Chapter 7 - The Man Who Looked Away
Mason drove them to a private clinic instead of calling an ambulance. He had a split lip and a bruised rib. Elena's shoulder was badly sore, but nothing was broken. Adrian refused treatment until a doctor threatened to call the police himself.
"You approved the vendor?"
"I approved a list. Celeste handled the contracts."
"You were my security chief. You were supposed to know who was protecting my family."
Mason's face tightened. "I know. And I missed it. But I did not arrange the attack."
"We can blame each other later," she said. "Right now, we need the evidence."
Mason nodded once, grateful and ashamed. He told them about a retired electrician named Walter Pike who had serviced the mansion's alarm system. Walter had quit six months after the fire and moved to a small town two hours away.
"If anyone knows why the alarms failed, it's him," Mason said.
They drove out before sunrise in a borrowed car. Walter lived in a weather-beaten house behind a hardware store. He opened the door with a baseball bat in his hand and refused to let them inside until Elena said Nora's name.
"I told them I wouldn't talk," he whispered. "They said I would lose my pension. Then they said my grandson might have an accident."
Adrian stepped forward. "Who threatened you?"
Walter stared at him. "Your house manager. Celeste. She asked me to disable the east-wing alarm for a private maintenance window. Said your wife wanted it quiet for a surprise. I didn't believe her, but the order came through your company's account. I did it."
"Why didn't you restore it?" Elena asked.
"I tried. The panel wouldn't take the reset. Someone had changed the master code. By the time I got back, the fire had started."
Walter took them to a shed and opened a metal toolbox. Inside was a folded work order with Celeste's signature and a time stamp.
"I kept it because I knew they would blame me," he said. "I didn't know they'd blame her."
Adrian accepted the paper as if it weighed a hundred pounds. "Will you testify?"
"If you can keep my family safe."
Before Adrian could answer, Elena's phone rang. The therapist's name flashed on the screen.
May you like
She answered.
The first words she heard were, "Theo is gone."
