Chapter 4 - MRS. HARGROVE HAD BEEN LYING FOR TWO YEARS
Dominic unlocked the north wing himself.
Dust covered everything.
Elena's bedroom.
Dressing room.
Small private office.
Nothing had changed since her death.
Dominic had sealed it.
Or believed he had.
Noah ran directly to the closet.
He dropped to the floor.
Reached beneath a cabinet.
Nothing.
He screamed.
Clara noticed scratches on the baseboard.
Something had been removed.
Dominic called security.
“Who has entered this room?”
The security chief checked logs.
“No one authorized.”
“Authorized.”
The man hesitated.
“Mrs. Hargrove used her master badge six times.”
Dominic went very still.
“When?”
“First month after Mrs. Vale’s death.”
“After I sealed it?”
“Yes.”
Another:
Three weeks ago.
Dominic turned.
Mrs. Hargrove stood in the doorway.
She had followed them.
“Why?”
She looked at Noah.
Not Dominic.
“That child is confused.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“You entered this wing.”
“To clean.”
“I ordered nobody inside.”
“Your wife deserved better than dust.”
“Where’s the camera?”
Her face changed.
Tiny.
Enough.
Dominic saw.
Clara saw.
Noah began screaming.
Hargrove said:
“There is no camera.”
Dominic grabbed her wrist.
“Noah remembers one.”
“He was two.”
“Children remember terror.”
“You're taking the word of a maid over someone who served this family for thirty years?”
Clara’s eyes narrowed.
Dominic released her.
“Search her rooms.”
Hargrove paled.
“You don't have the right.”
Dominic stared.
“This is my house.”
For the first time, Hargrove looked frightened.
Security found no camera.
But they found money.
Cash.
$380,000.
Multiple passports.
A prepaid phone.
And photographs of Elena.
Surveillance photographs.
Weeks before the ambush.
That ended her employment.
But not her usefulness.
Dominic had her held for police questioning.
Clara stopped him from doing worse.
“You need answers.”
“I need justice.”
“If you frighten her into silence, you get neither.”
He looked at the twenty-two-year-old maid.
“You talk to me like you're not afraid.”
“I am.”
That answer surprised him.
“I’m just more afraid for Noah.”
Dominic looked toward his son.
Noah sat in the hallway holding the black crayon.
That changed Dominic more than any threat could.
Hargrove finally spoke to an attorney.
Then offered a statement.
She had not ordered Elena’s death.
She had helped cover up what happened afterward.
For whom?
She refused to say.
But she revealed the camera had been hidden in a music box.
She removed it from Elena’s room after the killing.
Where was it now?
She gave it to a man named Victor Vale.
Dominic’s older half-brother.
May you like
The man who had been standing beside Dominic through two years of revenge.
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