Chapter 7
Grant Harrow came voluntarily.
That surprised Magnus.
He expected lawyers.
Grant brought one.
But he came.
“I didn’t help my sister steal anything.”
Magnus sat across from him.
“Did I say you did?”
“You were about to.”
Katherine hid a smile.
Grant looked like Sabina around the eyes.
Same pale stare.
Different temperament.
He was blunt.
“My company proposal was real.”
“Did Sabina push you to submit?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She said Owen was outdated.”
“Did she tell you about the security incidents before they happened?”
“No.”
“Did she ask your company to perform unauthorized tests?”
“No.”
“Did any employee of yours work the mansion parties?”
“Not officially.”
That phrase mattered.
“Unofficially?”
Grant looked irritated.
“My sister asked one of my former consultants for help reviewing access weaknesses.”
“Name.”
“Kara Ellison.”
Magnus frowned.
Nora was the woman locked in the passage.
Who was Kara?
Grant continued.
“She left my company almost a year ago.”
“Why did Sabina hire her?”
“I assumed because she trusted her.”
“What kind of work?”
“Residential risk testing.”
“Authorized by me?”
“I assumed.”
Again.
That word.
Katherine leaned forward.
“Did you verify?”
“No.”
Grant looked annoyed with himself now.
“What did Kara tell you?”
“At first? Nothing.”
“And later?”
“She called me three weeks ago.”
Magnus’s attention sharpened.
“She sounded frightened.”
“About?”
“Sabina.”
Grant said Kara believed she had been used to stage security failures.
Not actual break-ins.
Small controlled events.
An access credential activated.
A gate left open.
A camera interrupted.
Sabina told Kara Magnus wanted a covert test of Owen’s system.
Kara believed her.
Why?
Because Sabina had household authority and was Magnus’s wife.
Kara carried out three tests.
Then she discovered Owen had never been informed.
She confronted Sabina.
Sabina told her Magnus wanted “realistic conditions.”
Kara became suspicious.
She refused further work.
“Where is she now?”
Grant looked at Katherine.
“No idea.”
That answer immediately changed the room.
“When did anyone last speak to her?”
Grant checked his phone.
Twelve days ago.
Magnus felt the old coldness settle in.
Katherine cautioned him.
“Missing from contact is not missing.”
True.
They notified police about the concern without inventing a kidnapping claim.
Kara’s apartment was later found empty but undisturbed.
Her passport remained.
Her car was parked nearby.
Her sister said Kara had planned to meet “someone from the Virelli family” last week.
She never explained who.
Sabina’s phone records showed three calls to Kara during that period.
No proof of harm.
Enough for investigators to care.
Then Grant disclosed the most damaging thing about Harrow Protective.
Sabina had pushed him to include historical-security-log migration in the proposal.
He thought that was technical detail.
She insisted.
“She asked whether archived logs could be cleaned before import.”
Magnus stared.
“Cleaned.”
Grant raised both hands.
“She said old systems contain duplicate entries, employee records, expired credentials. Normal cleanup.”
“Did you agree?”
“I said preservation had to come first.”
“Her reaction?”
“She dropped the subject.”
Katherine wrote it down.
Sabina wanted Owen replaced.
Wanted the security system migrated.
Had already used a former Harrow consultant to stage failures.
But Grant himself appeared to have refused the part that would matter most if someone wanted history erased.
Then Owen brought another timeline.
Each fake breach corresponded closely to a piece being removed from the heritage room.
Not every time.
But enough.
Night of first unauthorized gate opening:
Sapphire pendant moved.
Night of camera interruption:
Brooch marked for conservation.
Night of service-door incident:
Necklace presentation case disappeared.
Night of expired vehicle credential:
Two smaller pieces transferred to supposed off-site storage.
The security failures were not covering theft in real time.
They were creating a story around it.
A record.
Magnus understood before Katherine said it.
“If the collection is discovered missing later…”
Katherine nodded.
“Someone can point backward and say the mansion had been compromised for months.”
Owen looked sick.
“And point at me.”
May you like
Yes.
The fake breaches were becoming evidence against the security chief before anyone knew a theft had occurred.
