“No.”
“Did he say the person might have authorization?”
Hawkins looked uncomfortable.
“He said the situation was unclear.”
Danielle stared at him.
“Then why did your officer approach me as though my guilt had already been established?”
“That's a question we need to answer.”
“No, Chief. That's a question you should have asked before you sent anyone here.”
Hawkins accepted the criticism without protest.
“I understand.”
She closed the folder.
“Who placed the original call?”
“Dispatch hasn't confirmed that yet.”
“Then let's start there.”
Hawkins turned to his deputy.
“Contact the communications center. I want the original call, the complete transcript, and the identity of the person who initiated the response.”
“Yes, Chief.”
“And no one is to delete, overwrite, or alter any related record.”
The deputy nodded and walked toward the SUV.
Patricia approached cautiously.
“Mayor Brooks?”
Danielle turned.
“Yes?”
“I wanted to tell you something.”
“Go ahead.”
“Before the officer arrived, I saw a dark sedan parked near the gate. The driver was watching the house.”
Hawkins immediately became attentive.
“How long ago?”
“Maybe ten minutes before the officer came. I thought he was waiting for someone.”
“Did you see the driver?”
“Not clearly. The windows were tinted.”
“Did the car leave?”
“Yes. Just after the police vehicle entered the driveway.”
Danielle exchanged a look with the chief.
“Did you happen to get the license plate?”
Patricia shook her head.
“No, I'm sorry.”
“Don't apologize. You did the right thing by recording what you saw.”
Hawkins made a note.
“Can you describe the vehicle?”
“Black sedan. Maybe a late-model luxury car. It had a small silver emblem on the front.”
The chief looked toward the road.
“Was it a city vehicle?”
“I don't think so.”
Danielle considered the information.
Someone might have been watching the property.
Someone might have called the police.
And someone might have known enough about her appointment to arrange for an officer to arrive at precisely the wrong moment.
She looked at the mansion's closed front doors.
“Chief, I want to know whether Thomas Ellison is inside.”
Hawkins nodded to his deputy.
“Check the building. Quietly. Make sure we don't disturb anything.”
Two officers approached the entrance, but Danielle raised a hand.
“Before anyone enters, call the property manager.”
The chief hesitated.
“Mayor, we have officers on scene already.”
“And we have no reason to assume that the person inside is involved in a crime. Call him first.”
Hawkins gave a short nod.
“Understood.”
The call went to voicemail.
Thomas Ellison's recorded voice sounded ordinary and untroubled.
“This is Thomas. Leave a message, and I'll get back to you.”
Danielle tried his number herself.
The same message answered.
She sent a text.
I'm at the estate. The police are here. Please call me immediately.
A minute passed.
Then another.
No reply arrived.
Hawkins watched her face.
“Is that unusual?”
“Yes.”
“How well do you know him?”
“Well enough to know he would never miss a meeting like this without warning me.”
“Could he have changed his mind about speaking?”
“Of course. But if he had, he would have told me.”
She looked at the phone again.
A new message appeared.
It was from an unknown number.
LEAVE THE PROPERTY. THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU.
Danielle read it twice.
Then she handed the phone to Hawkins.
He studied the screen.
“Do you recognize the number?”
“No.”
“Has anyone else received a message like this?”
“I don't know.”
The chief's expression hardened.
He turned to his deputy.
“Preserve the message. Get the number documented through the proper process. And find out whether Thomas Ellison has been seen today.”
The deputy nodded.
Danielle looked toward the driveway, where Patricia's recording had captured every second of the confrontation.
The officer had called her an intruder.
The chief had suspended him.
A mysterious car had been watching the property.
And now someone was telling the mayor to leave.
She slipped the phone into her bag.
“Chief Hawkins,” she said, “I think my arrest was intended to stop this meeting.”
He did not immediately disagree.
That frightened her more than anything else.
Because it meant he had begun to consider the possibility that she was right.
Chapter 4: The Missing Property Manager
At 2:46 p.m., Chief Hawkins received the first update from the communications center.
He listened without speaking, his expression becoming increasingly troubled.
When the call ended, Danielle approached him.
“What did they find?”
“The original report was entered at 1:51 p.m.”
“By whom?”
“The operator's identification number belongs to a dispatcher named Melissa Grant.”
“Did she speak to the person who reported the incident?”
“She says the report came through the non-emergency line. The caller claimed a person without authorization had entered the Brookfield property.”
“Did the caller identify me?”
“No.”
“Did the caller describe me?”
Hawkins checked his notes.
“Female. Red jacket. Carrying a set of keys.”
Danielle stared at him.
“That is a remarkably specific description.”
“Yes.”
“Was the caller still on the line when the report was entered?”
“The call was disconnected before the record was finalized.”
“Was the number recorded?”
“Apparently, yes.”
“Then why haven't we identified the caller?”
“The number was entered as restricted.”
Danielle's eyes narrowed.
“Restricted by whom?”
“That isn't clear yet.”
She took a breath.
“Chief, I want you to understand what concerns me. Someone knew what I would be wearing. Someone knew I would be carrying keys. Someone knew I would be at this property. And someone made sure an officer arrived before my meeting began.”
Hawkins nodded slowly.
“It's possible the description came from someone who saw you arrive.”
“Then we should be able to identify that person.”
“Agreed.”
“It's also possible the information was provided in advance.”
“That is what we need to investigate.”
Danielle glanced toward Ryan Mitchell, who was now standing beside the second SUV under the supervision of another officer.
He looked smaller without his badge and service weapon.
For the first time, he appeared to understand that the situation was beyond his control.
She did not feel sorry for him.
But neither did she want him to become a convenient scapegoat if someone else had deliberately manipulated the response.
“Chief,” she said, “I want Officer Mitchell's full account preserved. Every word. I want him interviewed separately from the other officers.”
Hawkins looked surprised.
“You don't want him dismissed immediately?”
“I want the facts established. If he violated policy, he should face the consequences. If someone manipulated him, we need to know who did it. Those possibilities are not mutually exclusive.”
The chief nodded.
“I'll make sure the review covers both.”
A phone rang inside the SUV.
The deputy chief answered it, listened, and hurried toward Hawkins.
“Sir, we've reached the property owner.”
“Arthur Bellamy?”
“Yes. He's out of town. He says Thomas Ellison was supposed to meet the mayor today.”
Danielle stepped closer.
“What else did he say?”
The deputy looked at his notes.
“He says Mr. Ellison contacted him last night. He was worried about the security system at the estate.”
“Worried how?”
“He said he had discovered an unexplained access event.”
Hawkins frowned.
“An access event?”
“Someone had entered the property management system remotely. Mr. Bellamy says Ellison wanted to inspect the logs before the mayor arrived.”
Danielle felt a cold sensation settle in her stomach.
“What time did the access occur?”
“Mr. Bellamy doesn't know. He said Ellison would have the details.”
“Can we contact the system administrator?”
“We're trying.”
“Try harder.”
The deputy nodded and returned to the vehicle.
Hawkins looked at Danielle.
“If someone accessed the property's security system, this may be connected to the communications records you mentioned.”
“Or it may be another coincidence.”
“Do you believe in coincidences?”
“I believe in evidence.”
She looked toward the entrance.
“Let's find out what happened to Thomas.”
They did not enter the house immediately. The chief first arranged for a property representative to authorize access and for an investigator to document the condition of the premises. Danielle insisted that the procedure be recorded.
At 3:05 p.m., they entered the mansion.
The foyer was enormous, with a polished stone floor, a sweeping staircase, and tall windows overlooking the gardens. The interior was quiet. A clock ticked on a console table. A faint smell of coffee lingered in the air.
Nothing appeared disturbed.
The officers checked the main rooms and the adjoining study.
No one was there.
In the study, a laptop sat open on the desk.
A glass of water stood beside it, untouched.
A leather notebook lay on the floor near a chair.
Danielle recognized the notebook immediately.
“That's Thomas's.”
Hawkins did not touch it.
“Can you identify anything else?”
She pointed toward the desk.
“He was supposed to bring a blue folder. He told me he had printed the original records.”
The folder was missing.
The laptop displayed a login screen.
An investigator photographed the room and recorded the position of the objects before examining the notebook.