Chapter 2 - Three Knocks
“Move away from the stairs.”
Claire didn’t move.
I handed Harper to my security chief, Luca Moretti, who had entered after hearing the commotion.
“Stay with her.”
Harper screamed when I stepped away.
“Uncle Dominic!”
I went back instantly.
That reaction mattered.
I carried her against my chest while Luca examined the padlock.
“Installed recently,” he said.
“How recently?”
“Days. Maybe a week.”
Claire crossed her arms.
“This is insane.”
I looked at her.
“You told me the cellar was empty.”
“It is.”
Another knock came from behind the door.
Quieter.
Harper buried her face against me.
“Mommy.”
Claire’s jaw tightened.
Luca touched the lock but stopped.
“If someone’s inside, we don’t know their condition. We document first.”
That was why I trusted him.
Twenty years around dangerous men had taught me that anger was fast.
Evidence was slower.
Evidence lasted longer.
I called emergency services and instructed Luca to preserve the scene.
Claire laughed once.
“You’re calling police into this house?”
“Yes.”
That surprised her more than the pendant.
People like me were supposed to fear official attention.
Claire had depended on that.
I had spent enough of my life operating in shadows to understand exactly what refusing legitimate help could cost when a child and missing woman were involved.
Before officers arrived, Luca noticed something.
The padlock wasn’t securing the cellar from the outside in the usual way.
A steel hasp had been recently drilled into the frame.
The original door had an internal electronic lock.
Somebody had disabled it and added the padlock.
“Who has access to maintenance?”
“House manager. Security. Me.”
“And Claire?”
Luca looked toward her.
“She requested contractor access last Tuesday.”
Claire’s face hardened.
“For wine storage.”
“There’s no wine stored downstairs.”
“There was supposed to be.”
Harper suddenly lifted her head.
“Red car.”
I looked at her.
“What red car?”
She pointed toward Claire.
Claire’s eyes widened.
“Kids say random things.”
Harper whispered:
“Mommy… red car.”
Luca immediately pulled exterior camera logs.
A red SUV entered the property at 2:13 a.m. the night Mia disappeared.
The license plate was obscured.
It left forty-one minutes later.
Claire had told me nobody visited that night.
I held up Mia’s pendant.
“Who was driving?”
Claire stared at it.
Then at Harper.
“I don’t know.”
A lie.
Not because I could prove it yet.
Because she answered too quickly.
Then Luca’s phone buzzed.
He read the alert.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“The basement motion sensor was disabled thirty-six hours ago.”
“When?”
He showed me.
2:07 a.m.
Six minutes before the red SUV arrived.
May you like
The authorization code belonged to Claire.
📖 Claire’s access code disabled the basement security minutes before a mystery vehicle arrived, and the driver’s identity would connect Mia’s disappearance to my own organization. 👇
