Chapter 2 - The Room Beneath Chloe’s Bed
Audrey drew her service weapon.
Evelyn did not move.
“Who is upstairs?”
“No one.”
“I heard a door.”
“Old houses make noises.”
“That house was built twelve years ago.”
Evelyn looked away.
Audrey called to the nearest officer and asked him to search the second floor again. Officer Daniel Ross, a broad-shouldered man with rain on his uniform, entered from the hallway and followed Audrey upstairs.
Evelyn stayed below.
Chloe’s bedroom was at the end of the corridor.
The door stood open.
The room looked almost exactly as Audrey remembered it: soft yellow walls, framed watercolor landscapes, books arranged by color, a white dresser beside the window. Chloe’s electric wheelchair charger remained plugged into the wall.
But something was wrong.
A framed photograph had fallen face down near the bed.
Audrey picked it up.
The photograph showed the three Mercer siblings fifteen years earlier. Audrey was sixteen, Julian was fourteen, and Chloe was nine. They stood beside a lake during one of the last family vacations before their father disappeared.
Someone had scratched Julian’s face from the photograph.
Not once.
Repeatedly.
Officer Ross searched the closet and bathroom.
“Clear,” he said.
Audrey knelt beside the bed.
Chloe had said the blue book was under the floor.
The carpet appeared undisturbed, but Audrey noticed four small indentations near the bedframe. She pushed the bed aside.
Beneath it was a rectangular section of carpet secured by Velcro.
Audrey lifted it.
A wooden access panel had been cut into the floor.
Ross crouched beside her.
“Was this here before?”
“No.”
Audrey inserted her fingers into the narrow gap and raised the panel.
A shallow compartment had been constructed between the floor joists.
Inside lay a blue leather notebook, a prepaid mobile phone, several envelopes, and a small silver key.
Audrey reached for the notebook.
“Don’t.”
Evelyn’s voice came from the doorway.
Audrey stood slowly.
Her mother gripped the doorframe. The color had drained from her face.
“Why not?”
“That belongs to Chloe.”
“She told me to find it.”
“She’s injured and confused.”
“She knew exactly where it was.”
Evelyn took one step into the room.
“Give it to me.”
Officer Ross moved between them.
“Ma’am, please remain downstairs.”
Evelyn ignored him.
“Audrey, you do not understand what you’re touching.”
“Then explain it.”
For a moment, Audrey thought Evelyn might finally tell the truth.
Instead, her mother’s expression hardened.
“You always thought your job made you smarter than the rest of us.”
“This has nothing to do with my job.”
“It has everything to do with it. You come into people’s homes. You investigate families. You destroy lives based on half-truths and frightened witnesses.”
Audrey glanced at the blood beneath her fingernails.
“Chloe’s broken nose isn’t a half-truth.”
“Julian lost his temper.”
“He threw a disabled woman into a refrigerator.”
“He is under pressure.”
“From what?”
Evelyn’s eyes moved toward the open compartment.
“That book will not help Chloe.”
“Then why are you afraid of it?”
Evelyn said nothing.
Ross instructed her again to go downstairs. This time, she obeyed.
Audrey photographed the compartment before removing each item. The envelopes were addressed to a man named Dr. Samuel Vale. None had been mailed.
The prepaid phone was locked.
The silver key had a number engraved on its side.
314.
The blue notebook contained several months of Chloe’s handwriting.
Audrey read the first page.
If something happens to me, Julian did it.
If Julian says I fell, he is lying.
If Mother says I am confused, she is helping him.
Audrey turned the page.
The next entries described missing disability payments, medication that made Chloe sleep for entire days, unexplained bruises, and visits from men who never gave their names.
One sentence appeared repeatedly.
They keep asking where Dad hid the ledger.
Audrey’s hand tightened around the notebook.
Their father, Thomas Mercer, had disappeared sixteen years earlier. Police concluded that he had abandoned the family after financial problems destroyed his engineering company.
Audrey had spent half her life believing he had chosen to leave.
She looked at the next page.
Chloe had drawn a small symbol: a circle divided by three vertical lines.
Audrey recognized it.
The same symbol had been engraved on the back of the silver watch their father wore every day.
Beneath the drawing, Chloe had written:
Julian has Dad’s watch.
Audrey turned several more pages.
The final entry was dated that morning.
J found the first key.
Mother gave it to him.
He says the second key is inside me.
Audrey read the sentence twice.
A cold pressure formed behind her ribs.
She looked toward Officer Ross.
“Did the paramedics say anything about surgical implants?”
“Her hip, I think. Why?”
Audrey closed the notebook.
“Call the hospital. Tell them no one outside the trauma team is allowed near Chloe.”
Ross reached for his radio.
A crash came from downstairs.
Audrey ran into the hallway.
She reached the staircase in time to see the front door swinging open.
Evelyn was gone.
On the kitchen counter, Audrey’s evidence bag had been torn apart.
The prepaid phone had disappeared.
Only the blue notebook and silver key remained.
Ross searched the driveway while Audrey called for units to locate Evelyn. Her car was still parked in the garage. She had fled on foot or entered another vehicle.
The rain had intensified, washing footprints from the front path.
Audrey stepped onto the porch.
Across the street, a dark sedan turned at the corner and disappeared.
Her phone rang.
The hospital.
Audrey answered immediately.
A nurse spoke in a hurried voice.
“Investigator Mercer, your sister regained consciousness.”
“Is she safe?”
“Yes, but she’s asking for you. She says someone is coming.”
“Who?”
There was a pause.
Then Chloe’s voice came faintly through the phone.
“Audrey?”
“I’m here.”
“You found the book?”
“Yes.”
“Then they know.”
“Who knows?”
Chloe started crying.
“The people who took Dad.”
The line went silent.
Audrey called her name.
A sharp alarm sounded in the background.
Then a man’s voice spoke close to the phone.
May you like
“You should have listened to your mother.”
The call ended.
