Chapter 3
Damian carried the phone into the adjoining office without taking his eyes off the study.
“Recognize what?” he asked.
Adrian made a short, humorless laugh. “The dog. Her mother worked here. Don’t turn this into an interrogation.”
“You called before anyone told you Sophia was in the room.”
“Marco warned me she’d wandered off.”
That explained the call, but not the fear behind it. Damian watched through the open doorway as Sophia used her fingertips to smooth Nero’s fur above his healed scar.
“Bring me the original veterinary report,” Damian said. “Not the summary you showed me.”
“There is no original. The kennel manager handled it.”
“Then give me the manager’s number.”
“Damian—”
“Before noon.”
He ended the call and immediately phoned Caroline Price. The attorney answered on the second ring.
“Mr. Vale,” she said. “I’ve sent five preservation requests to your office. Are you finally calling about them?”
Damian stared at the dark window reflecting his face. “I never received them.”
“Then someone has been screening your correspondence. My client was charged after you provided a sworn statement based on records she says were manipulated. We have asked for access logs, original invoice files, and the dog’s injury report.”
“Why the injury report?”
“Because Nora says she discovered evidence that someone entered the service corridor on the same night the foundation ledger was altered. Your dog was injured while she was looking for the source of a noise.”
Damian swallowed. “Was she injured?”
“She had a bruised wrist and a cut on her forearm. The intake photographs from the detention center show both. I can share her authorized account, but I won’t turn over privileged communications without her consent.”
For the first time in years, Damian respected somebody for refusing him.
“Ask her,” he said. “And tell her I’m prepared to correct any false statement I made.”
Caroline remained quiet for a beat. “Being prepared isn’t the same as doing it.”
“I understand.”
“Then preserve every original record. No private search of other people’s devices, no threats, no improvising with witnesses. If you want the truth to matter, let it survive in court.”
He promised. Then he called the veterinary hospital listed on Nero’s routine vaccination records.
Dr. June Keller remembered the injury immediately. “Nero arrived just before one in the morning, bleeding near his left eye. I treated a superficial laceration and documented bruising around the muzzle.”
“Did he strike a gate?”
“I wrote that the wound appeared consistent with contact from a hard object, but I couldn’t establish a cause. His handler gave no reliable history.”
“Who brought him?”
“A woman named Nora Bennett, with a uniformed driver. She authorized the emergency care because the listed owner wasn’t answering.”
Damian pressed his thumb to his forehead. Adrian had told him Nora never left the property that night.
“Can you provide the records?”
“With the proper authorization from the owner, yes.”
Damian sent it from his personal email, copying his newly retained outside attorney so the request would be documented.
When he returned to the study, Sophia was kneeling beside Nero, who had begun to doze. Elena stood by the bookshelves looking at a small brass panel on the wall.
“That light,” Elena said. “Sophia’s drawing made me remember. We used to hear the loading alarm from the kitchen.”
“Used to?”
“Until Marco had it disconnected three weeks ago. He said the false alarms were upsetting the staff.”
Damian approached the concealed service door. The electronic lock showed a fresh smear across its access plate, as though someone had tried to wipe it clean.
“Did Nora know the code?” he asked.
“No. I didn’t either. Only management and security.”
Sophia rose, took a cautious step toward them, then looked back at Nero. “Can I bring him?”
“We’re not going through that door,” Damian said. “Not until someone checks it safely.”
She considered this, nodded, and took his offered hand.
Elena led Sophia away from the doorway before the adults inspected the access plate. Damian crouched to study the panel without touching it. The scratches were recent enough to expose brighter metal beneath the dark finish, but he knew that did not tell him who made them.
"When did this door become restricted?" he asked.
"Three weeks before Nora's arrest," Elena replied. "It was always a service entrance. Then Marco announced it was a safety hazard and told us not to use it, even for cleaning."
Damian remembered signing a general maintenance budget that month. He had never asked what work it covered.
Elena's voice shook. "I used to bring towels through there. The staff stopped because we thought the dog was being trained to attack anyone who entered."
"He wasn't," Sophia said quietly from the far side of the room. "He just didn't like the bad noise."
Damian wrote down the date the restriction began.
Outside the study, Vince came running from the front hall.
“Sir, the freight entrance alarm just activated.”
May you like
Damian looked at the time: 11:47 a.m.
It was exactly the minute Caroline had said Nora’s disputed electronic access record appeared fourteen nights earlier.
