Chapter 12 - the woman behind the charity
The ballroom remained locked.
Marcus ordered every guard to hold position while the guests were searched in small groups.
No one had seen Vivienne leave.
The hidden service door behind the auction platform was open, but it led to three corridors and an underground garage.
Claire kept Sophie beside her.
Daniel stood at the platform, examining the empty space where the steel case had been.
“She planned the blackout.”
“Yes.”
“She took the report because it identifies Samuel.”
“It identifies only his code.”
“BH-17 may be enough.”
Anna approached with Lila.
“Lila knows where Vivienne would go.”
Lila looked exhausted.
“There is a private communications room beneath the conservatory. Vivienne uses it when she does not want calls traced.”
Marcus spoke into his radio.
“The conservatory corridor is clear.”
“It would be,” Lila said. “The room has an entrance from the greenhouse.”
Claire looked at Sophie.
Mrs. Alvarez stepped forward.
“I will keep her with me.”
Sophie shook her head.
“I’m not staying behind again.”
Claire knelt.
“This time, you are staying somewhere safe because I need to move quickly.”
“Vivienne always finds me.”
The simple truth hurt more than fear.
Daniel crouched beside them.
“Then I will stay with you.”
Claire looked at him.
He nodded.
“You find Vivienne. I will not let Sophie out of my sight.”
Sophie studied him.
“What if they try to trick you?”
Daniel considered the question.
“They need the password.”
“What is it?”
“Bluebird.”
Sophie smiled faintly.
Claire kissed her forehead and left with Marcus, Anna and Lila.
They crossed the service corridor toward the conservatory.
Rain struck the glass roof hard enough to sound like thrown stones.
At the center of the greenhouse stood a marble statue of the Ashcroft family’s first chairman.
Lila pressed two fingers against a carved rose at its base.
The statue shifted aside.
A staircase descended into darkness.
Marcus went first.
The communications room contained satellite phones, computer servers and dozens of locked file drawers.
One monitor showed live camera feeds from inside the mansion.
Another displayed a map of the estate.
A red vehicle marker moved away from the greenhouse toward the north road.
“She is escaping,” Marcus said.
Lila checked the vehicle code.
“That is a decoy. Vivienne never uses marked cars.”
Anna opened the nearest drawer.
Inside were adoption files.
Each carried a number rather than a name.
BH-2.
BH-11.
BH-17.
Claire pulled out the seventeenth file.
It was empty.
A computer activated behind them.
Vivienne appeared on the screen.
She was seated in a dark room.
The steel case rested on a table beside her.
“Congratulations, Claire,” she said. “You have the mansion.”
“Where are you?”
“You should be more concerned about where your son is.”
“You said you did not know.”
“I lied.”
Marcus moved toward the computer controls.
The broadcast was encrypted.
Vivienne continued.
“Samuel was a useful child. Edmund spent years following false addresses because Adrian sent him photographs from different cities.”
“Is Samuel alive?”
“He was when the most recent photograph was taken.”
A picture filled the screen.
Samuel stood beside a blue door holding a model airplane.
He looked older than in Marcus’s photograph.
The date stamp was three days earlier.
Claire gripped the desk.
“Where is that?”
“Give me the original trust and full control of the foundation. Then I will give you an address.”
“You no longer control the board.”
“I control enough people to make the trust worthless.”
Anna leaned toward the microphone.
“The police have Dr. Cole’s confession.”
Vivienne smiled.
“Dr. Cole knows only the part I allowed him to know.”
“You admitted arranging the transfer,” Claire said.
“And you recorded me. Very clever. But kidnapping charges require a child who can be identified and found.”
“You forged medical records.”
“Lila forged them.”
Lila stepped into view of the camera.
“No. You instructed me, and I kept every message.”
Vivienne’s expression changed.
Lila placed a small black notebook on the desk.
“Dates, payments, account numbers and names.”
“You kept a diary?”
“I kept insurance.”
Vivienne stared at her former assistant.
“You will not survive long enough to use it.”
The warning was quiet.
Marcus checked the corridor behind them.
Claire looked at the map on the wall.
One room inside the mansion was not connected to the camera system.
The east guest suite.
Vivienne had been taken there before the blackout.
Her white gown had vanished from the ballroom, but no guard had seen her in the corridors.
Claire examined the screen more closely.
The image around Vivienne did not move with her.
It was a digital background.
“You are still in the mansion,” Claire said.
Vivienne said nothing.
“The photograph of Samuel is real, but this room is not.”
Claire pressed the emergency communication button.
“Daniel, take Sophie away from the east guest suite.”
No answer came.
The speaker released only static.
Then Sophie’s voice came through the computer.
“Mom?”
Claire turned toward the screen.
Vivienne moved aside.
Behind her, Daniel sat on the floor of the east guest suite with his hands secured in front of him.
Sophie stood beside him.
A man held one hand on the child’s shoulder.
May you like
Claire recognized him from Edmund’s photographs.
Adrian Voss.
