CHAPTER 3: DARKNESS
Screams erupted in the darkness.
A glass shattered.
Someone knocked over a chair.
Ethan immediately pulled Ava against his chest.
“Stay with me.”
“I’m here,” she whispered.
Emergency lights glowed red along the walls.
The ballroom looked completely different beneath them.
Less glamorous.
More dangerous.
Ethan looked toward the auction display.
The glass case was open.
The Midnight Bat was gone.
“Seal the doors!” Eleanor shouted.
Heavy locks clicked around the ballroom.
Several guests rushed toward the exits.
Security guards blocked them.
Bianca searched beneath the auction table.
“It was right there!”
Ethan looked at Eleanor.
“You knew this would happen.”
“I knew nothing.”
“You ordered the doors locked before anyone could leave.”
“To protect my guests.”
“No,” Ethan said. “To trap whoever took it.”
Ava tugged his sleeve.
“Daddy, look.”
Near the empty display case, a small object reflected the red emergency light.
Ethan crouched and picked it up.
It was a brass button engraved with the symbol of a lion.
He recognized it immediately.
The button belonged to the uniforms worn by employees at Halcyon Field, the abandoned stadium where Samuel Mercer had played his final game.
The stadium had been closed for seventeen years.
Bianca snatched the button from Ethan’s hand.
“This proves nothing.”
“It proves someone from the old stadium was here.”
A deep voice came from behind them.
“Not someone.”
An elderly man in a waiter’s uniform stepped out of the darkness.
His name tag read ARTHUR BELL.
His face was pale.
“I took the bat,” he said.
The guards surrounded him.
Eleanor stared at the old waiter.
“You?”
Arthur looked at Ethan.
“Your father told me to protect it if the Vales ever tried to sell it.”
The ballroom became silent again.
Ethan stepped closer.
“My father died eighteen years ago.”
Arthur’s eyes filled with regret.
“No, Mr. Mercer.”
He opened his jacket.
May you like
The Midnight Bat was strapped against his chest.
“Your father was alive three weeks ago.”
