Chapter 6 - The Phone That Wouldn't Stop.
Gavin looked at the photograph for a long time.
Then he raised his bare right hand.
“I lost that ring last week.”
Marcus gave him a flat look.
“Convenient.”
“I didn’t say it was convenient.”
Adrian watched Gavin instead of the phone.
“When did you notice it was missing?”
“Friday.”
“Why didn’t you report it?”
“Because it is a ring, not a nuclear code.”
Adrian’s expression hardened.
“It carries the Vale crest, and half this city knows you wear it.”
Gavin rubbed his jaw.
“I thought I left it at the club.”
Emma remained near the window, arms folded across herself.
Her phone vibrated inside her apron pocket.
She ignored it.
It vibrated again.
Then again.
Adrian looked toward her.
“Answer it.”
Emma shook her head.
“It’s probably nothing.”
The phone buzzed a fourth time.
Adrian held out his hand.
Emma hesitated before giving it to him.
The screen showed seven messages from an unknown number.
The newest one read only four words.
YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT.
Adrian’s face became unreadable.
Marcus took the phone.
Another message appeared while he held it.
THE HOUSE CANNOT PROTECT YOU.
Emma whispered, “I never gave anyone here my personal number.”
Gavin looked genuinely unsettled now.
Adrian turned to him.
“Still think this is accounting?”
Gavin said nothing.
Marcus photographed the messages and switched the phone to airplane mode.
“I’ll have security trace what they can.”
Adrian looked at Emma.
“You’re moving out of staff quarters.”
Her head came up.
“No.”
“That was not a request.”
“I’m not hiding in one of your guest suites while everyone downstairs decides I’m getting special treatment.”
“You are getting special treatment.”
Emma’s eyes flashed.
“That makes it worse.”
For the first time, Adrian almost smiled.
Even terrified, she argued with him.
Then her expression changed.
She looked toward the library wall.
“Wait.”
Adrian followed her gaze.
A narrow vent sat above the bookcase.
“What?”
“Last night in the study, Mrs. Harrow knew you had found me before anyone told her.”
Adrian remembered her exact words.
You found her.
Marcus walked to the vent.
He climbed onto a chair, removed the grille, and reached inside.
His hand came back holding a tiny wireless microphone.
Nobody spoke.
Gavin’s face lost color.
Adrian stared at the device.
“How many rooms?”
Marcus looked grim.
“We’ll sweep all of them.”
Emma backed away from the wall.
“That’s how they knew.”
Adrian looked at her.
“Knew what?”
She pressed her lips together.
“What I found.”
There was more.
He could see it.
“Emma.”
She closed her eyes for a moment.
“When I was trapped in the supply room, I heard two people talking outside.”
“Who?”
“I couldn’t see them.”
“What did they say?”
Emma looked at Gavin.
Then at Adrian.
“One of them said the records had to disappear before you remembered the night of the crash.”
The room seemed to become colder.
Adrian’s fingers tightened around the armrest of his wheelchair.
“I remember the crash.”
May you like
Emma shook her head slowly.
“Apparently not all of it.”
