Chapter 3 - THE HIDDEN VAULT
Aaron dragged Elena behind Jonathan’s desk.
A second bullet tore through the curtains.
Officers shouted in the hallway.
Peter collapsed near the fireplace.
Blood spread across his white shirt.
Elena crawled toward him.
Aaron grabbed her arm.
“Stay down.”
“He’s bleeding.”
“The shooter may still have a line of sight.”
Peter lifted one shaking hand.
“Library.”
His voice was barely audible.
“Behind the lion.”
Then his eyes closed.
Police rushed into the garden.
A black motorcycle disappeared beyond the eastern wall.
The shooter escaped through a service gate that had been unlocked from the inside.
Peter was taken to the hospital.
The bullet had missed his heart.
Doctors said he might survive.
At two in the morning, Aaron accompanied Elena to the library.
Two officers searched the room first.
The carved wooden lion stood beside the fireplace.
It had belonged to Jonathan’s grandfather.
Elena had dusted around it hundreds of times.
She had never noticed the small keyhole beneath its mane.
The brass key fit.
The entire bookcase shifted forward.
A narrow staircase descended beneath the library.
Cold air rose from the darkness.
Aaron turned on his flashlight.
“Stay behind me.”
They reached a steel door at the bottom.
A digital keypad glowed beside it.
Peter’s key opened a panel beneath the numbers.
Inside was a mechanical lock.
Elena turned the key.
Nothing happened.
A message appeared on the keypad.
SECOND AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED.
Aaron examined the frame.
“No fingerprints.”
“Jonathan wanted two people to open it.”
Elena searched her memory.
During Jonathan’s final weeks, he had given her a silver locket.
She had never opened it.
He told her it belonged to his mother.
Victoria had demanded it after the funeral.
Elena refused.
The locket was inside a jewelry box in her dressing room.
They returned upstairs.
The box had been forced open.
The locket was gone.
Elena’s stomach tightened.
Victoria had planted the diamond necklace while searching for something else.
“She found it tonight,” Elena whispered.
Aaron called the officers guarding Victoria’s suite.
No one answered.
They ran upstairs.
The suite door stood open.
One officer lay unconscious in the corridor.
The second had disappeared.
Victoria’s luggage was gone.
A bloodstained handkerchief rested on the bed.
Aaron opened the security application on his phone.
A camera showed a black sedan leaving through the north gate sixteen minutes earlier.
Victoria sat in the back seat.
Beside her was Dr. Malcolm Hayes.
Elena stared at the image.
“She knew the police were coming.”
“She prepared an escape.”
Aaron looked toward the open jewelry box.
“She also has half the vault access.”
Elena touched the empty space where the locket had been.
“What could Jonathan have hidden that frightened her this much?”
Aaron’s phone rang.
The hospital was calling.
Peter had regained consciousness.
He had asked to speak with Elena.
They reached his room before sunrise.
Peter breathed through an oxygen mask.
His wife stood in the corner crying.
Elena approached the bed.
“Who shot you?”
Peter shook his head.
“I did not see.”
“What is inside the vault?”
He looked toward his wife.
Then toward Aaron.
“Jonathan found the Mercer accounts.”
Aaron frowned.
“What are those?”
Peter’s eyes shifted back to Elena.
“The Langley fortune was not built by Jonathan’s grandfather.”
“It was stolen.”
Elena stepped closer.
“Stolen from whom?”
May you like
Peter looked directly at her.
“Your family.”
