Chapter 3 - THE CREDENTIAL
Vincent Hale had faced armed men without blinking.
But standing in Dominic Vale’s great room while his own security credential appeared on a deleted camera log unsettled him in a way Dominic had rarely seen.
“Check it again,” Vincent ordered the technician over his earpiece.
Dominic watched him.
“You think repetition changes data?”
“No.”
Vincent looked directly at him.
“I think somebody used my credential.”
Arthur leaned against the edge of the table.
“That’s convenient.”
Vincent turned.
“Careful.”
Arthur smiled.
“Or what?”
Dominic struck the tip of his cane once against the marble floor.
Both men stopped.
He had no patience for theater.
“Where were you Monday between eleven forty-eight and eleven fifty-five?”
Vincent answered immediately.
“In my apartment.”
“Alone?”
“Yes.”
Arthur gave a small shrug.
“Then nobody can verify it.”
Vincent took one step toward him.
Dominic raised his hand.
“Enough.”
Clare stood near the sofa with Ellie asleep against her shoulder.
The child’s head rested beneath Clare’s chin.
She looked impossibly small in a room suddenly filled with suspicion.
Dominic disliked that she was still there.
Not because he doubted her.
Because he was beginning to suspect that her accidental observation had placed her in the middle of something dangerous.
“Clare.”
She looked at him.
“Take Ellie upstairs.”
“To the staff wing?”
Dominic thought about it.
“No.”
Clare hesitated.
Dominic pointed toward the east staircase.
“Use the blue guest suite.”
Arthur’s eyebrows lifted.
“That seems unnecessary.”
Dominic turned his eyes toward him.
“Then you won’t mind.”
Arthur said nothing.
Clare quietly thanked Dominic and carried Ellie away.
Only when she disappeared upstairs did Dominic face the remaining men.
“Start from the beginning.”
Mercer placed the brace component inside a clear medical pouch.
“The brace was correct when it left my clinic.”
“You personally checked it?”
“Yes.”
“Could someone at the clinic have altered it afterward?”
“Not easily.”
“Could someone here?”
Mercer hesitated.
“With the proper instructions, yes.”
Arthur looked at Dominic.
“So whoever did this needed medical knowledge.”
“Or instructions,” Mercer corrected.
Vincent began reviewing access records.
Dominic walked slowly toward the windows.
His reflection moved across the dark glass.
The man staring back at him looked older than he had three weeks earlier.
Pain did that.
It reduced sleep.
Shortened patience.
Made men doubt their own judgment.
Dominic suddenly understood why the sabotage was so effective.
It did not need to kill him.
It only needed to weaken him.
“Who benefits?” he asked.
Arthur’s face tightened.
Vincent answered first.
“From you being injured?”
“From me being unable to work.”
Nobody answered.
Dominic looked back at them.
“That list should be easy.”
Arthur exhaled.
“You run twelve companies, control three major logistics contracts, and chair the council. If you disappear for a month, half this city’s business relationships change.”
“Then narrow it.”
“To people inside this house?”
Dominic nodded.
Arthur looked offended.
Vincent looked angry.
Mercer looked uncomfortable.
Good.
Dominic preferred uncomfortable people.
Comfort made lying easier.
Vincent suddenly stopped scrolling.
“I found something.”
He turned the screen.
“My credential was used at two thirteen Monday morning.”
Dominic frowned.
“I thought the camera gap was before midnight.”
“It was.”
“Then why two thirteen?”
“Because somebody logged into the server again.”
Arthur stepped closer.
“For what?”
Vincent’s face darkened.
“They exported a copy of the medical-room camera archive.”
Dominic stared at him.
“Meaning?”
“Meaning whoever shut down the hallway camera came back later to see what other cameras captured.”
“Did they delete anything?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
Vincent looked toward the ceiling camera.
“Maybe they didn’t find what they were looking for.”
Dominic considered that.
Then Mercer spoke.
“There is something else.”
Everyone turned.
Mercer removed his glasses.
“Dominic, when did the severe calf pain begin?”
“Tuesday morning.”
“Not before?”
“No.”
Mercer’s face became troubled.
“That means the brace was probably changed Monday night.”
Vincent looked at Arthur.
Arthur looked at Vincent.
Dominic remembered something.
Monday night.
He had returned late from a charity dinner.
He had left the brace in the physical therapy room while showering.
He had been without it for perhaps twenty minutes.
“Who was in the house?”
Vincent started pulling records.
“Normal night staff. Clare. Two kitchen employees. Four security officers.”
“And council?”
“Arthur arrived at eleven thirty-two.”
The room became still.
Arthur stared at Vincent.
“For paperwork.”
Dominic looked at him.
“You came here Monday night?”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t mention that.”
“You didn’t ask.”
Dominic’s expression hardened.
Arthur continued quickly.
“You had documents requiring my signature. Your assistant told me to leave them in the council room.”
Vincent checked the record.
“He entered at eleven thirty-two.”
“When did he leave?”
“Eleven fifty-seven.”
Dominic looked at the camera gap.
11:48 to 11:55.
Arthur’s face flushed.
“I did not touch your brace.”
Dominic studied him.
Then he heard small footsteps on the upper landing.
Clare stood there.
Ellie was awake again.
The girl rubbed one eye.
“I’m sorry,” Clare said. “She heard voices.”
Ellie looked down at Arthur.
Then at Vincent.
Then at Dominic.
Suddenly she pointed toward Vincent’s earpiece.
“That made the noise.”
Vincent frowned.
“What noise?”
Ellie touched her own ear.
“The beep-beep.”
Clare looked confused.
“When?”
Ellie answered sleepily.
“When the gray-hair man was by the chair.”
Arthur’s face went still.
Dominic looked at Vincent.
Vincent slowly removed his earpiece.
Ellie nodded.
“Like that.”
Dominic felt the room shift again.
May you like
The child had not simply seen Arthur near the brace.
She had heard somebody communicating with him.
