"I don't know."
Then Marcus's phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed.
"Sir."
"What?"
"We just found Samuel's car."
"Where?"
"Three miles from here."
"Is he inside?"
"No."
Marcus hesitated.
"The driver's door is open."
Adrian closed his eyes.
"What else?"
"There is blood on the seat.
Samuel was alive.
That was the first piece of good news.
He had been found nearly an hour later in an abandoned maintenance building outside the city.
His hands had been tied, but he had managed to free himself.
When Adrian arrived, Samuel was sitting against a concrete wall with a blanket around his shoulders.
"I'm sorry," Samuel said.
Adrian crouched beside him.
"Don't apologize."
"They took my ring."
Adrian stared at him.
"Why?"
"I don't know."
Samuel looked exhausted.
"Last night, two men came into the garage."
"Did they say who sent them?"
"No."
"What did they want?"
"My keys."
"Did you give them the keys?"
"They already had them."
Adrian's jaw tightened.
Samuel continued.
"They knew everything. Your schedule. Your wife's schedule. The security rotation."
"Victoria?"
Samuel looked at him.
"I don't know."
That answer hurt more than Adrian expected.
"Why would they need your ring?"
Samuel swallowed.
"Because it isn't only a ring."
Adrian waited.
Samuel reached into his pocket and pulled out an old photograph.
It showed him twenty years earlier beside Adrian's father.
Adrian recognized the ring on Samuel's hand.
"My father gave it to you."
Samuel nodded.
"He told me to protect you."
Adrian looked closer.
The ring had a strange symbol engraved inside.
A small triangle.
"What does that mean?"
Samuel shook his head.
"I never asked."
"Then why did they want it?"
Samuel looked directly at him.
"Because your father hid something."
Adrian said nothing.
His father had been dead for twelve years.
And throughout Adrian's entire adult life, he had believed the old man's business records were complete.
But now another possibility emerged.
Maybe his father had left something behind.
Something someone was willing to kill for.
Eli refused to leave.
Adrian offered him money.
The boy refused.
He offered to call the authorities.
Eli became frightened.
"I can't go to the police."
"Why?"
"They'll find me."
"Who?"
Eli stared at the floor.
"The people who killed my mother."
Adrian's expression changed.
Marcus looked at him.
Eli slowly explained.
His mother had worked as a cleaner for a private security company.
Three months earlier, she had discovered that someone inside the company was selling information about wealthy clients.
She had reported it.
Two weeks later, she died in what authorities called a traffic accident.
Eli didn't believe it.
Neither did his mother's closest friend.
They had moved him between temporary homes since then.
But Eli had continued watching.
He had learned which vehicles belonged to the security company.
Which men appeared near certain properties.
And eventually, he had seen Victoria meeting someone behind Adrian's estate.
"I didn't know what they were planning," Eli said.
"But you knew enough to record them."
"I knew they were going to hurt you."
Adrian sat silently.
The boy's courage disturbed him.
Not because it was unusual.
Because it reminded Adrian of someone.
His father.
The same stubborn refusal to look away.
"Where did you sleep last night?" Adrian asked.
"In an old gardener's shed."
Adrian looked at Marcus.
"Prepare a room."
Eli immediately protested.
"I don't need a room."
"You do now."
"I can't stay here."
Adrian stood.
"Neither can I."
Eli looked confused.
Adrian walked toward the security monitors.
"Because whoever planned this knows my house better than I do.
Adrian spent the next six hours searching his father's old files.