Chapter 9 - THE HOUSE WITH NO CAMERAS
The estate entered lockdown.
Every door was sealed.
Every vehicle was searched.
Lily had disappeared from a guarded bedroom without triggering a single alarm.
Nora examined the hallway outside her room.
A faint line of dust had been disturbed near the baseboard.
She pressed the wooden panel.
It opened into a narrow servants’ passage.
The old estate contained hidden corridors built during the Prohibition era.
Marcus knew all of them.
Celeste had learned them from him.
Daniel found a service exit leading toward the northern woods.
Fresh tire tracks disappeared onto a private road.
Adrian received a video call.
Celeste appeared on the screen.
Lily sat beside her inside a moving vehicle.
The little girl was unharmed, but terrified.
“Let her go.”
Celeste’s eyes were red.
“This is not what I wanted.”
“You locked her in a chamber.”
“I needed the location of the evidence.”
“You almost killed her.”
“Victor said he would kill me if I failed.”
Adrian leaned closer to the screen.
“Where are you?”
Celeste glanced toward someone outside the camera frame.
“I cannot tell you.”
Lily suddenly spoke.
“Daddy, we are going to the house with no cameras.”
Celeste covered her mouth.
The call ended.
Adrian understood the phrase.
The Vale family owned an abandoned summer house near Lake Mercer.
Isabelle had refused to install surveillance there because she wanted one place where the family could live privately.
It was also where Lily had first learned to swim.
The second part of the evidence was hidden there.
Victor knew.
Daniel assembled a rescue team.
Nora insisted on joining them again.
Adrian did not argue.
They reached the lake house shortly before sunset.
The front door stood open.
Inside, furniture had been overturned.
A trail of blood led toward the indoor pool.
They found Celeste at the water’s edge.
She had been shot in the side.
Lily was not with her.
Celeste grabbed Adrian’s sleeve.
“Victor took her.”
“Where?”
Celeste pointed toward the drained swimming pool.
“At the bottom.”
Adrian climbed down.
A brass plate was fixed beneath the diving board.
Behind it, he found a waterproof metal case.
The case contained a damaged dash camera and a memory card.
Footsteps sounded above them.
Captain Elias Brand entered the room with six police officers.
May you like
He wore the missing Vale ring.
“Put down the case, Mr. Vale.”
