Dominic's face looked real.
Vincent did not care.
"You told Sofia to calm down while the man she was accusing was building a file calling her unstable."
"I did not know about that file."
"What did you know?"
Dominic rubbed both hands over his face.
"I knew Charles said she had copied financial records."
"Anything else?"
"He said she might embarrass the family publicly."
Vincent looked disgusted.
"So you protected the family name."
Dominic's eyes flashed.
"I was thirty-one, Vincent."
"Old enough to know the difference between a scandal and a woman asking for help."
Dominic accepted that without arguing.
"Yes."
Vincent held the photograph closer.
"What happened after this was taken?"
"Sofia told me someone had been following her for two weeks."
"Who?"
"She did not know."
"Did she mention Grace?"
"No."
"The phone?"
"No."
Dominic looked toward the rear door of the greenhouse.
"She told me she was going back inside to get something."
"And you let her?"
"I thought she had changed her mind about leaving."
"Then what?"
Dominic swallowed.
"Charles arrived."
Vincent's body went still.
"Here?"
"At the rear gate."
"You omitted that from every statement you gave after she disappeared."
"Yes."
"Why?"
Dominic's answer came quietly.
"Because he reminded me of something I had done six years earlier."
Marco looked at him.
Vincent did not blink.
"What did you do?"
Dominic glanced toward the greenhouse glass, where the mansion reflected in dark fractured panels.
"A truck operated by one of our old shell companies hit a family on Route Nine."
Vincent frowned.
"I remember the accident."
"You remember the settlement."
"What are you saying?"
"The driver had been on the road twenty hours because I pressured dispatch to make a delivery window."
Vincent's face hardened.
"You told me the driver falsified his own log."
"He did."
Dominic paused.
"After I told him he would be fired if the shipment was late."
Vincent stared at him.
"A child died in that crash."
Dominic's face folded for a second.
"I know."
"And Bellamy buried your role."
"He made the dispatch messages disappear."
Vincent looked toward the photograph again.
"So when Sofia disappeared, he owned you."
"Yes."
"Does he still?"
Dominic met his eyes.
"Not after today."
Vincent almost smiled.
"That answer would be more impressive if I believed you."
Marco stepped toward the tin box.
"We should preserve the rest before this becomes a family argument."
Vincent nodded once.
He unfolded the ledger page with gloved hands.
It contained eight lines of numbers written in Sofia's handwriting.
Beside each line was the same company name.
HARBOR LIGHT CONSULTING LLC.
The amounts ranged from $185,000 to $640,000.
At the bottom, Sofia had written one sentence in blue ink.
Same destination after three transfers.
Vincent looked at Dominic.
"Know the company?"
Dominic shook his head.
Marco photographed the page.
"I can have finance trace it."
"Not through our finance office," Vincent said.
"Why?"
"Because we do not know who Charles owns."
He took out his own phone.
Then he stopped.
The recording had warned him not to say another word if Bellamy was in the room.
Vincent looked at the greenhouse ceiling.
"Sweep this place for transmitters."
Marco immediately signaled to one of his men.
Dominic frowned.
"You think Charles bugged the estate?"
"I think Sofia thought he might."
Marco's guard produced a small radio-frequency detector from his security bag and began moving along the walls.
The device remained quiet until he reached the potting bench.
Then it chirped.
Everyone froze.
The guard passed it over the wooden surface.
The chirping intensified near the underside of the bench.
Marco crouched.
He reached beneath the wood and removed a black object no larger than a coin.
Dominic stared at it.
"How long has that been there?"
Marco examined it.
"New battery."
Vincent's eyes went cold.
"Someone knew we might come here."
A sharp sound cracked from outside.
Marco shoved Vincent backward.
One greenhouse window shattered.
Glass sprayed across the soil beds.
Dominic dropped beside the potting bench.
Marco drew his weapon and shouted to the outer guards.
"North hedge."
Another crack sounded.
A clay pot exploded near the rear wall.
Vincent stayed low.
"Is anyone hit?"
"No," Marco said.
His radio erupted with voices.
A guard outside reported movement along the hedge line.
Another guard was already circling toward the east wall.
Marco grabbed the tin box and pushed it into Vincent's hands.
"Back door."
Dominic crawled toward them.
"There is a service trench behind the citrus beds."
Vincent looked at him.
"How do you know?"
"Because I grew up here too."
A third shot struck the metal frame above them.
There was no time to argue.
Dominic kicked aside a low wooden panel beneath the irrigation controls.
Behind it was a narrow maintenance passage sunk below floor level.
Marco went first.
Vincent followed with the evidence box against his chest.
Dominic climbed in behind him.
They moved bent over through damp darkness until the trench ended near the boiler room.
One of Marco's guards opened the hatch from the other side.
"Shooter is gone."
Marco's jaw tightened.
"Gone where?"
"East woods."
"Seal every road."
"Already done."
Vincent climbed out of the trench.
His coat sleeve was torn by broken glass.
He looked back toward the greenhouse.
"That was not a warning shot."
Marco shook his head.
"No."
Dominic brushed dirt from his trousers.
"Then Charles has someone outside."
Vincent looked at him.
"Or you do."
Dominic stared back.
"If I wanted you dead, I would not have shown you the trench."
"Unless you wanted me to trust you."
Dominic's expression twisted.
"You are impossible."
"I am alive."
They returned to the mansion through the service corridor.
The ballroom had been partially cleared.
Guests were now confined to two sitting rooms under guard, and Marco's staff had collected every phone.
Emily ran toward Grace when she saw Vincent return.
Grace's eyes went directly to the tear in his coat.
"What happened?"
"Someone shot at the greenhouse."
Emily's eyes widened.
Grace pulled her closer.
Isabella stared at Vincent.
"Charles?"
"He is still in the library."
"Then who?"
Vincent placed the tin box on the signing table.
"That is the question."
Marco connected the memory card from the box to an isolated laptop.
The card contained only one file.
A video.
The timestamp was three years old.
Vincent sat down.
"Play it."
The screen opened on a shaky view of Sofia sitting in the greenhouse.
She wore a dark sweater and no makeup.
Her hair was tied back.
She looked exhausted.
But she was very much herself.
Vincent's hands curled into fists.
Sofia looked directly into the camera.
"If you found this, then Bellamy got to the first plan."
She took a breath.
"The money matters, but it is not the reason I am afraid."
Vincent leaned closer.
"I found medical authorizations with Vincent's signature."
Dominic looked at him.
Vincent's face went blank.
Sofia continued.
"They are dated next week."
Marco paused the video.
"Next week from when she recorded this?"
Vincent nodded slowly.
"Which means they were prepared before she disappeared."
Marco resumed playback.
"The documents authorize involuntary psychiatric transfer if I am declared a danger to myself or the family."
Vincent stood so quickly his chair fell backward.
"I never signed that."
Sofia's recorded face remained calm.
"Vince, I know you would never knowingly sign it."
His breathing stopped.
"That is why I am telling you the signature is real."
The room went silent.
"Bellamy did not forge your name."
Sofia looked down for a moment.
May you like
When she looked back up, fear had entered her eyes.
"He got you to sign it yourself."
