Chương 12
Inside, Claire's voice came muffled through the door.
"You wanted me alone."
The speaker answered, too faintly to make out.
Evan reached for the handle.
Imani caught his wrist.
"Wait."
He looked at her.
"You want me to leave my wife in there with someone threatening her?"
"No."
"Then move."
"Ten seconds."
"Why?"
"Because she thinks he'll say something he won't say in front of us."
Evan stared.
Imani could see how much he hated that she might be right.
Inside, Claire spoke again.
"What was my mother's mistake?"
No answer they could hear.
Evan leaned closer to the door.
Then Claire said, "No."
A pause.
"No, that's impossible."
Evan reached for the handle again.
Imani let him.
He opened the door.
Claire stood by the crib, pale and utterly still.
The black device in the wall had gone dark.
Evan crossed to her.
"What did he say?"
Claire looked at him.
For once, no defensiveness protected her.
"He said my mother wasn't investigating my father's company."
Evan waited.
Claire swallowed.
"She was investigating my father."
Imani felt Sophie settle against her shoulder.
Evan's eyes did not leave Claire's face.
"And?"
Claire looked toward the tablet.
"He said the archive wasn't created to blackmail clients."
Her voice thinned.
"It was created to control the family."
Evan said nothing.
Claire seemed to force the next words out.
"My mother found recordings of herself."
"What kind of recordings?"
"Private ones."
"From their house?"
Claire nodded.
"Arguments."
She looked down.
"Meetings."
Another breath.
"Therapy sessions."
Evan's expression changed.
"Your mother's therapy sessions were recorded?"
"Yes."
Imani felt sick.
Claire pressed her fingertips to her temple.
"He said Dad used the recordings to know when she was planning to leave him."
Evan's face went hard.
"That's a serious accusation."
"I know."
"From an anonymous man speaking through a wall."
"I know."
"Did he prove any of it?"
Claire looked at the red card.
"He said the proof is on there."
Evan looked at the card too.
The temptation was visible.
Imani said, "We still wait."
Claire closed her eyes.
"I know."
That surprised all of them.
Then a heavy mechanical sound came from somewhere below.
Metal sliding into metal.
Evan looked toward the staircase.
The house alarm panel in the hall lit red.
A synthetic voice announced, "Perimeter lockdown activated."
Claire's eyes opened.
The front doors thudded as magnetic bolts engaged.
Imani held Sophie tighter.
Evan swore.
Claire whispered, "He wasn't bluffing."
A second alarm sounded.
Not burglary.
Fire.
The hallway lights began flashing white.
Imani smelled nothing.
Evan looked toward the ceiling.
"No smoke."
Claire's face changed.
"It's not a fire."
The alarm voice announced an evacuation warning.
Imani looked at the locked front of the house and understood the contradiction immediately.
"They're telling everyone to leave while locking us in."
Evan grabbed his phone.
No signal.
Claire checked hers.
Nothing.
Imani's screen showed the same.
Downstairs, Mrs. Alvarez shouted something they could not hear.
Then came a crash.
Evan moved toward the stairs.
Imani followed.
Claire caught her arm.
"No."
"Rosa's down there."
"With Sophie?"
Imani looked at the child.
Claire held out her arms.
"Give her to me."
The words struck both women at once.
The same command.
The same child.
A different moment.
Imani looked at Claire's face.
No anger now.
Only fear.
She transferred Sophie carefully into her mother's arms.
Claire pulled the toddler close.
Imani said, "Keep her behind you if anyone comes up."
Claire nodded.
No argument.
Evan was already halfway down the stairs.
Imani followed him.
At the landing, they found James standing below with blood running from one side of his forehead.
Mrs. Alvarez was beside him holding a cast-iron skillet.
All four of them stared at one another.
James lifted both hands.
"I can explain."
Mrs. Alvarez tightened her grip on the skillet.
"He came through my kitchen door."
James said, "Because the fire alarm triggered."
"There is no fire."
"I know that now."
Evan reached the bottom step.
"How did you get upstairs earlier?"
James blinked.
"What?"
"You were outside the nursery."
"No, I wasn't."
Imani felt cold move through her again.
"Yes, you were."
James looked at her.
"I've been at the gate for twenty minutes."
Evan stared.
"We spoke to you through the door."
James's face emptied.
"No, sir."
Nobody moved.
Upstairs, Sophie began to cry.
Then the nursery speaker clicked on again.
This time the voice came through every intercom in the house.
"Now you understand the problem."
James looked up at the nearest intercom as if the ceiling itself had accused him.
Mrs. Alvarez raised the skillet another inch.
"Nobody moves."
James glanced at her.
"Rosa, I am bleeding."
"You can bleed where you are."
Imani almost laughed, but Sophie's cry upstairs cut through the moment.
Evan turned toward the staircase.
The distorted voice came again.
"Do not disconnect the house."
Claire shouted from above, "Then unlock it."
"Not yet."
Evan stepped closer to the intercom.
"You've made your point."
"No."
"You've endangered a child."
"No one has touched the child."
"You put surveillance in her room."
"I told you I did not install the camera."
"Then prove something useful and open the doors."
The voice stayed silent.
James pressed a handkerchief to his forehead.
"I can bypass the gate controller manually."
Claire appeared at the top of the stairs with Sophie against her chest.
"Can you?"
James looked up.
"From the utility room."
"Who has access?"
"I do."
Claire's eyes narrowed.
"Anyone else?"
"Mr. Callahan."
Evan shook his head.
"I don't know the code."
"Your biometric profile is stored."
Claire looked at James.
"Who programmed the system?"
James hesitated.
That hesitation was enough.
"Callahan Private Security."
Mrs. Alvarez muttered something in Spanish.
The intercom clicked.
"Do not go to the utility room."
Evan looked up.
"Why?"
"Because the man who impersonated James expects you to."
Imani felt the house shrink around them.
James stared.
"Impersonated me how?"
"Voice synthesis."
May you like
His face changed from confusion to offense.
"They cloned my voice?"
