Chapter 8 - THE WEST GATE
Vincent wanted Arthur restrained immediately.
Dominic refused.
“For what?” Dominic asked.
“He admitted involvement.”
“He admitted someone manipulated him.”
“He admitted helping.”
“Yes.”
Dominic looked toward Arthur, who sat across the office beneath guard.
“But I want to know who.”
Arthur had surrendered his phone.
Nothing useful remained.
The unknown caller had used temporary numbers.
Messages deleted automatically.
Payment had never been discussed.
That bothered Dominic.
Money left trails.
Fear did not.
“What exactly did he tell you?” Dominic asked.
Arthur stared at the floor.
“That you were becoming suspicious of me.”
“And?”
“That Friday would be my last council meeting.”
“Why keep me in the brace?”
“He said you were hiding the seriousness of your injury.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
Arthur continued.
“He told me the council deserved to see your real condition.”
Vincent swore quietly.
Dominic understood.
If he appeared weak enough Friday, Arthur would have justification to invoke the organization’s temporary incapacity rule.
Arthur would chair the council.
Even if only briefly.
“And the latch?” Dominic asked.
Arthur closed his eyes.
“I tightened it.”
“Knowing what would happen?”
“No.”
“Knowing someone wanted you to?”
Arthur looked up.
“Yes.”
That answer changed everything.
Dominic rose slowly.
“You should have come to me.”
Arthur gave a bitter laugh.
“Would you have believed me?”
“Twenty-two years.”
“That is not an answer.”
Dominic’s expression tightened.
No.
It was not.
Arthur had betrayed him.
But betrayal rarely began in a vacuum.
Someone had found a crack and widened it.
Dominic wanted the person holding the hammer.
A security alarm suddenly sounded.
Vincent touched his earpiece.
“What?”
His face changed.
“West gate opened.”
Dominic turned.
“Who authorized it?”
“No one.”
Vincent ran.
Dominic followed despite Mercer’s orders.
They reached the security room within ninety seconds.
Monitors showed the west gate slowly swinging open toward the lakeside road.
A black SUV waited outside.
No license plate.
Dominic looked immediately at the camera covering the guest wing.
Empty hallway.
“Ellie.”
Clare was already running upstairs.
Dominic followed.
The guest suite door stood open.
Clare stopped so abruptly Dominic nearly struck her.
“Ellie?”
No answer.
Clare rushed inside.
Bathroom empty.
Closet empty.
Balcony doors closed.
“ELLIE!”
Her scream tore through the house.
Vincent’s team flooded the corridor.
Dominic turned toward the west staircase.
A small wooden block lay on the carpet.
Then another.
Then Ellie’s pale blue ribbon.
Clare saw it.
“Oh God.”
Dominic picked up the ribbon.
“Follow them.”
The trail continued down the service stairs.
One block.
Then another.
Whether Ellie had dropped them deliberately or accidentally, Dominic did not know.
At the bottom, a security door stood ajar.
Vincent drew his weapon.
Dominic’s face went cold.
They moved through.
Outside, wind rushed from the lake.
Near the west gate, a man in a maintenance jacket was pulling Ellie toward the SUV.
She was screaming.
Vincent moved first.
“STOP!”
The man released Ellie and ran.
Clare sprinted toward her daughter.
Dominic saw only the vehicle.
The SUV accelerated.
Vincent’s men closed the gate, but the driver smashed through before it fully shut.
The vehicle disappeared down the road.
Vincent shouted orders into his radio.
Dominic turned.
Clare was on her knees holding Ellie.
The girl sobbed into her mother’s chest.
Dominic crouched.
“Are you hurt?”
Ellie shook her head.
Clare looked furious.
“You said she’d be safe.”
Dominic had no defense.
He stood.
“You’re right.”
Vincent returned.
“The man who grabbed her came through the service entrance wearing a maintenance uniform.”
“Employee?”
“No.”
“Vehicle?”
“Stolen plates.”
Dominic looked toward the broken gate.
Someone had breached his home during a lockdown.
Not to kill him.
To take Ellie.
That meant the child knew something important.
Something they had not yet understood.
Ellie finally stopped crying.
Dominic knelt again.
“What did the man say?”
Clare shook her head.
“She’s had enough.”
Ellie looked up.
“He asked about my toy.”
Dominic froze.
“What toy?”
She pointed toward the mansion.
“My latch board.”
Vincent and Dominic exchanged a look.
“Why?”
Ellie sniffed.
“He said I took something.”
Dominic’s pulse changed.
“What did you take?”
“I didn’t.”
She looked offended.
“I only fixed it.”
“Fixed what?”
Ellie pointed toward her toy lying somewhere upstairs.
“The little silver hook.”
Dominic stood.
They returned to the guest suite.
Vincent picked up the wooden latch board.
One of the toy’s small metal hooks looked newer than the others.
Ellie had apparently found it on the floor Monday night and pushed it through an empty hole in her board because it fit.
Mercer was called immediately.
He stared at the tiny piece.
“That isn’t from a toy.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
“What is it?”
Mercer turned it under the light.
“A retaining clip.”
“From?”
Mercer looked at Dominic’s brace.
“The original locking assembly.”
The room went silent.
The person who sabotaged Dominic had lost a piece of evidence beside the brace.
May you like
Ellie had picked it up.
And whoever had tried to abduct her knew she had it.
