Chapter 5 - THE GUNSHOT AFTER DESSERT
Damian moved before Clara understood what had happened.
He pushed her behind the pantry wall and drew his weapon.
Another shot.
Then shouting.
Men overturned tables.
Glass shattered.
Damian’s guards flooded the dining room.
Clara stayed where he put her for exactly seven seconds.
Then she disobeyed.
She looked through the service opening.
Anthony Costello was on the floor.
Blood stained his sleeve.
A bullet had grazed his upper arm.
One of the visiting men was being held against the wall.
He screamed that he hadn’t fired.
Damian moved through the chaos with terrifying calm.
“Lock the estate.”
The gates sealed.
No one left.
No phones.
No cars.
The peace dinner had become a crime scene.
Anthony was taken into a sitting room where a private doctor treated him.
The shooter’s weapon was found beneath the dining table.
Except it belonged to one of Damian’s own guards.
A man named Peter Lanza.
Peter insisted it had been stolen.
Damian believed nothing.
Clara returned to the kitchen.
Victoria was gone.
“Where is she?” Clara asked.
Gerard looked around.
“She was here.”
Damian entered seconds later.
“Find Victoria.”
Three guards searched the mansion.
No Victoria.
Her coat remained downstairs.
Her car remained outside.
Her phone sat on the kitchen counter.
She had vanished inside the estate.
Then Clara remembered the recording.
“Her mother’s lawyer.”
Damian looked at her.
“What?”
“She said the recording was with a lawyer. If someone heard us talking—”
“They may think she has it.”
Damian’s jaw tightened.
He ordered a search of every room.
Clara followed until he stopped.
“You’re staying with Gerard.”
“No.”
“Clara.”
“Someone hit your uncle immediately after Victoria admitted her mother helped him.”
“Which is exactly why I don’t want you wandering around.”
“My mother’s name is at the center of this.”
“That does not make you bulletproof.”
The words came out sharper than either expected.
Clara stared.
He stared back.
For a strange second, the room felt smaller.
Then Gerard cleared his throat.
“I know where Victoria might be.”
Both turned.
“There are old servant passages behind the east corridor,” Gerard said. “Most were sealed, but one opens near the wine cellar.”
Damian’s face changed.
The cellar again.
They went together.
Behind a linen cabinet, Gerard pressed an old wooden panel.
It opened.
Dust filled the narrow passage.
Clara followed Damian down stone stairs.
At the bottom, they found Victoria.
Alive.
Sitting against a wall.
Her hands bound.
Tape over her mouth.
Damian cut her free.
“Who did this?”
Victoria started crying.
“I didn’t see.”
“What happened?”
“Someone grabbed me after the gunshot.”
“Did they say anything?”
She nodded.
“What?”
Victoria looked directly at Clara.
“They said Joanne should have died twenty years ago.”
Clara’s blood went cold.
Then Victoria handed Damian something she had clenched inside her palm.
A cuff link.
Black onyx.
Gold border.
Damian recognized it.
May you like
So did Gerard.
It belonged to Anthony Costello.
