Chapter 1 - THE RED BUTTON
Adeline Boudreaux was two years and ten months old when she found Vincent Castellano bleeding behind his desk.
The office door was half open.
She pushed it wider with the stuffed green alligator she dragged everywhere by one arm.
“Uncle Vin?”
Nothing.
The office smelled wrong.
Not cedar.
Not coffee.
Something metallic.
Vincent sat crooked in his leather chair, one hand pressed hard against his left side.
His white shirt had darkened beneath his fingers.
His face looked gray.
Adeline stopped.
Later, nearly every adult in the Castellano estate admitted the next part disturbed them almost as much as the blood.
She didn't scream.
She didn't run blindly through the halls.
Her little face tightened with concentration.
Then she dropped the alligator.
Dragged the visitor's chair toward the desk.
Climbed.
Reached for the black telephone.
Three weeks earlier, Camille had shown her the emergency button in the staff kitchen.
“If somebody is very hurt and Mama isn't there, press the red one.”
Now Adeline pressed it.
“Security.”
“Uncle Vincent bleeding.”
Silence.
“What?”
“Uncle Vincent bleeding.”
The dispatcher became instantly alert.
“Where are you, sweetheart?”
“Office.”
“Mr. Castellano's office?”
“Yes.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Don't touch anything. Help is coming.”
Adeline nodded.
“Come now.”
“We're coming.”
She climbed down.
Vincent's eyes opened.
Barely.
“Addie?”
She walked closer but stopped.
“Mama says no touching blood.”
Something almost like a smile moved across his face.
“Your mama is smart.”
“You need doctor.”
“I think you're right.”
His eyes closed again.
Adeline's lower lip trembled.
Then she remembered another rule.
If help was coming, stay where the injured person could hear you.
“You gotta keep eyes.”
Vincent opened them.
“What?”
“Keep eyes.”
Then Adeline sat cross-legged on the Persian rug and began telling him about a frog she'd seen beside the pond.
The frog was green.
It jumped.
It frightened Miss Clara from the kitchen.
She told the story twice because she'd run out of material.
Vincent listened because apparently a toddler had decided unconsciousness was unacceptable.
Three minutes and forty-seven seconds after the red button activated, Marcus Ellery entered with two security officers and Dr. Lena Morales.
Marcus stopped.
The man behind him almost crashed into his back.
The most powerful man in South Louisiana was half-conscious behind his desk.
And Camille Boudreaux's toddler was sitting six feet away discussing amphibians.
“Sir.”
Marcus rushed toward Vincent.
Dr. Morales followed.
“Adeline, sweetheart, come to me.”
Adeline looked at Vincent.
“Doctor here.”
“Yes,” Marcus said.
“You did exactly right.”
Only then did she stand.
She picked up her alligator.
Walked toward Marcus.
And began crying.
Twenty seconds later, Camille came running down the hall.
“Adeline!”
Her daughter turned.
“Mama!”
Camille dropped to her knees.
Wrapped both arms around her.
Then saw Vincent.
The blood.
The medical bag.
The officers.
Everything inside her stopped.
“What happened?”
Nobody knew.
Dr. Morales was already working.
“Pressure is dropping.”
“Ambulance is ninety seconds out,” Marcus said.
Vincent's eyes opened again.
He looked toward Camille.
Then Adeline.
His lips moved.
Camille leaned closer but didn't touch him.
“What?”
He whispered one word.
“Inside.”
Then lost consciousness.
Camille frowned.
“Inside what?”
No answer.
Paramedics arrived.
Vincent was taken out through the private entrance.
Marcus followed.
Security locked down the estate.
And thirty minutes later, investigators discovered something that made the situation far worse.
The camera outside Vincent's office had stopped recording eleven minutes before Adeline entered.
It restarted thirty-seven seconds after she pressed the emergency button.
Someone had deliberately made the hallway blind.
May you like
And according to the electronic access log—
the last employee badge used there belonged to Camille Boudreaux.
