Chapter 5
Alistair Vane arrived twenty minutes later.
Fifty-nine.
Silver at the temples.
Controlled.
The kind of man who enters another man’s bedroom and still expects to be offered a drink.
I did not.
I showed him the camera.
His expression barely changed.
Too little.
“What?”
I asked.
He looked at Sybilla first.
Then the men.
Then me.
“That wasn’t mine.”
Interesting.
“The staged restraint was?”
“Yes.”
Honest.
Bad enough.
“The camera?”
“No.”
“Women’s belongings?”
“No.”
“Guard reassignment?”
“My office handled it.”
“Using Estelle Greer’s name.”
His jaw tightened.
“No.”
There.
One thing he had not authorized.
I believed him because it offended his pride.
Alistair Vane would break rules.
He would not forge a maid’s identity when his whole scheme depended on proving his own competence.
He wanted everyone to know he breached me.
Not hide it behind Estelle.
So someone hijacked his exercise.
I asked:
“Who knew your timing?”
He answered reluctantly.
His operations director.
Two team leaders.
Sybilla.
And one person inside my household who coordinated access.
“Who?”
He looked toward Elias.
Not him.
Then:
“Graham Pell.”
My deputy household manager.
Forty-eight.
Worked for Rookwood twelve years.
Trusted.
Invisible.
Excellent combination for betrayal.
Elias immediately called downstairs.
No answer.
Graham had disappeared from the reception.
Of course.
Then Estelle entered the corridor with my phone.
“I know that name.”
I turned.
She looked frightened again.
“Graham told me to keep your room empty.”
“When?”
“This morning.”
There.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“He said it was for Miss Sybilla’s surprise.”
Believable.
Then:
“He asked if my daughter still went to St. Anne’s.”
My blood cooled.
Not threat exactly.
Information.
The kind of casual question powerful men use when they want someone to remember vulnerability.
“What did you say?”
“The truth.”
She looked ashamed.
“You did nothing wrong.”
Then Estelle added:
“He said school pickup makes it hard for single mothers to keep good jobs.”
There it was.
May you like
Graham had been preparing pressure before Sybilla ever smashed the phone.
Two different people exploiting the same woman from different directions.
