Chapter 15 - THE MAN IN THE PASSAGE
Richard pulled Lily toward the front entrance while calling Detective Laura.
The mansion went into lockdown.
Steel security doors sealed the lower corridors. Exterior gates closed. Officers who had remained on the property moved toward the servant passage.
The monitor still showed Nolan.
He stood beside the copied patent files, but the lighter was no longer in his hand.
Another person entered the frame carrying Snowy.
The face remained hidden beneath a maintenance hood.
Richard looked toward Lily.
Her real bear had been inside the car moments earlier.
Clara checked.
The back seat was empty.
Someone had taken Snowy while they were inside the sitting room.
Lily gripped Richard’s hand.
“He needs the camera.”
Nolan placed the bear on a stone shelf.
“Amelia trusted this toy more than she trusted her husband,” he said toward the lens.
Richard heard the insult but refused to move toward the passage.
Nolan wanted him angry.
Wanted him separated from Lily.
Detective Laura’s voice came through the phone.
“Stay in the foyer. We have teams entering from both ends.”
The hooded person opened Snowy’s zipper and removed a small memory module.
Lily shook her head.
“That’s not the real one.”
“What do you mean?”
“Mommy made two.”
Nolan heard her through the hallway microphone.
His expression changed.
He lifted his eyes toward the camera.
“Lily, where is the second module?”
Richard covered the microphone.
The monitor switched angles.
A camera inside the foyer activated.
Nolan could see them.
Every supposedly disconnected device in the mansion had come online.
The hooded person moved closer to Snowy.
A gloved hand emerged from the sleeve.
On one finger was a Whitmore executive ring.
Only senior company directors received those rings.
Grace had said the board supported the investigation.
Someone inside Whitmore had helped Nolan enter.
Laura’s officers reached the east passage door.
It would not open.
The mansion’s old system rejected every code.
Nolan had control.
He spoke through the intercom.
“The patent files are copies. Amelia’s second module contains the transfer key. Without it, the scientific trust remains locked.”
Richard looked at Lily.
She touched the white teddy bear he had bought at the airport—the replacement bear that had carried Amelia’s first message.
“The second module is in him,” she whispered.
Richard understood.
Someone had known he would purchase that bear.
The toy had not been random.
Amelia had arranged through the airport shop years earlier for a replacement to be released if Snowy’s account detected danger.
The new bear contained the true key.
It was still inside Lily’s hospital bag at the rental house.
Nolan did not know.
The foyer doors suddenly unlocked.
The hooded person stepped out of a concealed panel near the staircase.
Richard moved Lily behind him.
The figure removed the hood.
Grace Holloway stood beneath it.
Lily gasped.
Richard could not speak.
Grace held up both hands.
“Nolan forced me to bring Snowy. He has my son.”
Nolan appeared behind her with the lighter.
Detective Laura shouted from the phone for Richard to retreat.
Grace looked directly at Lily.
“Do not tell him where the second module is.”
Nolan’s face hardened.
He raised the lighter toward the copied files.
Then the mansion alarm began speaking in Amelia’s voice.
“Independent transfer activated.”
Every monitor displayed the same image.
The replacement white teddy bear sat inside the rental house.
Its eyes had opened.
A hidden camera showed someone entering Lily’s temporary bedroom and reaching toward it.
Richard recognized the scarlet sleeve.
Victoria was supposed to be in custody.
The feed shook.
A woman’s voice whispered:
“Nolan never understood which prison door I paid to open.”
Then the bedroom camera went dark.
Inside the mansion, Nolan stared at the blank screen.
For the first time, he looked afraid.
Outside, police sirens multiplied beyond the gates.
Lily clutched Richard’s hand and whispered:
“Daddy… Victoria knows where we live.”
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To be continued...
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