Chapter 4
The first man who broke through my garage perimeter was named Miles Kerrow.
I remembered because Roland broke his wrist restraining him.
Miles disappeared afterward.
No arrest.
No police.
My business did not work that way.
We simply never saw him again.
Or so I thought.
Rafe found him that night.
Alive.
Working at a private gym outside Denver.
Not hiding well.
Because apparently he had never believed anyone would ask eighteen months later.
He arrived at dawn.
Saw Corwin’s badge on my desk.
And started sweating.
Good.
I asked one question.
“Were you paid to enter my garage?”
His silence answered.
Then:
“Yes.”
“By whom?”
He looked at Corwin.
Not Ismeralda.
Interesting.
“Mr. Vane.”
“How much?”
“Ten thousand.”
“For what?”
“To get spotted.”
There.
Not reach me.
Not steal.
Not hurt.
Be seen.
Roland was supposed to intercept him before he reached the main hall.
Security succeeds.
Guests still become frightened.
Then Corwin could privately say:
Imagine if the intruder were serious.
Elegant business strategy.
Except Roland did more than stop Miles.
He questioned him.
Hard.
Miles eventually admitted the job felt staged.
Roland began watching Corwin.
That explained the west staircase.
Corwin had been using the sealed room as a changing station for hired “intruders.”
Clothes in.
Masks on.
Service exit afterward.
My own house functioning as a theater for threats designed to frighten me.
I looked at Miles.
“What happened the night Roland disappeared?”
His face tightened.
“I wasn’t there.”
“But?”
“I heard Vane was doing a bigger test.”
“What kind?”
Miles looked toward the window.
“One where your bodyguard was supposed to fail.”
Adelise stopped breathing.
The next staged breach was not meant to make the system look weak.
It was meant to make Roland look old.
Slow.
Unreliable.
Then Corwin’s company could replace him permanently.
But Roland discovered the rehearsal before the event.
He caught two men inside the west room changing clothes.
One carried a fake knife.
The other wore a Wyclare staff jacket.
Roland understood everything.
He confronted Corwin.
Then called someone.
Miles did not know whom.
I did.
Me.
That evening I had three missed calls from Roland while I was at a family dinner in Chicago.
May you like
I never returned them.
By morning, he was gone.
