Chapter 4 - Room Seventeen
Richard entered the wall first.
Hannah wanted to stop him.
She knew it would be useless.
He crawled through the broken opening with a flashlight taken from one of the security guards.
Marcus followed.
Two other officers went behind him.
Dr. Ross took Ethan into a quiet sitting room beside the ballroom.
Hannah stayed with the child.
Richard had asked her to.
He had not needed to ask twice.
Ethan refused to release her hand.
His tiny fingers remained wrapped around hers as Dr. Ross checked him.
Outside the room, police sirens approached Sterling Manor.
Inside, Ethan stared at the door.
“Mommy come?”
Hannah looked at him.
“No.”
He watched her carefully.
“Promise?”
Hannah’s chest tightened.
“I promise nobody is putting you back in that wall.”
He seemed to think about it.
Then he whispered.
“Blue lady helped.”
Hannah leaned closer.
“What blue lady?”
Ethan pointed vaguely toward the ceiling.
“Blue lady.”
“Was she in the wall?”
He nodded.
Hannah’s pulse quickened.
“Is she still there?”
Ethan stared at her.
Then he whispered.
“Sleep.”
Hannah did not understand.
“Who is sleeping?”
Ethan looked frightened again.
“Blue lady.”
Dr. Ross glanced toward Hannah.
Both women had heard it.
“Ethan,” Dr. Ross said gently, “what is the blue lady’s name?”
The child opened his mouth.
Then a tremendous metallic crash echoed somewhere inside the walls.
Ethan screamed.
Hannah pulled him against her.
The lights flickered.
Then went out.
The entire manor fell dark.
Guests shouted in the ballroom.
Security officers began calling to one another.
Emergency lights switched on several seconds later.
A dim red glow filled the corridor.
Hannah looked toward the door.
Dr. Ross stood.
“That was not a normal outage.”
Hannah agreed.
Then Ethan whispered against her shoulder.
“She did it.”
“Who?”
“Mommy.”
Deep inside the wall, Richard heard the power fail.
His flashlight remained on.
Marcus’s did too.
The narrow passage around them was lined with old brick.
Electrical cables had been added much later.
The air smelled of dust and metal.
Richard continued forward.
“Where did Vanessa go?”
Marcus pointed.
“There is a junction ahead.”
“How many exits?”
“Four.”
Richard stopped.
“You knew about these tunnels for eleven years?”
“I knew some.”
“How?”
“Your father showed me.”
Richard turned.
“My father?”
Marcus nodded.
“After the kidnapping attempt against Julian.”
Richard remembered it.
Julian had been nineteen.
Someone had tried to pull him into a van outside university.
Their father became obsessed with security afterward.
“He told me the tunnels could be used for emergency movement.”
Marcus looked ashamed.
“I never imagined they would be used like this.”
Richard stared at him.
“You moved my son through them.”
Marcus nodded.
“Why?”
Marcus closed his eyes.
“Because Vanessa sent me a video.”
“Of Olivia?”
“Yes.”
“Where was she?”
“I couldn’t tell.”
“What did the video show?”
“My daughter sitting in a room.”
“Was she hurt?”
“No.”
Richard saw the pain in Marcus’s face.
“She was crying.”
Richard’s anger shifted.
He still hated what Marcus had done.
But he understood the shape of the trap.
“What did Vanessa demand?”
“At first, information.”
“What information?”
“Your schedule.”
Richard continued walking.
“Then?”
“Access codes.”
“Then?”
“The security camera archive.”
Richard stopped.
“You deleted footage.”
“Yes.”
“From the night Ethan disappeared?”
“Yes.”
Richard’s jaw tightened.
Marcus continued before Richard could speak.
“Then she ordered me to move Ethan.”
“Where did you find him?”
“In the library.”
“After the meeting?”
Marcus nodded.
“He was under the desk.”
“Was he conscious?”
“Yes.”
“He had the recorder?”
“I didn’t see it.”
“Why didn’t you take him to me?”
Marcus’s voice broke.
“Because Vanessa showed me another video of Olivia.”
Richard waited.
“She had a newspaper from that morning.”
Marcus wiped his eyes.
“She told me if Ethan reached you, Olivia would disappear permanently.”
Richard looked away.
The passage reached a junction.
Four corridors split in different directions.
Marcus pointed left.
“Room Seventeen.”
Richard inserted the brass key into a narrow steel door.
It did not turn.
He tried again.
Nothing.
Marcus frowned.
“She changed the lock.”
One of the guards examined it.
“Electronic override.”
Richard looked at the old brass key.
“Then what is this?”
Marcus stared.
“I don’t know.”
A sound came from behind them.
Richard turned.
A shadow moved at the far end of the tunnel.
“Vanessa?”
No answer.
The guards raised flashlights.
The shadow vanished.
They ran toward it.
Richard followed.
They reached another steel door.
It stood slightly open.
Marcus looked confused.
“This should lead beneath the library.”
Richard pushed it.
Inside was a narrow stairwell.
At the bottom stood Vanessa.
She was holding a phone.
She stared up at them.
Richard descended.
“Give me the phone.”
Vanessa smiled.
“You always did think money gave you authority over reality.”
Richard kept walking.
“You faked my son’s death.”
“Yes.”
The simple confession stopped him.
Marcus stared.
Vanessa’s smile widened.
“There.”
She lifted her hands.
“You finally heard it.”
Richard’s face hardened.
“Why?”
Vanessa looked at the phone.
“To keep him alive.”
Richard almost struck the wall.
“Do not say that.”
“It’s true.”
“You locked him inside a wall.”
“Because Julian wanted him dead.”
Marcus looked at her.
“That’s not what you told me.”
Vanessa ignored him.
Richard shook his head.
“You were planning with Julian.”
“I was pretending.”
“The recorder says otherwise.”
“The recorder contains pieces.”
“Pieces of what?”
“A war you never knew was happening.”
Richard approached.
“Who was the war against?”
Vanessa looked at him.
“Your family.”
He laughed bitterly.
“You are my family.”
“No.”
She glanced toward the old tunnels.
“I married into your family.”
Richard’s anger paused.
Vanessa continued.
“Those are not the same thing.”
She lifted the phone.
“You think Julian invented this?”
“Didn’t he?”
“Julian doesn’t invent anything.”
Richard remembered Julian’s debts.
His desperation.
His resentment.
Vanessa said.
“He was recruited.”
“By whom?”
Vanessa smiled faintly.
“You still haven’t figured out what Room Seventeen is.”
Richard held up the brass key.
“Show me.”
“No.”
“Then I will find it myself.”
“You already had the key.”
Richard frowned.
“For how long?”
Vanessa pointed toward his hand.
“That key did not come from Marcus.”
Richard looked at Marcus.
Marcus shook his head.
“I found it in my jacket tonight.”
Richard stared.
Someone had planted it.
Vanessa whispered.
“Exactly.”
A sound came from above.
Footsteps.
Many of them.
Police had entered the manor.
Vanessa glanced at the stairwell.
Then at Richard.
“If they arrest me before you open Room Seventeen, you will never know where Olivia is.”
Marcus surged forward.
“Where is my daughter?”
Vanessa stepped back.
“You think I took her?”
“You sent the videos.”
“I received the videos.”
Marcus froze.
Vanessa’s eyes filled with something that looked almost like pity.
“You were blackmailed by the same person I was.”
Richard stared at her.
“That is not what Ethan’s recording suggests.”
“No.”
“It suggests you were willing.”
Vanessa’s expression hardened.
“Eventually.”
The word stunned him.
“What does that mean?”
“It means fear changes people.”
“You hid our child.”
“And if I hadn’t, Julian would have killed him.”
Richard’s breathing became heavy.
Vanessa continued.
“I needed Ethan officially dead.”
“Why?”
“Because a dead heir cannot be used to force you to sign the Sterling Trust amendment.”
Richard stared.
“That amendment transfers control to a surviving spouse.”
“Yes.”
“You.”
“Yes.”
“Then faking his death helped you.”
“For three days.”
“And after three days?”
Vanessa looked directly at him.
“You were supposed to die.”
Richard’s face went still.
She pointed upward.
“Not because I wanted the company.”
“Then why?”
“Because if I refused, somebody else was going to kill all three of us.”
Marcus whispered.
“Who?”
Vanessa looked toward the black corridor behind Richard.
She did not answer.
A faint clicking sound came from the darkness.
Marcus recognized it first.
“Down!”
The lights at the end of the tunnel exploded.
Richard dropped.
Glass scattered.
One of the guards shouted.
A bullet struck the brick wall.
Someone was shooting from the darkness.
Richard crawled behind the steel doorway.
Marcus dragged the second guard into cover.
Vanessa disappeared.
“VANESSA!”
Richard heard a door slam.
Marcus fired once toward the far corridor.
Silence followed.
The shooter was gone.
Richard looked toward the stairwell.
A small object rested on one of the steps.
Vanessa’s phone.
She had dropped it.
Richard picked it up.
The screen was cracked.
One message glowed across it.
ROOM 17 IS OPEN.
Below it was a photograph.
A little girl sat on a narrow bed.
Brown hair.
Blue sweater.
Seven years old.
Marcus made a broken sound.
“Olivia.”
Richard enlarged the image.
Behind Olivia was a painted blue wall.
And standing at the edge of the photograph was the lower half of a woman wearing the exact same blue dress Ethan had described.
Richard looked at Marcus.
“Ethan said a blue lady helped him.”
Marcus stared at the photograph.
Then his face changed.
He recognized the dress.
“No.”
Richard looked at him.
“Who is she?”
Marcus stepped backward.
“No.”
“Marcus.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Who?”
Marcus looked at the photograph again.
Then he whispered.
“My wife.”
Richard frowned.
“Your wife is dead.”
Marcus raised his eyes.
May you like
“So was your son.”
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