Chapter 5 - Nobody Leaves
Brad tried the front door.
Locked.
He turned toward the side corridor.
Emergency steel shutters had lowered over the glass exits when Margaret cut the main power.
Mrs. Gable had installed them years earlier for protection against intruders.
Now they trapped her guests inside.
“Turn the lights back on,” she ordered.
Margaret remained beside the table.
“No.”
“You’re committing unlawful imprisonment.”
“The rear service doors remain operational.”
One attorney checked.
The service doors required an access code controlled by mansion security.
The two guards looked toward Mrs. Gable.
She had changed the code that morning.
She did not remember the new sequence.
Margaret had not trapped them.
Mrs. Gable’s own security system had.
Brad reached for the recorder.
A bodyguard stepped between them.
He had seen the notification.
“I wouldn’t touch evidence, sir.”
Brad stared at him.
“I pay you.”
“Not enough to obstruct a federal investigation.”
That sentence shifted the room.
The guards stopped acting like employees.
The attorneys stopped acting like guests.
The board members began calculating personal exposure.
Mrs. Gable tried to regain control.
“This woman broke into my home and assaulted my son.”
Margaret looked toward the camera above the staircase.
“Your security system recorded Brad attacking me first.”
Mrs. Gable’s face hardened.
Margaret continued.
“And the recorder contains what happened to Emily before the party.”
Brad’s voice became quiet.
“You don’t know where she is.”
May you like
Margaret studied him.
“No. But you do.”
