Chapter 17 - The House in the Dark
The power died at 9:07 p.m.
The generator should have started automatically.
It didn’t.
I grabbed Lily from the couch and handed her to Anna.
“Upstairs safe room. Now.”
Anna did not argue.
I called local police while checking the security app.
Offline.
Every exterior camera had gone dark thirty seconds before the power.
Then I heard gravel crunch outside.
A vehicle.
I killed the flashlight and moved to the side window.
Headlights swept across the trees.
A dark SUV stopped near the detached garage.
Two people got out.
Not police.
I locked the interior doors and backed toward the stairs.
A knock came at the front door.
“Mr. Hale?” a man called. “Private security. Daniel Reeves sent us.”
Daniel would never send anyone without a code phrase.
“What’s the code?” I shouted.
Silence.
Then the doorknob moved.
Police sirens appeared in the distance less than two minutes later.
The SUV tore away before officers reached the property.
No one got inside.
But the generator had been deliberately disabled.
The exterior line had been cut.
This was no tabloid stunt.
Detective Ellis flew up the next morning.
Traffic cameras caught the SUV’s plate.
It belonged to a private investigations company hired by Harold Vance’s attorneys.
Harold denied authorizing the visit.
The company owner said the job had been requested through an intermediary.
The intermediary was the same legal-team contractor who leaked the guardianship petition.
And the payment came from an account Victoria had failed to disclose.
“What were they looking for?” Anna asked.
Ellis looked at me.
“The microSD card.”
I had already given the original to police.
But Victoria apparently didn’t know that.
Lily came down the stairs holding the repaired music box.
She looked at all of us.
“Daddy,” she said, “Victoria told me there was one more copy.”
My pulse jumped.
“Where?”
May you like
Lily pointed at the ballerina.
“Inside Mommy’s song.”
