Chapter 1 - The Command
“Atlas, stop him!”
The German shepherd raced across the Manhattan ballroom.
Thomas stood just inside the double doors in his worn brown coat, surrounded by guests whose cuff links were worth more than his yearly pension. He raised one calm hand.
“Atlas…it’s me.”
The dog stopped inches from him.
Then Atlas pressed his head into Thomas’s palm.
A soft whine replaced the command Mason had given.
Thomas removed an old puppy collar from his coat.
“I raised him from six weeks old.”
Mason’s confidence faded.
For months, the head of security had called Thomas an unstable former employee who could no longer control a working dog. Yet Atlas had ignored the younger man’s order the moment he recognized the person who trained him.
The dog turned toward Victoria’s jeweled clutch.
One trained tap.
The clutch fell open.
A hotel keycard and Mason’s burgundy tie slid onto the carpet.
Richard Harrington looked from the items to his wife.
“Why does she have your room key?”
Victoria said nothing.
Neither did Mason.
Atlas then walked beneath the gala table and tapped a locked briefcase exactly three times.
Thomas faced Richard.
“That holds the records of the missing family funds.”
Mason stepped between them.
“No one opens that.”
Richard picked up the keycard.
“Was the secret relationship—or the money—the real plan?”
Victoria’s face turned pale.
Thomas studied Mason’s shoes.
Fine gray powder marked both soles.
The same archival dust had covered the basement records room before it was emptied.
“There was no affair,” Thomas said.
Richard looked at him.
“Then why were they meeting in a hotel suite?”
Thomas pointed toward the briefcase.
“Because everyone would understand adultery.”
A pause.
“They were counting on no one understanding the theft.”
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Then Atlas lowered his nose to the locks.
And alerted to something inside that carried Richard’s scent.
