CHAPTER 7 THE MAN INSIDE THE WALLS
Harold’s body hit the floor before Mateo could catch him.
For one stunned second, no one moved.
The satellite phone slipped from Harold’s fingers and spun across the stone hallway.
A thin line of blood spread beneath his shoulder.
Leo stood three feet away, staring at the hole punched cleanly through the wall.
The shot had come from outside.
But the angle was wrong.
Mateo dropped beside Harold and pressed two fingers against his neck.
Nothing.
“He’s gone,” Mateo said.
Leo’s jaw tightened.
Behind him, Beatrice pulled Lily against her chest and turned the child’s face away.
Lily did not cry.
She simply stared at the broken plaster with the frozen expression of someone who already understood that danger could reach through walls.
“Everybody down,” Mateo ordered.
Security guards moved instantly.
Lights were killed.
Curtains were drawn.
Two men rushed toward the west terrace while another team sealed the service corridors.
Leo remained standing.
“Leo,” Mateo warned.
Leo ignored him.
His eyes were fixed on Harold’s body.
“They killed him before he could name the second mole.”
Mateo rose slowly.
“That means they were listening.”
Leo looked toward the ceiling.
The estate had been searched twice.
Every camera had been checked.
Every employee had been questioned.
And still someone inside the house had known exactly where Harold was standing.
Exactly when he was about to speak.
Exactly which wall to shoot through.
Leo turned to Beatrice.
“Take Lily to the panic room.”
Lily immediately clutched Beatrice’s sleeve.
“No.”
The word was soft.
But it stopped everyone.
Leo looked at his daughter.
Lily’s face had gone pale.
“No room,” she whispered.
Beatrice knelt in front of her.
“You’ll be safe there.”
Lily shook her head harder.
“The bad man knows that room.”
Leo felt the air leave his lungs.
Mateo stepped closer.
“What bad man?”
Lily stared at him.
“The man who walks when everyone sleeps.”
No one spoke.
Leo crouched beside her.
“Lily, have you seen him?”
She looked toward the dark staircase.
“He doesn’t let me see his face.”
“Where did you hear him?”
“In the walls.”
Mateo and Leo exchanged a look.
Beatrice touched Lily’s cheek.
“Sweetheart, tell us exactly what you mean.”
Lily swallowed.
“Sometimes after midnight, I hear footsteps behind my bedroom.”
“There’s no hallway behind your bedroom,” Mateo said.
Lily looked at him.
“Yes, there is.”
The silence that followed was colder than the gunshot.
Mateo grabbed a radio.
“Lock down the east wing.”
Leo stood.
“We’re checking her room now.”
Beatrice tightened her hold on Lily.
“You’re not taking her there.”
“She may be the only one who knows where the passage is.”
“She is six years old.”
“And someone has been moving inside my house without being seen.”
Beatrice’s expression hardened.
“So you want to use her as a map?”
The accusation landed harder than Leo expected.
He looked at Lily.
For two years, he had told himself that money, guards, doctors, and distance could protect her.
Yet Beatrice had been the one who sat beneath tables during thunderstorms.
Beatrice had been the one who noticed when Lily stopped eating.
Beatrice had been the one who stood outside the cellar door until her hands bled.
Leo lowered his voice.
“No.”
He looked directly at Beatrice.
“I want to listen to her.”
That answer softened something in Beatrice’s face.
Only slightly.
Together, they moved upstairs.
Mateo led the security team.
Two guards checked every room before Leo, Beatrice, and Lily entered.
Lily’s bedroom looked untouched.
The white rose still rested inside an evidence bag on the dresser.
The note was gone, already taken by police.
Leo studied the walls.
One side held a painted mural of clouds and pale stars.
The opposite side was lined with bookshelves.
“Where do you hear the footsteps?” he asked.
Lily pointed behind the bookshelves.
Mateo frowned.
“That wall borders the old nursery.”
“No,” Leo said.
“The old nursery was sealed during renovations.”
Mateo stepped toward the shelf.
“Sealed how?”
Leo searched his memory.
“Victoria supervised that part of the estate renovation.”
Beatrice went still.
Of course she had.
Victoria had insisted the east wing needed to be modernized.
She had personally selected the contractors.
She had changed the floor plans.
She had argued that Lily’s room should remain where it was because the garden view would help with her trauma.
Mateo pressed his palm against the shelf.
“Help me move this.”
Two guards joined him.
The bookshelf did not shift.
Mateo crouched and examined the base.
“It’s bolted.”
Leo looked at Lily.
“How does the man get inside?”
She pointed at a small wooden falcon carved into the edge of the mural.
Leo had seen it hundreds of times.
He had assumed it was decoration.
Lily walked toward it.
Beatrice held her back.
“I can do it,” Lily whispered.
She reached up and pressed the falcon’s wing.
A soft mechanical click came from behind the wall.
Everyone froze.
The bookshelf moved forward half an inch.
Mateo drew his weapon.
“Back up.”
The guards pulled the shelf outward.
Behind it was a narrow steel door.
No handle.
No visible lock.
Only a keypad.
Leo stared at it.
“This was built into my daughter’s bedroom.”
Mateo examined the keypad.
“Recently.”
“How recently?”
“The screws are new.”
Beatrice looked toward the ceiling.
“Victoria.”
Leo’s anger was immediate.
“She had months to build this while I was traveling.”
Mateo shook his head.
“She couldn’t have done it alone.”
One of the guards brought a portable scanner.
The keypad was connected to an internal power source.
Mateo entered a bypass code.
Nothing happened.
Lily stepped forward again.
“The man uses numbers.”
“What numbers?” Leo asked.
She hesitated.
Then she whispered, “The day Mommy died.”
Leo’s face changed.
Mateo slowly entered the date of the explosion.
The keypad flashed red.
Lily frowned.
“No.”
She looked at Leo.
“The day they said Mommy died.”
A chill moved through him.
They had always treated the explosion date and Sofia’s death date as the same.
But Sofia’s letter had said the body in the grave was not hers.
Mateo looked at Leo.
“What other date?”
Leo remembered the official death certificate.
It had been signed two days after the explosion.
He gave Mateo the date.
The light turned green.
The steel door unlocked.
Cold air spilled into the bedroom.
The passage beyond was barely wide enough for one person.
Black cables ran along the ceiling.
A faint red light glowed farther inside.
Mateo entered first.
Two guards followed.
Leo turned to Beatrice.
“Stay with Lily.”
Beatrice shook her head.
“No.”
“Beatrice—”
“If Sofia used this house to hide something, I may recognize it.”
Leo wanted to argue.
Then Lily gripped his hand.
“I’m coming too.”
“No,” Leo and Beatrice said together.
Lily flinched.
Leo softened his voice.
“You stay here with two guards.”
“The guards don’t know the song.”
Leo stared at her.
“What song?”
“The whistle.”
Beatrice crouched.
“Did you hear it inside there?”
Lily nodded.
“The night the rose came.”
Mateo returned to the doorway.
“We don’t have time.”
Leo made the decision.
Lily would remain at the entrance with Beatrice and two guards.
Leo and Mateo entered the passage.
The steel door stayed open behind them.
The corridor ran between the bedroom wall and the sealed nursery.
Dust covered most of the floor.
But not all of it.
There were footprints.
Fresh ones.
Mateo knelt.
“Two different shoe sizes.”
“One is Harold?”
“Maybe.”
“And the other?”
Mateo looked ahead.
“Our mole.”
They moved deeper.
The passage bent sharply left.
Hidden vents allowed a clear view into Lily’s bedroom through the painted stars.
Leo felt sick.
Someone had been watching his daughter sleep.
A wire ran from the vent to a small recording unit.
Mateo removed the memory card.
“This has been active for months.”
Leo gripped the wall.
Every private moment.
Every nightmare.
Every conversation between Lily and Beatrice.
Recorded.
Observed.
Collected.
“Falcon Circle knew everything,” Leo said.
Mateo’s face was grim.
“Maybe they still do.”
At the end of the passage, they found a metal desk.
On it sat three monitors.
Two were dark.
The third displayed a live image.
Daniel Cross.
He was sitting inside a police safe house.
His hands were cuffed to a table.
A detective stood outside the room.
Leo stared at the screen.
“How do they have access to this?”
Mateo searched beneath the desk.
He found a black transmitter marked with the silver falcon symbol.
“They penetrated the police system.”
Then the monitor flickered.
A line of text appeared.
BRING US THE LETTER.
Leo’s pulse slowed.
Another line followed.
OR THE CHILD LEARNS WHAT HAPPENED TO HER MOTHER.
Mateo reached for the transmitter.
The screen changed again.
This time, it showed live footage of Lily standing outside the secret passage.
Beatrice was beside her.
Two guards were behind them.
Leo spun toward the corridor.
“They’re watching us right now.”
A sharp electronic beep sounded.
Mateo looked down.
A red light had activated beneath the desk.
“Move.”
He grabbed Leo and pulled him backward.
The metal desk exploded in a burst of sparks and smoke.
Not large enough to destroy the wall.
Large enough to destroy the equipment.
Leo hit the floor.
Mateo covered his head.
The passage filled with smoke.
Behind them, Lily screamed.
Leo forced himself up.
“Lily!”
He ran toward the bedroom.
The steel door was closing.
Beatrice shoved Lily backward.
One of the guards tried to stop the door.
It crushed his weapon against the frame.
Leo reached the opening just before it sealed.
Mateo jammed a metal tool into the track.
The mechanism groaned.
“Pull her through!” Leo shouted.
Beatrice lifted Lily.
Leo caught his daughter and dragged her into the passage.
Beatrice followed.
The second guard did not.
The door slammed shut between them.
From the bedroom, they heard pounding.
Then silence.
Mateo tested the emergency release.
It was dead.
“We need another exit.”
Lily coughed in the smoke.
Leo held her tightly.
Beatrice tore a strip from her sleeve and pressed it over Lily’s mouth.
“There has to be a way out,” she said.
Lily pointed deeper into the corridor.
“The man goes that way.”
They followed her direction.
The passage continued beyond the destroyed station.
At the far end, they found a narrow staircase descending beneath the east wing.
Mateo’s flashlight swept across the walls.
Silver falcons had been painted at regular intervals.
The air grew colder.
Leo felt Lily trembling against him.
Then they heard it.
A soft whistle.
Three gentle notes.
The exact lullaby Sofia used to calm Lily.
Lily lifted her head.
“Mommy?”
The whistle came again.
Not from behind them.
From below.
Leo’s entire body went rigid.
Mateo raised his weapon.
Beatrice whispered Sofia’s name.
The staircase ended at another steel door.
Unlike the first one, this door was already open.
Beyond it was a hidden room.
A single lamp burned in the darkness.
A woman stood with her back to them.
She had long dark hair.
Her shoulders were narrow.
In her right hand, she held a white rose.
Lily slipped from Leo’s arms before he could stop her.
“Mommy!”
The woman began to turn.
But before her face came into view, the lights went out.
A gunshot cracked through the room.
Beatrice threw herself over Lily.
Mateo fired toward the sound.
Leo lunged forward blindly.
Someone brushed past him.
A door slammed.
Emergency lights flickered on.
The woman was gone.
The white rose lay on the floor.
Mateo rushed to the opposite doorway.
Locked.
Leo turned toward Lily.
She was alive.
Beatrice was shielding her.
No one had been hit.
Then Leo saw something pinned beneath the rose.
A photograph.
He picked it up.
The image showed Sofia standing beside Richard Kensington.
The date printed in the corner was six months after Sofia’s supposed death.
On the back, one sentence had been written in Sofia’s handwriting.
RICHARD DID NOT KILL ME.
HE HID ME FROM THE MAN YOU TRUST MOST.
Leo read it twice.
Then slowly looked at Mateo.
Mateo’s weapon was still raised.
His face had gone pale.
From somewhere inside the walls, a phone began to ring.
The sound came from Mateo’s pocket.
He pulled it out.
The screen showed an unknown number.
Leo answered before Mateo could stop him.
A distorted voice spoke.
“Your daughter has now seen the door.”
Leo’s hand tightened around the phone.
“Who are you?”
The voice ignored him.
“Daniel Cross will be dead before sunrise.”
The line went silent for one second.
Then the caller added:
“And the traitor standing beside you already knows why.”
The call ended.
Leo lowered the phone.
Mateo stared at him.
Beatrice held Lily close.
No one moved.
Because for the first time since Harold’s death, Leo understood the real purpose of the hidden passage.
It had not been built only to watch Lily.
May you like
It had been built to make every person in the house suspect the others.
And somewhere inside Rossi Estate, the real mole had just succeeded.
