Chapter 5 - WHAT CLARA KNEWBy morning, Vincent had turned the mansion upside down.
Three security logs had been altered.
One camera had been disabled for eleven minutes.
The archive room showed no sign of forced entry.
And the file labeled Clara Hayes had disappeared.
Vincent sat across from Clara in the dining room.
Neither touched the coffee.
"You knew about Matteo before you came here."
It wasn't a question.
Clara looked at him.
"Yes."
"How?"
"My mother."
"What about her?"
"She knew your family."
Vincent's eyes hardened.
"How?"
"She worked for Adrian."
Silence.
"Doing what?"
"Legal work. Financial records. Contracts."
Vincent leaned back.
"How long?"
"I don't know."
"You expect me to believe that?"
"I expect you to understand that my mother didn't tell me everything."
Vincent studied her.
"Why did you accept this job?"
Clara reached into her bag.
She placed a photograph on the table.
Matteo.
Alone in the garden.
On the back, the same sentence:
HE NEEDS SOMEONE WHO WILL LISTEN.
Vincent picked it up.
"Who sent this?"
"I don't know."
"How did you receive it?"
"An envelope."
"No name?"
"No."
"Return address?"
"No."
Vincent stared at the photograph.
"Why didn't you go to the police?"
"Because I didn't know whether the person sending it wanted to help me or use me."
"Yet you came here."
"Because I recognized your son."
Vincent looked up.
"You'd never met him."
"No."
"Then what did you recognize?"
Clara hesitated.
"The way he looked."
Vincent waited.
"My mother had that look near the end."
He said nothing.
Clara continued.
"She knew something was wrong. She was afraid. But she couldn't tell me why."
Vincent's phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
He opened it.
TELL VINCENT THE TRUTH ABOUT THE NIGHT HIS BROTHER DIED.
Vincent showed Clara.
Her face tightened.
"You've received one too."
"Yes."
"What did yours say?"
She hesitated.
"You should not be asking Vincent what happened that night."
Vincent placed the phone on the table.
"Someone wants us investigating the same thing."
Clara nodded.
"Or someone wants us distracted."
Vincent looked at her.
"What do you mean?"
"Think about it."
She leaned forward.
"If someone wanted you to believe Adrian was alive, why leave a photograph where you'd find it?"
"To scare me."
"Exactly."
Vincent frowned.
"But why?"
"Because fear makes people predictable."
He stared at her.
The words sounded familiar.
Not because he had heard them before.
Because they felt true.
Clara stood.
"I don't think I'm here to hurt Matteo."
Vincent looked up.
"Then why are you here?"
She answered honestly.
"I thought I was here to protect him."
"And now?"
She looked toward the hallway.
"Now I think someone sent me here because they knew you'd eventually ask the wrong question."
Vincent's expression changed.
"What question?"
Clara turned toward him.
"Who really controls the cameras?"
She walked away.
Vincent remained at the table.
A minute later, Dominic entered.
"We found something."
"What?"
"The administrator account."
Vincent looked up.
Dominic placed the tablet on the table.
"Someone has been accessing the security network."
"Who?"
"We don't know."
"How long?"
Dominic hesitated.
"Eleven months."
Vincent's stomach tightened.
The same night Matteo stopped speaking.
The same night his wife supposedly died.
The same night everything changed.
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Someone had been watching the mansion ever since.
And Vincent suddenly realized that the cameras he trusted most might have been the most carefully constructed lie in the house.
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