Chapter 8 - THE MAN INSIDE THE WALL
Aaron jammed a metal case between the steel door and the frame.
The mechanism crushed it slowly.
Elena searched for a manual release.
The laptop upload reached thirty-four percent.
The bomb timer showed eight minutes.
A pounding sound came from behind the rear wall.
Aaron drew his gun.
“Is there another room?”
Elena shook her head.
The pounding came again.
Then a voice shouted through the stone.
“Elena.”
She recognized it.
Dr. Malcolm Hayes.
Aaron found a concealed latch behind a filing cabinet.
A narrow compartment opened.
Dr. Hayes lay inside with his hands tied.
Bruises covered his face.
A chain secured his ankle to the floor.
Victoria had not fled with him willingly.
She had imprisoned him beneath the estate.
Aaron cut the ropes.
Hayes coughed.
“She knows the vault transmits evidence.”
“She sent Arthur to trigger the explosives.”
“Where is she?” Elena asked.
“At the old Mercer factory.”
Elena stared at him.
“Why?”
“She moved Jonathan’s original toxicology sample there.”
“She also has your mother’s car.”
The upload reached forty-eight percent.
Five minutes remained.
Hayes pointed toward the rear wall.
“There is an emergency tunnel.”
“Jonathan built it after he discovered the explosives.”
Aaron found the release switch.
A hidden door opened into a narrow passage.
Elena looked at the laptop.
Fifty-two percent.
“We cannot leave half the evidence.”
Hayes crawled toward the console.
“Give me the transmitter.”
Aaron disconnected a small wireless unit from the laptop.
Hayes attached it to a backup battery.
“The upload will continue if we remain within two miles.”
The timer showed three minutes.
They entered the tunnel.
The vault door closed behind them.
Elena carried Jonathan’s letter.
Aaron supported Hayes.
They reached the garden as the timer reached zero.
Nothing happened.
For one second, Elena believed the device had failed.
Then the western wing exploded.
The library windows burst outward.
Fire rolled through the roof.
The ground shook beneath them.
Guests and officers screamed near the lawn.
Elena fell to her knees.
Ashcroft Manor had survived wars, storms, and three generations of Langley ownership.
Now flames consumed the room Jonathan loved most.
The transmitter light continued blinking.
UPLOAD: 71%.
Hayes sat on the grass.
“I gave Jonathan the final dose.”
Elena turned slowly.
Aaron pointed his gun at the doctor.
Hayes lifted both hands.
“Victoria ordered it.”
“You could have refused,” Elena said.
“She had my daughter.”
“What?”
Hayes explained that his daughter, Sophie, had struggled with addiction.
Victoria arranged her arrest.
Then she offered to make the charges disappear.
In return, Hayes altered Jonathan’s medical records.
He began administering digitalis in small doses.
He believed Victoria wanted Jonathan declared incompetent.
He did not know she intended to kill him.
“The final night, she told me to increase the dose.”
“I refused.”
“She threatened to send Sophie to a prison where one of her enemies controlled the guards.”
Hayes lowered his head.
“I did it.”
Elena’s hands began shaking.
“You murdered my husband.”
“Yes.”
“Then why are you helping now?”
“Because Victoria killed Sophie anyway.”
His daughter’s body was found from an overdose two weeks after Jonathan’s funeral.
Hayes discovered years later that Victoria’s assistant purchased the drugs.
“She removes everyone after they become useful,” he said.
The transmitter beeped.
UPLOAD COMPLETE.
Every file inside the vault had been copied to federal servers.
Elena stood.
“Take us to the Mercer factory.”
Aaron looked at her.
“The police will handle it.”
“No.”
“My mother died there.”
“My husband died for what was hidden there.”
May you like
“Victoria has spent my entire life deciding what I am allowed to know.”
“That ends tonight.”
