Chapter 3 - Archive B.
Adrian took only three people with him to the basement.
Emma was one of them.
Victoria protested immediately.
"Why is she coming?"
Adrian did not slow down.
"Because someone planted a necklace in her bag, and I want her where I can see her."
"You mean where you can protect her."
Adrian stopped at the top of the service staircase.
"Right now, Victoria, I am protecting the truth from everyone."
Malcolm's deputy, Daniel Cross, followed them carrying a flashlight and a radio.
The mansion's basement was colder than the floors above.
The polished marble gave way to gray stone and narrow utility corridors installed long before the house had become a symbol of Vale wealth.
Emma had worked in the mansion for eleven months.
She had never been permitted beyond the laundry rooms.
Archive B stood at the end of a corridor behind the old wine cellar.
The steel door was open.
The brass key remained in the lock.
Daniel drew a slow breath.
"Malcolm?"
No answer came.
Adrian pushed the door wider.
Inside, metal shelving units filled the room from floor to ceiling.
Boxes were labeled with years, property names, legal firms, and initials.
A desk lamp burned in the far corner.
Someone had been there moments earlier.
Emma pointed toward the floor.
"Paper."
A torn strip from a white envelope lay beside the desk.
Adrian picked it up.
A blue ink mark crossed one edge.
It looked like part of a signature.
Victoria stayed near the doorway.
"This proves Malcolm was involved."
Emma looked at her.
"It proves he was here."
Victoria's eyes sharpened.
"No one asked you."
Adrian ignored the exchange and opened the desk drawer.
Inside was an old VHS cassette labeled APRIL 17.
His face changed.
"That's the date my father died."
Daniel stared at the cassette.
"Sir, I thought the accident happened on April eighteenth."
"It did."
Adrian turned the tape over.
On the back, Jonathan Vale had written one sentence in black marker.
IF YOU ARE WATCHING THIS, THEY FAILED TO DESTROY IT.
Victoria took a step backward.
Emma saw it.
"You know what that is."
Victoria snapped.
"I know Adrian's father became obsessed with conspiracies after his diagnosis."
Adrian looked at her.
"What diagnosis?"
Victoria's mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
"What diagnosis, Victoria?"
She recovered quickly.
"Stress."
"You don't call stress a diagnosis."
"His doctor did."
"Which doctor?"
Victoria looked toward the shelves.
"I don't remember."
Adrian's face became unreadable.
The sound of metal scraping came from behind a shelving unit.
Daniel raised the flashlight.
"Malcolm?"
A shadow moved.
They rounded the shelf and found Malcolm crouched beside an open floor safe.
He held a stack of folders against his chest.
His eyes were wild.
"Don't come closer."
Adrian stopped.
"What are you doing?"
Malcolm looked at Victoria.
That single glance was enough.
Victoria whispered.
"Don't be stupid."
Malcolm laughed without humor.
"That's rich."
Adrian's gaze moved between them.
"You know each other better than you've admitted."
Malcolm stood slowly.
"Ask your fiancée why your father's cameras were never disconnected."
Victoria's face hardened.
"He's lying."
"Ask her why he kept this room."
"Malcolm."
Victoria's voice carried a warning now.
Malcolm ignored it.
"Ask her what happened the night before Jonathan Vale drove into that ravine."
Adrian took one step forward.
"Tell me."
Malcolm's lips parted.
A sudden explosion of glass came from the tiny basement window.
Daniel shoved Adrian down.
A metal object struck the wall behind them.
The desk lamp shattered.
Darkness swallowed the room.
Emma screamed.
Something heavy slammed into the shelves.
Daniel shouted into his radio.
"Security breach in Archive B!"
A door banged.
Footsteps ran down the corridor.
When Daniel's flashlight came back on, Malcolm was gone.
So were the folders.
Victoria remained near the doorway.
Adrian grabbed her wrist.
"You are not leaving my sight."
She pulled away.
"I wasn't trying to."
Emma looked at the broken basement window.
A small dart was embedded in the stone wall.
It was not a bullet.
Daniel examined it.
"Tranquilizer."
Adrian's eyes darkened.
Someone had tried to silence Malcolm without killing him.
That meant they needed him alive.
Or they needed something he was carrying.
Emma turned toward the open floor safe.
One item remained inside.
It was a photograph.
Adrian picked it up.
The image showed Jonathan Vale standing beside a much younger Victoria.
Between them stood Emma's mother.
Emma stopped breathing.
"That's impossible."
Adrian looked at her.
"You know her?"
Emma reached for the photograph with shaking fingers.
"That's my mother."
Victoria went completely white.
Adrian kept looking at the photograph as though his father might move if he stared long enough.
Jonathan's expression was unlike the stern portraits hanging throughout the mansion.
He looked tired, almost frightened, and his shoulder angled subtly toward Catherine as if shielding her from someone outside the frame.
Emma noticed that detail before Adrian did.
"He was protecting her," she said.
Adrian's voice was quiet.
"Or asking her to protect him."
That distinction settled heavily between them.
Neither wanted to admit how little they understood the dead people whose choices had shaped both their lives.
May you like
Behind them, Victoria stared at the photograph with resentment that seemed older than the evening.
Whatever she knew about Catherine had not begun with the missing necklace.
