Chapter 4 - THE SECOND KEY
Darkness swallowed the mansion so completely that Beatrice heard Victoria laugh before she could see anything.
A second later, red emergency lights flickered on along the baseboards.
Leo's hand closed around Beatrice's arm and pulled her behind him.
Mateo drew a pistol from beneath his jacket.
Two guards did the same.
"Nobody moves," Mateo said.
Victoria's pale face glowed beneath the emergency lights.
"This is embarrassing, Leo."
Leo did not look at her.
"Generator should have engaged."
Mateo touched the radio at his shoulder.
Static answered him.
"Comms are down too."
The front doors were locked by an electronic system that had just lost power.
The estate had become a dark box with an unknown number of people inside it.
Beatrice thought of Lily sleeping at the hospital.
For the first time that night, she was grateful the child was not home.
A noise came from upstairs.
Not a footstep.
Something heavier.
A door closing.
Mateo pointed to two guards.
"East stairs."
Then to the others.
"Stay on Victoria."
Leo started toward the main staircase.
Beatrice followed.
He turned.
"No."
"My room."
"Exactly."
"I know where things are supposed to be."
"You also have three injured fingers."
"Four if you keep talking."
Mateo glanced back despite the tension.
Leo stared at Beatrice.
Then he gave a single impatient nod.
"Behind me."
They climbed the service stairs because the main hall was too exposed.
Emergency lights painted the corridor in thin strips of red.
Every portrait seemed unfamiliar.
Every open doorway became a possible hiding place.
Beatrice's room sat at the far end of the staff wing beside the old linen closet.
The door was open.
It had been closed when she left that morning.
Leo raised one hand.
Everyone stopped.
Mateo moved forward first.
He checked the room, the bathroom, and the narrow wardrobe.
"Clear."
Beatrice stepped inside.
The room was small but carefully kept.
A narrow bed.
A wooden dresser.
Three framed photographs.
A shelf of library books.
A ceramic bowl filled with hair ties and loose change.
Nothing looked disturbed at first.
Then Beatrice saw the drawer.
The top dresser drawer was open half an inch.
She never left it open.
"There."
Mateo stopped her before she touched it.
He pulled on gloves from his pocket and opened the drawer slowly.
A brass cellar key lay on top of Beatrice's folded sweaters.
Leo's face became stone.
"That's the duplicate."
Mateo photographed it before lifting it into an evidence bag.
"Looks clean."
"Too clean," Beatrice said.
Mateo glanced at her.
"Meaning?"
"Victoria handled the original all night."
"If she planted this one herself, she would have wiped it first."
Leo looked at the key.
"Or someone planted it for her."
A faint sound came from the hallway.
A floorboard creaked.
Mateo moved first.
He stepped through the doorway and aimed toward the linen closet.
"Come out."
Nothing happened.
"Now."
The closet door opened slowly.
A young kitchen assistant named Emil emerged with both hands raised.
Beatrice knew him.
He was nineteen, quiet, and terrified of Victoria.
Tonight he looked close to fainting.
"I didn't do anything."
Mateo kept the weapon trained low.
"Why are you hiding?"
"I heard someone."
"Who?"
"I don't know."
Emil looked at Beatrice.
"I came upstairs when the lights went out."
"Why?"
"Because Mrs. Kensington told me to get her shawl."
Leo's eyes narrowed.
"Victoria sent you upstairs after the blackout?"
"Before."
Emil swallowed.
"She told me around midnight."
Beatrice frowned.
"You were in the east sitting room?"
"I brought water."
"And the guards let her give you an errand?"
Emil nodded.
Mateo cursed softly.
The security around Victoria had looked strict, but the habits of wealthy houses worked in her favor.
People obeyed requests dressed as routine.
"What did you hear upstairs?" Leo asked.
"A man."
"What did he say?"
"Nothing."
"Then how do you know it was a man?"
Emil pointed toward Beatrice's doorway.
"I saw him leave."
Mateo stepped closer.
"Describe him."
"Black clothes."
"Height?"
"Tall."
"Face?"
"Covered."
Leo's patience thinned.
"Which way did he go?"
"Toward the west wing."
The west service wing.
The old baking pantry.
The envelope.
Beatrice was already moving before Leo could stop her.
They ran through the corridor and down a narrow staircase into the darkened service wing.
The emergency lights did not reach this part of the mansion.
Mateo switched on a tactical flashlight.
The beam cut across wine racks, oak cabinets, and stone walls.
Beatrice's breath came hard as they reached the room that had once been the pantry.
The door stood open.
Leo shoved it wider.
Inside, the floor was covered with broken bottles.
Wine spread across the stone like dark blood.
One cabinet had been ripped away from the wall.
Beatrice rushed toward the empty space.
"The flour drawer was here."
Mateo swept his light across exposed studs.
"Where exactly?"
Beatrice crouched despite the pain in her knees.
"Behind the bottom drawer, there was a gap between the cabinet backing and the wall."
Leo knelt beside her.
The cabinet was gone, but a rectangular patch of older plaster remained.
Beatrice ran her good fingers along the edge.
Something clicked.
A narrow wooden panel shifted inward.
All three froze.
"That wasn't here before," Beatrice whispered.
Leo pulled the panel open.
A shallow cavity had been built into the wall during the remodel.
Inside it sat a blue envelope.
Still there.
Beatrice almost laughed from relief.
Mateo stopped her hand.
"Wait."
He examined the envelope without touching it.
"Someone knew where to look and still left it?"
Leo's gaze moved around the room.
"Maybe they weren't looking for the envelope."
Beatrice stared at the cavity.
Behind the envelope was a small black flash drive.
She had never seen it before.
"That wasn't mine."
Mateo photographed both items.
"Could have been Serena's."
Beatrice shook her head.
"She gave me only the envelope."
Leo put on gloves.
He removed the envelope first.
The paper had yellowed slightly at the corners, but Serena's handwriting was unmistakable.
BEATRICE ONLY.
Below that, in smaller letters, Serena had written another line.
IF LILY IS IN DANGER, OPEN THIS BEFORE YOU TRUST ANYONE.
Leo read the sentence twice.
Mateo's flashlight remained steady.
Beatrice felt suddenly aware of both men standing beside her.
Before you trust anyone.
Not before you trust Victoria.
Not before you trust the guards.
Anyone.
Leo handed the envelope to Beatrice.
"It's yours."
Her injured fingers trembled as she broke the seal.
Inside were four sheets of paper and a photograph.
The photograph showed Serena outside a downtown parking garage.
She stood beside Nico Ferrara.
Between them was another man Beatrice recognized instantly.
Mateo Calder.
On the back, Serena had written a date.
Five days before the bombing.
Leo looked at Mateo.
Mateo did not blink.
"Explain."
Mateo lowered the flashlight.
"Read the letter first."
Leo took one step toward him.
"Explain now."
"If Serena wanted Beatrice to read it before trusting anyone, then we read it before I defend myself."
Beatrice unfolded the first page.
Serena's handwriting was rushed but clear.
Bee, if Lily is in danger, then I was right about the people around us.
Beatrice stopped.
Leo's face had gone pale beneath the dim light.
She continued.
I am not running away from Leo, no matter what anyone tells him after I am gone.
I am trying to protect him from a war he cannot see because he thinks every enemy carries a gun.
The people I fear wear suits, sit at our table, and call Lily sweetheart.
Leo closed his eyes once.
Beatrice turned the page.
There is money moving through Kensington-controlled companies into businesses connected to the men Leo believes are his enemies.
Someone is financing both sides.
Someone wants Leo angry enough to destroy the wrong people.
I asked Mateo to help me because I could not ask Leo without putting him in greater danger.
Leo looked at Mateo again.
The accusation in his face shifted, but did not disappear.
Beatrice kept reading.
Nico saw something in the security logs he was not supposed to see.
He is frightened, and I do not know whether fear will make him loyal or dangerous.
The photograph was taken after our second meeting.
If Mateo says he knew nothing, he is lying.
Mateo's jaw tightened.
Leo's voice became quiet.
"You knew."
Mateo did not answer.
Beatrice read the last paragraph on the page.
But if Mateo says he knew everything, he is lying too.
I did not tell him the worst part.
There is one person I cannot name in this letter because if I am wrong, I will destroy a family, and if I am right, writing the name may get Lily killed.
Beatrice turned to the next sheet.
It contained columns of numbers, dates, bank transfers, and initials.
Several lines were circled in red.
HK.
VK.
NF.
MC.
Leo pointed to the initials.
"HK is Harold Kensington."
Mateo nodded.
"VK is Victoria."
"NF is Nico."
Leo's finger stopped on the final pair.
MC.
Mateo Calder.
The room became silent again.
Beatrice looked at Mateo.
"Why is your name in her ledger?"
"Because I took money."
Leo moved so fast Beatrice barely saw it.
He slammed Mateo against the stone wall.
The flashlight hit the floor and rolled between broken bottles.
"You took Kensington money?"
Mateo did not fight back.
"Yes."
"After Serena asked you for help?"
"Yes."
Leo's forearm pressed against Mateo's throat.
"Why?"
"Because she told me to."
Leo stared at him.
Mateo's voice remained rough but controlled.
"She needed to know where the money went after it reached me."
"You expect me to believe that?"
"No."
"Then give me a reason not to kill you."
Mateo looked past Leo at Beatrice.
"The flash drive."
Beatrice glanced at the cavity.
"What about it?"
"That wasn't Serena's."
Leo's grip tightened.
"How do you know?"
"Because I put it there."
Beatrice went cold.
Mateo continued.
"Eight months after Serena died."
Leo slowly released him.
"Why?"
Mateo rubbed his throat.
"Because I found out Victoria had remodeled this wing."
"And?"
"And I needed somewhere inside this house she would never think I had used."
Leo's eyes burned.
"What's on it?"
Mateo looked at the black drive in the wall.
"A copy of the original bombing report."
"I have the bombing report."
Mateo shook his head.
"No."
"You have the report I gave you."
Leo stared at him.
Beatrice felt the ground shift beneath the entire story of Serena's death.
"What's different?" she asked.
Mateo looked at Leo.
"The original report says the bomb was installed inside the Rossi garage."
Leo's face emptied.
The official report said it had been attached to Serena's car while she attended a charity dinner downtown.
Inside the Rossi garage meant the killer had entered the estate.
Or already belonged there.
Leo spoke one word.
"Who?"
Mateo looked toward the dark hallway.
"I never found out."
A gunshot exploded from the floor above them.
Then another.
Mateo grabbed the flashlight.
Leo turned toward the stairs.
A guard's voice shouted through the darkness.
"Mr. Rossi!"
Footsteps thundered down the corridor.
A man appeared at the door, breathless.
"Victoria's gone."
Leo's face hardened.
"How?"
The guard swallowed.
"Someone shot out the lock on the east service exit."
Mateo stared at him.
"Who left with her?"
The guard hesitated.
That hesitation told them everything.
"Say it," Leo ordered.
"Emil."
Beatrice's heart sank.
The frightened nineteen-year-old hiding in the linen closet had not been hiding from the intruder.
He had been waiting for him.
Mateo looked at Beatrice's open letter.
"We need to move."
Leo picked up the flash drive.
"Where would Victoria go?"
Beatrice thought of the woman who had nearly killed Lily, framed a maid, and spent years inside Serena's family.
Then she remembered what Victoria had said before the lights went out.
Somebody entered Beatrice's room.
Victoria had known because the intruder was part of her plan.
"She didn't escape," Beatrice said.
Leo looked at her.
"What?"
"She wanted us upstairs."
Mateo understood first.
"A distraction."
Beatrice looked toward the wall cavity.
The envelope was still there.
The drive was still there.
So what had the intruder actually come to take?
Her eyes moved to the shattered wine racks.
One section looked untouched.
Too untouched.
Beatrice crossed the room and pulled away a bottle.
Behind it was a fresh rectangle in the dust.
Something had been removed.
Something roughly the size of a book.
She stared at the empty space.
"There was something else here."
Mateo lifted the flashlight.
"What?"
Beatrice shook her head.
"I don't know."
Leo looked at Serena's letter again.
Then he found a sentence on the final page they had not yet read.
His face changed.
Beatrice took the paper from him.
The line was written alone at the bottom.
If the red ledger disappears, do not chase it.
Protect Lily.
The proof is not in the ledger.
May you like
It is in her rabbit.
