Chapter 2 - Someone Wanted the Lights Off
Mateo vaulted the low hedge before anyone could stop him.
"Mateo!" Ortiz shouted behind him.
He hit the mansion doors with his shoulder and ran into darkness.
Emergency lights glowed red along the floor, barely enough to show the staircase. A security guard followed with a flashlight while Daniel came two steps behind.
"Second floor," Mateo said.
A door slammed above them.
They reached the landing just as the mansion's backup generator kicked on.
Light washed across the hallway.
Evelyn's bedroom door stood open.
The window at the far end had been smashed inward.
Curtains snapped in the night air.
Ortiz pushed past everyone. "Stay out."
Daniel ignored her.
His wife's locked suitcase sat open on the bed.
"The papers," Evelyn said from the doorway behind them.
Ortiz turned. "What papers?"
Evelyn's face went white.
"They were in there."
Daniel spun toward her. "What papers?"
She swallowed. "The insurance documents."
"The policy you changed without telling me?"
"I didn't change it."
Daniel laughed without humor. "You expect me to believe that now?"
Mateo crouched near the carpet.
Dirt marked the cream-colored fibers beneath the broken window.
Not much.
Two partial shoe prints.
He looked back toward the hallway.
Thomas stood near the stairs.
His shoes were polished black leather.
Mud darkened the edge of his right heel.
Mateo rose slowly.
Thomas saw where he was looking and shifted his foot behind the other.
Ortiz noticed the movement.
"Mr. Mercer, where were you when the lights went out?"
Thomas lifted both hands. "On the terrace. With everyone else."
"Did you go outside earlier?"
"No."
Mateo pointed at his shoe.
"Then where'd that come from?"
Thomas glanced down.
"It's an estate. There is dirt everywhere."
Daniel stared at his brother.
The generator hummed harder, then steadied.
A uniformed officer appeared from the stairwell.
"Detective. We checked the power panel."
Ortiz stepped toward him.
"Overload?"
"No. Manual shutdown. Someone used the exterior utility panel."
Thomas crossed his arms.
"Any employee could have done that."
The officer shook his head. "Panel requires a six-digit family code."
Daniel's face changed.
Only five people knew that code.
Daniel.
Evelyn.
Thomas.
Daniel's adult daughter, Rachel, who was in Chicago.
And Harold Vance, the estate manager.
Ortiz looked from one Mercer to the next.
"Nobody leaves."
Mateo turned back to the suitcase.
Something glossy stuck out beneath the silk lining.
He reached for it.
"Don't," Ortiz said.
He stopped.
She pulled on gloves and removed a photograph.
At first Mateo thought it was one of Daniel's family pictures.
Then he saw the face.
His own.
He stepped closer.
The photo showed him kneeling beside a row of boxwoods at a hotel property in Queens.
He had worked there six months before taking the Mercer job.
The image had been shot from across the street.
Daniel looked at him.
"What is that?"
Mateo's mouth went dry.
Ortiz turned the photograph over.
Black marker covered the back.
Three words.
REYES BOY — CONFIRMED.
Mateo read them twice.
Then a fourth time.
His fingers curled against his palms.
"I wasn't working here then."
Daniel's eyes stayed on the photograph.
"Who knew your last name before you applied?"
Mateo looked across the room.
May you like
Thomas was no longer standing by the stairs.
