Chapter 7 - THE SECOND DEVICE
The note changed everything.
Until then, I had believed the transmitter beneath Luca's chair was the entire plan. Now I understood it might have been one part of something larger.
Elena took the floor plan to the security office. Matteo checked the listed rotations against the actual schedule. Several entries were accurate. Two were outdated. One showed a guard assigned to the west library on a night when he had been scheduled to work at the front gate.
“Someone has been studying our routines,” Elena said.
Luca stood over the table. “How long?”
“Possibly weeks.”
I watched them compare the papers. The mansion that had once seemed enormous now felt full of hidden corners.
Elena pointed to a mark near the library. “There's a maintenance panel here. It connects to the old wiring channel.”
Matteo called two technicians. They searched the panel and found a second device tucked behind a wooden trim piece. It was smaller than the transmitter, with no visible light.
I recognized the casing.
“Is that another microphone?” I asked.
Elena looked at me. “Possibly.”
The technicians removed it and placed it in an evidence container. A label on the back showed that it had been purchased through the same vendor.
Luca's expression darkened.
“Was it active?”
“We'll know after examination,” Elena said.
The device had been installed behind the library wall, directly across from the chair where Luca usually sat during private meetings.
He looked at me. “You said Vanessa asked about the library. Did she ever enter it alone?”
I thought carefully. “Two days before the dinner, she asked me to bring fresh flowers there. When I came back with the vase, she was standing near the shelves.”
“Was anyone else present?”
“No.”
Elena made a note.
Luca asked me to describe the room exactly as I had left it. I remembered the vase, the books, the curtains, and a small decorative clock that had been moved from the mantel to the desk.
“Was the clock there before?” Elena asked.
“No. It usually sits on the mantel.”
The technicians checked the clock. Inside its base was a memory card.
No one spoke for several seconds.
Luca looked at the evidence bag. “Who moved it?”
The camera footage showed Vanessa entering the library with the clock. She stayed inside for three minutes.
But she wasn't alone.
Richard had entered behind her.
The two spoke briefly. Their faces were partly obscured by the shelves, but their movements were clear. Richard handed Vanessa a small object. She placed it inside the clock.
Matteo paused the footage.
“That's enough,” Luca said.
He turned to Elena. “Preserve the original recording. Make copies. No one edits it.”
Elena nodded.
I felt sick. Richard had been in the house for eleven years. He knew the staff, the routines, the family history. He had once helped my mother when her car broke down outside the estate. He had called her a cab and made sure she got home.
I had thought he was kind.
“Grace,” Luca said, noticing my expression. “You all right?”
“I knew him.”
“Most of us did.”
“He was always polite to me.”
“Politeness is not proof of loyalty.”
That night, I went to the small staff room and called my mother. She answered on the first ring.
“Are you coming home?”
“Not tonight.”
“Grace—”
“Mom, I need you to listen. If anyone asks about my work or Luca, don't answer. Don't let anyone inside unless you know them. If something feels wrong, call me.”
Her voice became frightened. “What happened?”
“I can't explain everything yet. But I want you to be careful.”
She promised.
After the call, I sat on the edge of my bed and looked at the photograph of my parents on my nightstand. My father had died when I was nineteen. He had taught me to keep my promises, to show up on time, and to tell the truth even when it was uncomfortable.
I wondered what he would have thought of this house, where every smile seemed to hide a calculation.
A knock sounded.
May you like
Elena stood outside.
“Luca wants you in the study. We found something on the memory card.”
