Chapter 4 - The House of Missing Truths

The video ended after forty-three seconds.

Beatrice stared at Daniel’s frozen face.

“That’s all?”

Mateo checked the file.

“That’s all.”

“There has to be more.”

“Maybe another recording.”

“Search.”

“I am.”

Leo stood motionless behind her.

Daniel’s words had changed the room.

Someone inside his house.

Not his company.

Not his organization.

His house.

Mateo opened a folder labeled INCIDENT.

There were photographs from the bombing scene.

Beatrice looked away from the first.

Leo did not.

A black sedan torn open by fire.

Glass scattered across wet pavement.

A child’s pink shoe near the curb.

Lily had not been in the car.

Beatrice knew that.

Still, the shoe made her stomach twist.

Leo pointed.

“Zoom.”

Mateo enlarged a photograph.

Near the wreck stood a man in an emergency vest.

Daniel.

Beside him was another figure half turned away.

The image was blurred.

Mateo sharpened it.

A silver cuff link caught the light.

Leo’s face changed.

“I know that cuff link.”

“Who?” Beatrice asked.

“Sebastian Vale.”

Mateo swore.

Beatrice looked between them.

“Who is Sebastian Vale?”

“My former chief of staff,” Leo said.

“Former?”

“He died eight months ago.”

“How?”

“Heart attack.”

Mateo’s mouth tightened.

“At forty-one.”

Beatrice leaned back.

“So everyone connected to this either dies or disappears.”

“No,” Leo said.

His eyes met hers.

“Some of us are still here.”

The statement did not comfort her.

Mateo searched the ledger.

“Vale appears seventeen times.”

“In what context?”

“Initials only. S.V.”

“Payments?”

“Meetings.”

Leo took the book.

“Vale worked for me ten years.”

“And for Kensington?” Beatrice asked.

“I don’t know.”

“You keep saying that.”

“I’m aware.”

“It is becoming a theme.”

Leo’s gaze flashed.

Beatrice expected anger.

Instead he said, “Yes.”

Mateo looked at them.

“This is touching. We still have a traitor problem.”

The study door opened.

A guard entered.

“Sir.”

“What?”

“Miss Kensington is gone.”

Leo’s voice became lethal.

“Explain.”

“Blue sitting room window.”

“Second floor.”

“She tied drapes together.”

Mateo stared.

“With guards outside?”

“They heard glass break in the west hall. Both moved.”

“Both?”

“Yes.”

Leo’s eyes narrowed.

“A diversion.”

The guard nodded.

“We found smoke canisters.”

“Inside my house?”

“Yes.”

Mateo grabbed his phone.

“Lock the gates.”

“They’re already locked.”

“Then search every vehicle, closet, service tunnel, and roof.”

The guard left.

Beatrice stood.

“Lily.”

Leo was already moving.

They reached Lily’s room together.

Two nurses were inside.

Lily slept.

Leo checked the balcony door.

Locked.

He checked the bathroom.

Empty.

Only then did he breathe.

Beatrice noticed something on the floor.

A white card.

She picked it up.

One sentence was written in black ink.

You should have left the dead buried.

Leo read it.

“Victoria?”

Beatrice shook her head.

“She would sign it with perfume.”

Mateo took the card.

“No fingerprints.”

Leo looked at the window.

“She has help.”

“Inside,” Mateo said.

The word carried Daniel’s warning.

Leo turned to the nurses.

“You leave this room only when relieved by someone I name personally.”

Both nodded.

Lily stirred.

“Daddy?”

He went to her.

“I’m here.”

“Bee?”

“I’m here too.”

“Did Victoria go away?”

Leo hesitated.

“Yes.”

“Forever?”

He glanced at Beatrice.

“I’m going to make sure she cannot hurt you again.”

Lily considered that.

“Okay.”

Her eyes closed.

In the hall, Beatrice lowered her voice.

“You did not answer her question.”

“I won’t promise what I cannot guarantee.”

“That is new.”

Leo looked at her.

“I used to think guarantees were something powerful men created.”

“And now?”

“Now I think they’re something frightened fathers say.”

Mateo interrupted.

“We found Graham’s car.”

“Where?”

“Staff lot.”

“Graham?”

“Gone.”

Leo clenched his jaw.

“Anton. Graham. Victoria.”

“And Vale is dead,” Beatrice said.

Mateo looked at her.

“You think Vale was killed?”

“I think men in their forties sometimes die of heart attacks.”

“But?”

“But when people connected to one secret keep dying, coincidence becomes lazy.”

Leo nodded.

“Pull Vale’s autopsy.”

“There wasn’t one.”

“Why?”

“Natural cause. Private physician signed.”

“Which physician?”

Mateo checked.

His expression hardened.

“Dr. Nathan Hale.”

Beatrice knew the name.

“Lily’s former pediatrician.”

Leo turned.

“What?”

“He treated her before Dr. Chen.”

“Why was he replaced?”

“Victoria said he was too old-fashioned.”

Leo’s eyes darkened.

Mateo was already calling someone.

Beatrice leaned against the wall.

The night felt endless.

“You need sleep,” Leo said.

“So do you.”

“I’m serious.”

“So am I.”

He looked at her bandaged hand.

“Your room is in the staff wing.”

“Yes.”

“You’re not sleeping there.”

Beatrice stiffened.

“Excuse me?”

“Guest suite beside Lily.”

“No.”

“It’s safer.”

“I have lived in the staff wing four years.”

“Tonight someone escaped through my house.”

“That is not my fault.”

“I didn’t say it was.”

“You are moving me because you think I’m part of this.”

“I am moving you because someone may think you know what Daniel knew.”

Beatrice went silent.

Leo stepped closer.

“You are a target now.”

“I was a target the moment my brother died.”

“Then stop acting like being alone makes you safer.”

The words struck deeper than he intended.

She looked away.

Leo’s voice softened.

“I’m not ordering you as your employer.”

“You order everyone.”

“I’m trying not to.”

“You’re bad at it.”

“Yes.”

She almost smiled.

“Fine. One night.”

“Good.”

“One.”

“Beatrice.”

“Do not negotiate after winning.”

Mateo returned.

“Hale’s clinic is closed.”

“At one in the morning, I’m shocked,” Leo said.

“Closed permanently. Three weeks ago.”

“Where is he?”

“No record of travel.”

Leo looked at the card again.

“Find him.”

Mateo nodded.

Then he hesitated.

“There’s something else.”

Leo waited.

“The credential used to disable the cameras came from my token.”

“We know.”

“My token was cloned the last time it connected to the house network.”

“When?”

“Six months ago.”

Leo frowned.

“You use it every day.”

“The clone was created six months ago. Whoever has it could wait.”

“Where were you six months ago?”

Mateo’s face went still.

“Here.”

“Who else was here?”

“Staff. You. Lily.”

“And Victoria.”

Mateo nodded.

Beatrice remembered something.

“Six months ago was the winter charity dinner.”

Both men looked at her.

“So?”

“Victoria spilled champagne on your jacket.”

Mateo frowned.

“She did.”

“You took it off.”

“Yes.”

“She insisted she would have it cleaned.”

Mateo’s expression changed.

“My token was in the inside pocket.”

Leo stared.

“Why do you remember that?”

“Because she blamed me for putting the tray too close.”

Mateo gave a humorless laugh.

“Furniture.”

“Exactly.”

Leo looked toward Lily’s room.

“A spilled glass. A borrowed jacket. A copied credential.”

Beatrice said, “Twists are less impressive when someone cleaned them up.”

Mateo nodded.

“We can prove opportunity.”

“Not conspiracy,” Leo said.

“Yet.”

They returned to the study.

Mateo opened the next file on Elena’s drive.

Audio.

A woman’s voice filled the room.

Elena.

Leo gripped the desk.

“I know what you’re doing, Richard.”

A man answered.

“You know nothing.”

“I know about North Harbor.”

“You should have stayed a wife.”

“And you should have stayed out of my husband’s business.”

A pause.

Then Richard Kensington laughed.

“You think Leo loves you enough to change?”

“I think he loves Lily enough to try.”

Leo closed his eyes.

The recording continued.

Richard’s voice turned colder.

“If you expose me, you expose him too.”

“Then we both live with what we did.”

“You won’t live long enough to regret that sentence.”

The audio ended.

No one spoke.

Beatrice’s skin crawled.

Mateo said, “That is enough to reopen the bombing.”

Leo stared at the speaker.

“Not enough to prove he ordered it.”

“No.”

“But enough to make him move.”

Beatrice looked at him.

“You want him to know we have it.”

“Yes.”

“That sounds dangerous.”

“It is.”

“Lily is six.”

“I know.”

“You do not bait men like Richard Kensington while she is under the same roof.”

Leo looked at her.

“You are right.”

Mateo raised an eyebrow.

“Twice in one night.”

“Do not make it memorable.”

Beatrice folded her arms.

“What is the alternative?”

Leo walked to the window.

“Move Lily somewhere Kensington cannot reach.”

“Where?”

Mateo answered.

“The lake house.”

Leo shook his head.

“Too obvious.”

“The south property?”

“Too many staff.”

Beatrice thought of Daniel’s notebook.

A place he once called safe.

Her grandmother’s old farmhouse in Wisconsin, empty since her death.

Nobody in Leo’s world knew it existed.

She looked at him.

“I have somewhere.”

Leo turned.

“You trust it?”

“I trust that Victoria has never mocked the wallpaper.”

“That is not a security assessment.”

“It is a beginning.”

Mateo considered.

“Location?”

“Outside Lake Geneva.”

Leo shook his head.

“You’re coming.”

“I assumed.”

“You, Lily, Dr. Chen’s nurse, Mateo.”

“And you?”

“I stay here.”

“No.”

He blinked.

Beatrice surprised herself.

“You said not to act like being alone is safer.”

Mateo looked delighted.

Leo glared at him.

“Do not.”

Mateo raised both hands.

Beatrice stepped closer.

“If Richard Kensington wants the evidence, he wants you. If Victoria wants the key, she wants Lily. Splitting up gives them two targets.”

Leo studied her.

“Then we go together.”

“Together,” she said.

The word felt strange in his house.

Not employer and maid.

Not crime boss and furniture.

A frightened father, a grieving sister, a child who had survived a cellar, and a man whose oldest friend carried a cloned key to betrayal.

By dawn, the Rossi estate was no longer a home.

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It was a crime scene.

And for the first time since Elena’s death, Leo left it not to escape grief, but to hunt the truth.