Chapter 8 - The Second Door Below.
Victor denied Sophie's accusation immediately.
"Children confuse voices."
Sophie frowned.
"I don't."
Claire drew her daughter closer.
Adrian kept his eyes on Victor.
"She didn't say voice."
Victor's face became still.
Adrian continued.
"She said she saw you."
"I was in the villa yesterday."
"You never mentioned that."
"Because it wasn't relevant."
"You being here while Claire was hidden beneath my floor seems relevant."
Victor placed the bank statement back inside his coat.
"You are making decisions emotionally."
Adrian almost smiled.
Celeste had used the same sentence.
"Interesting."
Victor frowned.
"What?"
"You and my aunt rehearse together?"
Cole stepped toward Adrian and quietly showed him the access trace.
Victor's gate credential had entered the property at 3:11 p.m. the previous day.
It had never logged an exit.
Adrian looked through the glass.
"You didn't leave yesterday."
Victor's eyes flickered.
"The system is unreliable."
"Only when it helps you."
Victor glanced toward the side door of the vestibule.
Cole moved into his line of sight.
"Don't."
Victor slowly returned his attention to Adrian.
"You still don't understand what your father did."
"Then explain it."
Victor's expression hardened.
"Ask Claire why she was really invited."
Adrian looked back at her.
Claire said nothing.
Victor saw the hesitation and used it.
"She hasn't told you everything."
"Neither have you."
"But I'm not pretending to protect you."
Adrian opened his mouth to answer when a dull metallic sound echoed from the open floor hatch behind them.
Everyone turned.
It came again.
Three knocks.
Then silence.
Nolan grabbed a flashlight.
"Someone's below."
Claire's face lost color.
"There's no one else down there."
"There is now."
Adrian pointed at Jonah.
"Victor stays in the vestibule."
"Nobody opens that door."
Jonah nodded.
Adrian, Cole, Nolan, and Claire approached the hatch.
Claire stopped at the edge.
"I didn't see another entrance."
Nolan shined the light down.
The underground chamber looked empty.
Then a strip of white light appeared along the far wall.
A vertical seam opened.
A hidden second door swung inward.
Someone moved through the darkness beyond it.
Cole descended first.
Nolan followed.
Adrian started down after them.
Claire caught his sleeve.
"Don't go alone."
"I'm not."
"You know what I mean."
He looked at her.
There were still too many questions between them.
But she had survived the room he was about to enter.
He respected the fear in her warning.
"Stay with Sophie."
Claire nodded reluctantly.
The chamber smelled of stone and damp metal.
Adrian reached the bottom and saw the room in full for the first time.
It was larger than it appeared from above.
A narrow cot stood against one wall.
A small table held an empty bottle of water.
Nothing else suggested who had used the room before Claire.
Cole pointed toward the newly opened panel.
"Passage continues west."
Nolan studied the hinge.
"This is old."
"How old?"
"Older than the renovation."
Adrian touched the stone frame.
His father had known about the passage.
Maybe his grandfather had too.
They followed it beneath the west wing.
After twenty yards, the corridor split.
One direction climbed toward the garden.
The other descended.
A single brass number had been fixed to the lower door.
314.
Adrian looked at Cole.
"Same as the locker."
Cole nodded.
Nolan tried the handle.
Locked.
Adrian remembered the silver key Sophie had carried.
He called Jonah over the radio.
"Bring the small key from Sophie's pocket."
Claire's voice answered instead.
"We have another problem."
"What?"
"Victor is gone."
Adrian closed his eyes for one second.
"How?"
"The vestibule is still locked."
Jonah came on the radio.
"He didn't use either door."
Cole looked at the underground passage.
"Then there is a third way out."
Adrian stared at the locked door marked 314.
Something scraped on the other side.
He took the key from Jonah when it arrived.
The lock opened.
Beyond the door was a private archive room filled with steel shelves.
Most were empty.
One shelf held a row of black binders.
On the center table sat Celeste's silk robe.
Beside it was Victor's gold watch.
May you like
And beneath the watch lay a handwritten note.
YOU ARE LOOKING AT THE WRONG PERSON.
