Chapter 2 - The Camera Beneath The Banister
Victoria followed Andrew’s stare toward the staircase and saw a tiny red light blinking beneath the carved walnut banister.
For one impossible second, she forgot how to breathe.
It was a camera.
Not one of the mansion’s security cameras, either. Those were black domes mounted discreetly near the ceilings, installed years ago when Andrew’s business began attracting unwanted attention.
This one was small, silver, and crudely taped behind a decorative spindle at a child’s eye level.
“Don’t touch it,” Andrew said.
Victoria’s head snapped toward him.
“Don’t tell me what to do.”
Lily whimpered against her shoulder.
“Mommy, please go.”
Victoria backed down one stair, keeping her daughter pressed tightly to her chest.
Below them, the Blake mansion glittered with the remains of Andrew’s charity gala. Crystal chandeliers burned over the two-story foyer, and somewhere beyond the closed ballroom doors, a string quartet had stopped playing.
Dozens of guests were still downstairs.
Yet the upper floor felt horrifyingly private.
Andrew raised both hands.
“Victoria, I was chasing you because I saw Lily run out of the west hall. I need you to listen before you leave this house.”
“She said you were going to take her.”
“I heard what she said.”
“Then stay away.”
His face tightened, but he didn’t move closer.
Victoria had known Andrew for eleven years.
She knew the small muscle that jumped near his jaw when he was angry, the way his voice dropped when he was frightened, and the unnerving stillness that came over him when he was trying to solve a problem.
Right now, he looked frightened.
Not guilty.
That distinction disturbed her more than anger would have.
Lily lifted her wet face.
“Daddy said I had to go away.”
Andrew’s expression changed.
“I never said that.”
“You did!”
“No, sweetheart.”
“Don’t call her sweetheart,” Victoria snapped.
Andrew looked wounded, but his eyes remained on Lily.
“Lily, where did you hear me say that?”
The child immediately hid her face.
Victoria felt her daughter’s heartbeat hammering through both their clothes.
“Enough.”
She descended another stair.
Andrew’s voice sharpened.
“Victoria, look at the camera.”
“I see it.”
“No. Look at where it’s pointing.”
Against every instinct telling her to keep moving, Victoria glanced back.
The tiny lens wasn’t aimed at the staircase.
It pointed directly toward a narrow door across the hallway.
The old linen room.
Victoria stared.
Nobody used that room during parties.
Nobody except household staff had any reason to enter it.
Andrew slowly turned his gaze toward the same door.
“I found Lily coming out of there,” he said.
Victoria looked down at her daughter.
“Baby?”
Lily went rigid.
Andrew continued carefully.
“She had my phone.”
Victoria’s eyes narrowed.
“Your phone?”
“My backup phone. The one I keep locked in my study.”
Victoria knew the device. Andrew used it for encrypted calls involving Blake Aeronautics, the defense-and-aviation company his father had founded outside Baltimore.
He never left it unattended.
“How did she get it?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe a four-year-old broke into your study?”
“No.”
Andrew swallowed.
“I think somebody gave it to her.”
A cold sensation moved across Victoria’s skin.
From downstairs came the muffled sound of someone opening a door.
Then voices.
Guests were beginning to wonder what had happened.
Victoria ignored them.
“Why would anyone give Lily your phone?”
“That’s what I was trying to find out.”
Lily suddenly whispered into Victoria’s neck.
“The lady said Daddy would be mad.”
Andrew heard her.
“What lady?”
Lily refused to answer.
Victoria rubbed her back.
“You’re safe with me. Tell Mommy.”
The little girl slowly raised her head.
Her eyes moved past Andrew.
Toward the linen-room door.
“The lady in there.”
Andrew turned.
The door stood slightly open.
Victoria could have sworn it had been closed seconds earlier.
Andrew saw it too.
His body changed instantly.
Not rage.
Readiness.
He stepped between the door and his family.
“Take Lily downstairs.”
Victoria didn’t move.
“Andrew—”
“Now.”
The linen-room door creaked wider.
Nobody came out.
Andrew approached cautiously and pushed it open.
The room was empty.
Fresh towels filled the shelves. Extra tablecloths sat folded on a cedar chest.
But on the floor lay Andrew’s backup phone.
Beside it was a small wireless speaker.
Andrew picked up neither.
Victoria’s stomach dropped.
Because the speaker’s blue indicator was still glowing.
Someone had been using it moments ago.
Then Lily pointed toward the far shelf.
“Mommy.”
Victoria followed her finger.
A white envelope had been wedged between two folded blankets.
May you like
On its front, written in thick black marker, were three words.
FOR VICTORIA ONLY.
