Chapter 3 - Someone Is Still Inside
"Nobody moves."
Dominic's order snapped through the room.
Marco shut the hall door and turned the deadbolt.
I pulled Lily onto my lap.
She reached for the rabbit.
"Not yet."
Her lower lip pushed out.
"Mommy."
"Please, baby."
Dominic laid the rabbit on a towel and crouched beside it.
He did not touch the note again.
"Get forensics up here."
Marco raised his radio.
"No radio traffic," Dominic said.
Marco lowered it.
"Use the hard line."
The desk phone rang before anyone reached it.
All four adults stared.
Dominic picked up.
"Yes."
He listened.
His face closed.
"Lock the fourth-floor stairwell. Nobody clears it without me."
He hung up.
"What?" I asked.
"Elevator log says no one came up after us."
"Then someone was already here."
"Or the log was changed."
Marco went to the wall panel.
"I can pull raw access data from security."
"You're not leaving this floor."
Marco looked at Dominic.
"You want me here while an intruder walks around your house?"
"I want everybody where I can see them."
The sentence landed hard.
Marco's jaw shifted once.
Then he nodded.
A female technician arrived ten minutes later with gloves and evidence bags.
Dominic made her open every bag in front of him.
She swabbed the rabbit, the note, the ribbon, the plastic eyes.
I watched her fingers move.
Something dark marked the rabbit's left ear.
"What's that?"
She leaned closer.
"Moisture."
I smelled it before she did.
Sharp. Clean. Chemical.
"Laundry disinfectant."
The technician looked at me.
"You're sure?"
"I order it. It's used in the basement laundry corridor."
Dominic straightened.
"When was Lily's rabbit last downstairs?"
I closed my eyes.
Birthday afternoon.
Lily had dragged it through the staff kitchen while I checked table linens.
"Before the party. Around three."
"Then someone didn't take it from this room."
I looked at him.
He picked up the evidence bag.
"They switched it before you came upstairs."
My throat tightened.
"But the note says she should have forgotten. That was after she told me what the man said."
"Not necessarily."
Dominic's eyes went cold.
"He knew what he'd told her. He knew she might repeat it."
Marco stepped closer.
"Which means the note was prepared before the party ended."
I turned toward him.
"Prepared by someone who knew Dominic would move us upstairs?"
Marco didn't answer.
Neither did Dominic.
The technician flipped the note over.
"There's ink here."
A faint blue stamp sat near the bottom edge.
M-11.
Dominic leaned in.
"What is that?"
Marco shrugged. "Could be inventory. Laundry tags use batch numbers."
"Not ours," I said.
His eyes touched mine.
The bedroom door opened.
Ethan stood there in pajamas, holding a tablet against his chest.
"Dad?"
Dominic's anger vanished behind control.
"You should be in bed."
"I was. Then the camera beeped."
"What camera?"
Ethan held out the tablet.
The Moretti security app filled the screen.
One exterior feed was flashing red.
"I use it to see the driveway when Grandma comes."
Dominic took the tablet.
The live image showed the front gates.
A man stood outside them.
Tuxedo shirt.
Black coat.
Hands at his sides.
He looked straight toward the gate camera.
Lily slid off my lap.
"No."
Her fingers clutched my sleeve.
"Lily?"
She pointed at the screen.
Her nails dug into my arm.
"Cake man."
Dominic grabbed Ethan's shoulders.
"You're sure?"
Lily nodded.
The stranger lifted one hand.
On his finger was a black ring.
A gold lion flashed under the gate light.
Marco reached for his radio.
"North team, move."
The screen went black.
Not static.
Black.
Then every camera tile on Ethan's tablet disappeared at once.
Dominic looked at Marco.
Marco was already running for the door.
Dominic chased him.
I heard boots thunder down the hall.
Then, from the black tablet still in Ethan's hands, a new line of text appeared.
May you like
ELEVEN MINUTES STARTS NOW.
