Chapter 3 - The Man With the Silver Ring
Dominic moved the household staff into the library while Vincent's team searched the estate.
Ellie sat on the rug with her latch board.
Dominic lowered himself into a chair across from her.
"Tell me about the silver man."
Clare started to object.
Dominic looked at her. "I won't frighten her."
Ellie clicked a brass hook open and shut.
"He had a shiny circle."
"A ring?"
She nodded.
"Which hand?"
Ellie raised her right hand and touched her little finger.
Dominic remembered Arthur's signet ring - silver, square-faced, worn on his right pinkie since the nineties.
But plenty of men wore rings.
He needed more.
"What did he say to you?"
Ellie frowned in concentration. "He said, 'Little girls who touch grown-up things get people in trouble.'"
Clare's face changed.
"You've heard that before," Dominic said.
She shook her head too quickly.
"Clare."
Her shoulders sagged.
"My husband used to work for Vale Logistics."
Dominic sat straighter.
"You told Human Resources he died before you joined the household."
"He did."
"Name?"
"Caleb Rowan."
Vincent, standing near the bookshelves, looked up sharply.
Dominic knew why.
Dominic remembered the file because Caleb had reported missing freight two weeks before his death.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because the last thing Caleb said to me was that if anything happened to him, I should stay away from the Vale family."
Dominic absorbed that without flinching.
"Then why did you take a job in my home?"
Clare's eyes moved to Ellie.
"Because three years ago I found a key in Caleb's old toolbox. It had your estate address stamped on the tag."
Vincent stepped closer. "A key to what?"
"I never knew."
Dominic's phone buzzed on the table.
A message from an unknown number.
ONE WARNING WASN'T ENOUGH.
Under it was a photograph taken through the library window.
Dominic looked at the dark glass.
Someone was outside the house.
May you like
Then another message arrived.
THIS TIME THE CHILD SAW TOO MUCH.
