Chapter 7 - The Ledger Behind the Portrait.
The photograph showed a painting Adrian knew well.
It was a portrait of his grandmother, Margaret Vale, hanging in the west gallery.
He had passed it thousands of times without noticing the narrow seam in the wall behind the frame.
Claire enlarged the image.
A brass key sat beside the blue ledger.
"Whoever sent this wants us inside the house."
Adrian nodded.
"Which means it could be bait."
They went anyway.
They entered during a charity dinner when the mansion was crowded enough to hide their movements.
Claire wore the same pale beige dress she had fallen in, despite Adrian asking her to choose anything else.
"I want whoever did it to see that I came back."
They slipped into the west gallery while musicians played downstairs.
The portrait was heavier than expected.
Behind it, Adrian found a recessed panel with a tiny keyhole.
There was no key.
Claire ran her fingers along the frame.
"The photograph was taken before the key was removed."
A floorboard creaked behind them.
Edmund stood at the entrance.
His face was unreadable.
"Your mother used to hide cigarettes behind that painting."
Adrian did not turn away from the panel.
"Did she hide ledgers too?"
Edmund entered and closed the door.
"Evelyn spent the last years of her life convinced everyone around her was corrupt."
"Was she wrong?"
Edmund's silence answered too much.
Claire stepped closer.
"Did my father work with Evelyn?"
"Yes."
"Why did no one tell me?"
"Because their partnership destroyed both of them."
Adrian turned.
"What does that mean?"
Edmund looked older than he had the night of the fall.
"Your mother discovered money moving through construction accounts."
Claire's pulse quickened.
"The fake renovations."
"Thomas helped her trace them."
"To whom?"
Edmund looked toward the closed door.
"Not here."
A crash exploded downstairs.
Someone screamed.
The charity guests began shouting.
Adrian opened the gallery door and smelled smoke.
Another fire.
This one had started in the ballroom kitchen.
Sprinklers activated, sending guests toward the exits.
Edmund grabbed Adrian's arm.
"That fire is not for the ballroom."
He pointed at the portrait.
The warning came too late.
A masked figure appeared at the far end of the gallery.
He raised a metal bar and struck Adrian across the shoulder.
Claire screamed and drove the heel of her shoe into the attacker's knee.
The man staggered.
Adrian tackled him into the wall.
The portrait crashed to the floor.
The hidden panel sprang open.
Inside was the blue ledger.
The attacker saw it and fought with sudden desperation.
He tore free, grabbed the ledger, and ran toward the service stairs.
Claire chased him despite Adrian shouting her name.
The man reached the balcony overlooking the grand hall.
For one terrible second, Claire was standing near the same railing where she had fallen.
The attacker turned.
A silver signet ring flashed on his hand.
Claire froze.
He hurled the ledger over the balcony.
Adrian reached the railing just in time to see it land on the marble below.
The attacker escaped through a side corridor.
Edmund came up behind them.
Claire looked at his bare hand.
Then at Adrian.
"That was the ring."
They ran downstairs.
The blue ledger lay open beneath the chandelier.
Several pages had torn loose in the fall.
One page contained a column of transfers totaling forty-eight million dollars.
May you like
At the bottom was a name neither Claire nor Adrian expected.
Graham Holt.
