Chapter 3 - THE DEVICE BEHIND THE CURTAIN
Caleb Mercer should have been arrested that night.
Dominic didn't arrest him.
That scared me more.
Instead, he ordered Mercer confined to a guest room with two guards outside and no access to electronics.
Then Dominic turned to me.
“Find everything.”
I should have refused.
I had a business.
Bills.
A normal life that did not involve armed guards or attempted neurological sabotage.
Instead, I said, “I need the building plans.”
Dominic almost smiled.
By sunrise, I had twenty-seven electrical drawings spread across his library floor.
Something didn't match.
The courtyard floodlight had been replaced four years earlier.
So had the wiring running toward Dominic's bedroom.
“Why would outdoor lighting require work inside your room?”
Dominic crouched beside me.
“It shouldn't.”
“Exactly.”
We went upstairs.
The curtains were heavy blackout fabric mounted on a motorized track.
I removed the cover near the window.
Behind it sat another device.
Small.
Black.
Nearly invisible.
Dominic stared.
“What now?”
“A light sensor.”
“That sounds harmless.”
“It would be.”
I followed the wire.
“Except this one isn't controlling the curtains.”
It connected to the hidden receiver outside.
My pulse quickened.
Someone hadn't merely installed a flashing floodlight beneath Dominic's bedroom.
They had installed a sensor inside the room to confirm he was present.
Dominic understood before I finished explaining.
“So the system knows when I'm here.”
“Yes.”
“And then?”
“Someone can activate the light remotely.”
He looked toward the bed.
For the first time, I saw fear in him.
Not the fear of dying.
The fear of realizing your home had never been safe.
A knock sounded.
His housekeeper, Maria, entered carrying coffee.
She saw the exposed wiring and stopped.
“Oh.”
I looked at her.
“You've seen this before?”
Her face changed.
“No.”
“Maria.”
Dominic's voice was quiet.
She lowered the tray.
“Four years ago, men came to install what Mr. Mercer called a medical safety system.”
Dominic stared.
“He told me?”
“No.”
“He said Dr. Hall ordered it.”
I felt cold.
“What medical safety system?”
Maria pointed toward the window.
“That.”
Dominic turned to me.
The floodlight.
The sensor.
The receiver.
All of it had been installed under the excuse of protecting him.
Maria rubbed her hands together.
“I was told never to touch anything inside your bedroom.”
“By Mercer?”
“And Dr. Hall.”
Dominic swore softly.
Then Maria remembered something.
“The first night it happened… there was another electrician.”
I looked at her.
“What electrician?”
“An older man. Gray hair. Very kind. He argued with Mr. Mercer downstairs.”
My stomach tightened.
“Do you remember his name?”
“No.”
She thought.
“But his truck had blue lettering.”
My father's company truck had blue lettering.
HODGE ELECTRICAL SERVICES.
My mouth went dry.
I pulled my father's old steel wrench from my tool bag.
Maria stared at it.
Her face went white.
“That was his.”
Dominic looked at me.
I could barely speak.
“My father died four years ago.”
Maria covered her mouth.
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And suddenly this wasn't just Dominic's mystery.
My father had worked inside this mansion three weeks before the hit-and-run that killed him.
