Chapter 3 - The Missing Eighteen Minutes.
Darkness lasted only four seconds, but it was long enough for someone to move.
Adrian heard shoes strike marble near the east corridor.
Jonah shouted from the sitting room.
"Stay where you are!"
Sophie cried out.
A glass object shattered somewhere near the staircase.
Then the emergency lights came on in narrow amber strips along the floor.
Celeste was no longer standing beside the banister.
Adrian spun toward the east corridor.
"Cole."
"On me."
They moved quickly without running.
The corridor led toward the library, the staff stairs, and the service wing.
At the far end, a door swung slowly on its hinge.
Adrian reached it first.
The room beyond was empty.
A side window stood open.
Cole checked the latch.
"Opened from inside."
Adrian looked out.
Three floors below, the garden terrace was brightly lit by backup power.
Nobody was there.
"She didn't jump."
"No."
Cole pointed to a narrow servants' door disguised inside the wall paneling.
"She used the inner stairs."
Adrian touched his radio.
"Jonah, status."
"Claire and Sophie are secure."
"Celeste moved during the blackout."
There was a short pause.
"Understood."
Adrian and Cole entered the servants' stairwell.
They found Celeste one floor down standing beside Nolan Price, the villa's head of security.
Nolan was forty-six, broad-shouldered, calm under pressure, and one of the last men Adrian expected to see hiding in a dark stairwell during a lockdown.
Celeste looked annoyed rather than frightened.
"There you are."
Adrian stopped three steps above them.
"Why did you leave the foyer?"
"Because the lights went out."
"So you went downstairs instead of toward your room?"
Celeste lifted her chin.
"I was looking for Nolan."
Adrian shifted his attention to the security chief.
"Convenient."
Nolan did not react.
"Sir, the backup generator triggered correctly."
"I didn't ask about the generator."
Nolan's eyes met his.
"Then ask me what you want to know."
"Who used my emergency credential at 7:42?"
For the first time, Nolan hesitated.
"I need to check the authentication logs."
Cole stepped down one stair.
"I checked them."
Nolan looked at him.
"Then you know the credential came from the west office terminal."
Adrian frowned.
"My office."
"Yes."
"I wasn't here."
"I know."
Adrian's anger sharpened.
"Then why didn't you flag it?"
Nolan looked toward Celeste.
That glance was enough.
Adrian saw it.
Cole saw it.
Celeste saw that they saw it.
"Say it," Adrian ordered.
Nolan spoke carefully.
"Mrs. Vale told me you were working remotely through the office terminal."
"Mrs. Vale?"
Celeste's mouth tightened.
She had never married into the Vale family.
She was Adrian's father's younger sister.
Staff used the title because she demanded it.
Adrian had stopped correcting them years ago.
Now the sound irritated him.
"You took her word over the system?"
Nolan answered without looking away.
"She had your written authorization."
Adrian went still.
"Show me."
Nolan reached inside his jacket slowly and produced his phone.
A scanned authorization appeared on the screen.
Adrian recognized the header, the account number, and the digital signature.
The signature looked perfect.
Too perfect.
"That's not mine."
Celeste sighed.
"Adrian, you're emotional."
He looked at her.
"A woman was trapped under my floor."
"Which has nothing to do with a security memo."
Claire's voice came from the stairwell above them.
"It has everything to do with it."
Jonah appeared behind her with Sophie in his arms.
Adrian's expression hardened.
"I told you to stay in the sitting room."
Claire held up a small brass key.
"Sophie remembered something."
The little girl pointed toward Adrian's office door across the landing.
"Mom said the bad papers are in there."
Celeste turned pale again.
This time, she could not hide it.
Adrian noticed.
"What papers?"
Claire looked at the key in her hand.
"The papers I came here to show you."
Nolan stepped forward.
"Sir, we should secure the office first."
Cole moved between him and Adrian.
"You stay exactly where you are."
Nolan's eyes cooled.
Adrian crossed the landing with Claire and Sophie.
The brass key did not fit his office door.
It fit the bottom drawer of his father's old writing desk.
Adrian had never seen that drawer open.
The lock clicked.
Inside was a black folder, a flash drive, and a sealed envelope with Adrian's name written across the front in his father's handwriting.
He reached for the envelope.
Claire stopped him.
"Wait."
"Why?"
She pointed to the black folder.
"Because that's not where I left it."
Adrian looked at her.
"You were in this office?"
"Yesterday afternoon."
"Doing what?"
May you like
Claire's eyes moved toward Celeste and Nolan behind them.
"Finding out who has been stealing from your family for six years."
