Chapter 5 - The Missing Minutes.
Margaret screamed when the door slammed.
Adrian reached for the handle and found it locked from the outside.
"Vanessa!"
There was no answer.
He turned on his phone flashlight.
Vanessa was no longer in the room.
She had stepped into the hallway seconds before the lights failed.
Adrian struck the door with his shoulder.
The old frame shuddered but held.
Margaret pointed to a service bell near the window.
"That circuit still works."
Adrian pressed it repeatedly.
Less than a minute later, Hector, the night porter, appeared outside and unlocked the door with a master key.
"Who locked us in?" Adrian demanded.
Hector looked confused.
"No one passed me, sir."
"Find Vanessa."
Adrian ran toward Lily's bedroom.
The door was open.
The bed was empty.
For the first time that night, panic overwhelmed anger.
"Lily!"
Margaret rushed in behind him.
The teddy bear was gone too.
Adrian searched the bathroom, closet, dressing room, and adjoining playroom.
Nothing.
He called Vanessa.
Her phone rang somewhere nearby.
The sound came from inside Lily's closet.
Vanessa's phone lay beneath a folded blanket.
Margaret stared at it.
"She left it on purpose."
Adrian ran downstairs.
The front doors were closed.
Hector checked the security panel.
"No exterior door has opened in the last ten minutes."
"Then they're still inside."
Adrian pulled up the mansion's camera system on the wall monitor.
The hallway feed showed Vanessa leaving the east wing at 9:17.
The next timestamp jumped to 9:23.
Six minutes were missing.
"Why is there a gap?"
Hector swallowed.
"Someone deleted it."
"Can it be recovered?"
"Maybe from the backup server."
Adrian leaned closer to the screen.
At 9:23, Vanessa appeared alone near the kitchen entrance.
She looked directly into the camera.
Then she calmly walked upstairs.
"She came back?"
Margaret whispered.
Adrian's pulse raced.
"Where is she now?"
A voice answered from the staircase.
"Right here."
Vanessa descended slowly, carrying nothing.
Adrian crossed the foyer in seconds.
"Where is Lily?"
Vanessa frowned.
"What are you talking about?"
"She is gone."
Vanessa looked genuinely surprised for half a second.
Then she recovered.
"Maybe she is hiding from you."
Adrian stepped closer.
"Six minutes are missing from the cameras."
"And naturally you think I did that."
"Where is my daughter?"
Vanessa lowered her voice.
"Be careful, Adrian."
"You're becoming exactly what those documents say you are."
The calculated cruelty of the sentence nearly worked.
Adrian forced himself to step back.
He called the police.
Vanessa laughed once.
"Good."
"Call them."
"Let's see what they think when they find the nursery."
Adrian looked at her sharply.
"What does that mean?"
She smiled without warmth.
"It means evidence can tell more than one story."
From somewhere beneath the foyer came a faint thump.
Margaret heard it too.
She moved toward the west corridor.
Another thump followed.
Then a child's muffled voice rose through an old brass heating grate.
"Daddy?"
Adrian dropped to his knees beside the grate.
"Lily!"
The voice came again, weak and frightened.
"I'm in Mommy's room."
Adrian stared at Margaret.
Claire's old sewing room was in the basement.
May you like
It had been locked since her death.
Vanessa's face finally lost all color.
