Chapter 7 - BLOOD ON THE SERVICE STAIRS
The driver survived.
That was the first good news anyone had heard in more than an hour.
The second piece of news was worse.
He had not been attacked by strangers.
He had been struck from behind while the car was still inside the Marchetti estate.
Matteo delivered the information in the ballroom while Enzo stood beside the stage.
“The driver remembers stopping near the north gate because Camilla said she had dropped an earring.”
Enzo's eyes narrowed.
“Then?”
“He got out.”
“He remembers someone approaching from behind.”
“Did he see who?”
“No.”
“Victor?”
“Still missing.”
“Camilla?”
“Missing.”
Enzo looked across the room.
Two hundred guests had become one hundred and seventy-three.
Twenty-seven had chosen to leave after giving statements.
He knew every name.
He also knew which ones had left before the toxicology result was announced.
Adeline stood near Lucia at the edge of the ballroom.
Her wrist throbbed beneath the bandage.
Her body wanted rest.
Her mind refused.
She kept replaying Camilla's face when Enzo asked about Thomas Croft.
Not confusion.
Recognition.
Then Victor's remark about Daniel choosing a healthier hobby.
That sentence had not been casual.
He knew something.
Adeline turned toward Lucia.
“Where is the staff locker room?”
Lucia frowned.
“You know where it is.”
“The old one.”
Lucia studied her.
“Why?”
“Daniel told me something before he disappeared.”
“What?”
“He said people hide important things where rich people stop looking.”
Lucia's expression changed.
“The old locker room has been closed for years.”
“Exactly.”
Lucia shook her head.
“You need to tell Enzo before you go wandering through this house.”
“He already thinks I may have staged my own beating.”
“He thinks everyone is a suspect.”
“That is not comforting.”
“It is not meant to be.”
Adeline looked toward Enzo.
He was speaking quietly with Matteo and two security officers.
She knew if she asked permission, he would send guards with her.
If someone inside his security team had helped Camilla, that might be worse than going alone.
Adeline made her decision.
“I need the restroom.”
Lucia rolled her eyes.
“You are a terrible liar.”
“Will you stop me?”
“No.”
Lucia leaned closer.
“But if you disappear, I am telling him exactly where you went.”
“Fair.”
Adeline slipped through the service door.
The noise of the ballroom faded behind her.
The old staff wing occupied the oldest part of the mansion.
It had narrow halls, low ceilings, and a second staircase built for servants when the house was constructed nearly a century earlier.
Most of it was used for storage now.
Adeline passed stacks of folded chairs and boxes of holiday decorations.
The lights grew dimmer.
At the end of the hall, she found the old locker room.
The door was unlocked.
That bothered her immediately.
She pushed it open.
Dust covered the benches.
Metal lockers lined both walls.
Some doors hung open.
Others had rusted shut.
Adeline stepped inside.
Daniel's final letter had contained one strange sentence she had never understood.
If the bell is silent, look where the coats used to sleep.
She had assumed bell referred to Michael Bell.
Now she wondered whether coats meant an old staff cloakroom.
The locker room had once served that purpose.
She began opening lockers.
Empty.
Empty.
Cleaning rags.
Broken hangers.
A pair of ancient work shoes.
Then she found locker thirty-one.
Someone had scratched a tiny B into the paint beside the handle.
Adeline's pulse jumped.
Bell.
She pulled.
Locked.
She searched the nearby shelf and found a screwdriver.
The metal was old enough that the lock gave after several hard twists.
The door opened.
Inside was nothing but a cedar coat hanger.
Adeline stared.
Then she saw the screw in the back panel.
It was newer than the others.
She removed it.
The thin metal panel shifted forward.
Behind it was a narrow cavity.
Inside lay a small envelope wrapped in plastic.
Adeline's hands shook as she pulled it out.
The front contained one handwritten word.
CROFT.
She recognized Daniel's handwriting.
Her breath caught.
“Daniel.”
She tore the plastic carefully.
Before she could open the envelope, a sound came from the hallway.
A shoe against stone.
Adeline froze.
“Lucia?”
No answer.
She slid the envelope beneath her blouse.
The locker room door moved slightly.
Someone was standing outside.
Adeline backed away.
“Who's there?”
The door opened.
A man in a black security uniform stepped inside.
Adeline recognized him as one of the guards stationed near the kitchen earlier.
His name was Owen.
She had seen him twice during her eleven days at the house.
He smiled.
“You shouldn't be down here.”
Adeline forced herself to breathe normally.
“I got lost.”
“In the closed staff wing?”
“I was looking for supplies.”
“During an emergency?”
His smile disappeared.
“What did you find?”
“Nothing.”
Owen closed the door behind him.
Adeline's pulse hammered.
“You need to come with me.”
“Where?”
“Mr. Marchetti wants everyone back in the ballroom.”
“Then he can send Lucia.”
Owen took one step closer.
“Come with me.”
Adeline looked at his hands.
No radio.
No gloves.
His right knuckle was scraped and fresh blood marked the skin.
The driver had been struck from behind.
Adeline moved toward the opposite side of the room.
“What happened to your hand?”
Owen looked down.
“Door caught it.”
“Which door?”
His eyes hardened.
“You ask too many questions.”
He lunged.
Adeline grabbed the nearest metal hanger and swung it.
It struck his forearm.
He cursed and caught her shoulder.
She drove her knee forward and twisted free.
Owen reached again.
Adeline threw herself toward the door.
He caught the back of her dress.
Fabric tore.
She slammed the door into his arm and ran.
Her shoes slipped on the stone floor.
Owen followed.
“Stop!”
Adeline reached the service stairs.
She took the first steps too quickly.
A hand caught her hair.
Pain tore across her scalp.
She screamed.
Owen yanked her backward.
Adeline grabbed the railing with both hands.
“Give me the envelope.”
Her blood went cold.
He knew.
“I don't know what you're talking about.”
He pulled harder.
“Daniel should have listened too.”
Adeline stopped struggling for half a second.
That was all she needed to hear.
She released one hand from the railing and drove her elbow backward.
It struck Owen's face.
He stumbled.
Adeline twisted.
His foot slipped on the edge of a stair.
He fell three steps and struck the wall.
She ran downward.
A second figure appeared at the bottom of the staircase.
Adeline screamed again.
Then she recognized Enzo.
He looked from her torn dress to the man behind her.
Owen was already getting up.
Enzo's face changed.
Not dramatically.
That was what made it frightening.
He moved past Adeline.
Owen reached toward his belt.
Enzo caught his wrist and slammed it into the railing.
A folding knife clattered onto the stairs.
Matteo appeared behind Enzo with two guards.
“Down!”
Owen froze.
Matteo forced him to the floor.
Enzo turned to Adeline.
“Are you hurt?”
“My shoulder.”
“Anything else?”
“No.”
Then she looked at Owen.
“He knew about Daniel.”
Enzo's eyes sharpened.
“What did he say?”
“He said Daniel should have listened.”
Matteo searched Owen.
He removed a phone, a wallet, and a small silver object from the guard's pocket.
Matteo stared at the object.
Enzo saw his expression.
“What is it?”
Matteo opened his palm.
A security token lay there.
It looked almost identical to Enzo's missing token.
But the engraved number on the back belonged to someone else.
Matteo's face went pale.
“That is mine.”
Enzo looked at him.
Matteo immediately reached into his own jacket.
His pocket was empty.
Owen laughed from the floor.
“You people really don't know who works for you anymore.”
Enzo crouched beside him.
“Who gave you Matteo's token?”
Owen smiled through blood on his lip.
“No one gave me anything.”
“Who told you about Daniel Croft?”
Owen looked at Adeline.
“Ask her brother.”
Adeline stepped forward.
“Where is he?”
Owen's smile widened.
“Closer than you think.”
Then his gaze shifted toward Matteo.
“And if I were you, Miss Croft, I would stop assuming the man beside Marchetti is the one protecting him.”
Owen's accusation followed them back toward the main floor.
Matteo walked several steps ahead, speaking into his radio with clipped precision.
Adeline watched him differently now.
The man had just discovered his own security token in another guard's pocket.
He had also been named by implication as someone she should fear.
Enzo noticed her watching.
“Say it.”
Adeline looked at him.
“What?”
“You are wondering whether Matteo is involved.”
“Yes.”
Matteo heard from ahead.
He stopped.
Adeline expected anger.
Instead, he turned and nodded.
“You should wonder.”
She blinked.
“If I were you, I would.”
Enzo studied his friend.
Matteo continued.
“Owen had my token.”
“He knew about Daniel.”
“And I failed to notice a compromised guard working ten yards from the woman we were supposed to protect.”
His mouth tightened.
“Trust does not mean ignoring those facts.”
Adeline looked at Enzo.
He did not disagree.
That mattered.
In the ballroom, several guests had begun recording statements with security while waiting to leave.
One older banker stopped Adeline near the doorway.
“I saw what she did.”
Adeline recognized him from the corridor.
He had stood less than fifteen feet away during the attack.
She waited.
His face colored with shame.
“I should have stepped in.”
“Yes.”
He seemed startled by the direct answer.
Adeline did not rescue him from it.
“I thought someone else would.”
“Yes.”
“I am sorry.”
She looked at his expensive suit, his trembling hands, and the title printed on the event program beside his name.
“Tell the truth when they ask you.”
He nodded.
“That will help more than apologizing to me in a hallway.”
The banker walked away looking smaller than before.
Enzo had heard the exchange.
“You could have been kinder.”
Adeline looked at him.
“So could two hundred people.”
He accepted that.
Then Matteo's radio cracked sharply.
The guard escorting Owen had found something sewn into the lining of Owen's jacket.
A tiny memory card.
Enzo ordered it isolated immediately.
Adeline's pulse quickened.
The night kept producing evidence from people who had assumed no one would search them.
But Owen's warning still echoed louder than any object.
May you like
Closer than you think.
For the first time, Adeline wondered whether Daniel had ever truly disappeared from the Marchetti orbit at all.
