Chapter 4 - The Ghost in the Foundation
The private study on the third floor was a fortress within a fortress. Steel-reinforced walls, biometric locks, and an air-gapped server room that ran independent of the main house’s power grid.
Vincent connected Sophia’s cracked phone to an emergency high-voltage forensic charger. The screen flickered back to life, glowing pale blue against the dark mahogany desk.
He bypassed the lock screen using a master cryptographic key he carried on his dog tags.
The full audio file loaded onto the monitor speakers.
“Vince, if Bellamy is in the room, don’t say another word,” Sophia’s voice echoed through the high-ceilinged room, crystal clear now that the static had been scrubbed. “He’s not drafting a prenuptial agreement. He’s drafting an execution ledger. Dominic paid him eight million from the Cayman accounts to alter the Continuity Trust. They know I found the ledger in the boathouse vault. Vince, if I don't make it back to the main house, look under the fourth flagstone behind the lily pond. Don't trust Charles. Don't trust—”
The audio cut off with the heavy, violent sound of a wooden door being kicked open, followed by a sharp gasp and the dull thud of a phone falling onto a carpeted floor.
I covered my mouth, tears blurring my vision. Sophia had been my employer, but she had also been kind to me. She was the one who had paid for Emily’s asthma medication when my insurance had failed during my first year of service.
Vincent stood completely frozen, staring at the waveform on the monitor screen.
“The boathouse,” Vincent whispered.
“Mr. Moretti,” I said softly. “The boathouse was demolished two weeks after Mrs. Moretti vanished. Your cousin Dominic ordered the demolition team. He said the foundation was collapsing into the lake.”
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Vincent’s jaw locked. “He didn't demolish it because it was collapsing. He demolished it to pour ten feet of reinforced concrete over the old vault.”
He pulled a heavy tactical radio from his desk drawer. “Geno. Get the heavy equipment crew from the construction yards. Tell them to bring concrete saws and ground-penetrating radar to the north shore of the lake. Now.”
