Chapter 15 - the second half of the locket
The withdrawal was made at a small bank in Briar Glen, a mountain town four hundred miles north of the estate.
Security footage showed a woman entering shortly before closing.
She wore a dark coat, gloves and a scarf over the lower half of her face.
Her hair was gray.
Her posture was straight.
She signed no documents and spoke only to the branch manager.
The camera never captured her full face.
But as she reached for the cash envelope, a gold chain slipped from beneath her coat.
A half-circle pendant hung from it.
Claire watched the footage in Edmund’s hidden room.
Sophie sat beside her.
Daniel stood behind them with Helen and Anna.
Sophie touched her own locket.
“Hers looks broken.”
“It is half of something,” Anna said.
Daniel moved closer to the screen.
“My mother’s locket was designed as a pair.”
Claire turned.
“You never mentioned that.”
“I had forgotten. My father wore the second half on his watch chain.”
“Where is it now?”
“No one found it after he died.”
Sophie opened her locket.
The Ashcroft crest formed a delicate circle around the photograph.
She pressed the edge.
A tiny hinge released.
The outer frame separated from the center.
Half the crest remained in her hand.
The other half fell onto the desk.
Beneath it was a layer Claire had never seen.
A narrow strip of film had been hidden inside the gold frame.
Daniel held it beneath the green lamp.
It showed a woman standing outside Blackwood House.
She was younger than the figure in the bank footage, but the posture was the same.
Eleanor Ashcroft.
Beside her stood Adrian Voss.
Between them was a boy of about seven.
The child’s face was turned away from the camera.
On the back of the film, Edmund had written a date.
Six months earlier.
Daniel stared at the words.
“My father knew she was alive.”
“Or believed she was,” Claire said.
Helen opened Edmund’s transfer ledger.
“The one-dollar payments may have been a signal. He was telling Eleanor he had not stopped waiting.”
“Why didn’t she come home?” Sophie asked.
No one answered.
Anna examined the background of the photograph.
“There is a sign behind them.”
Claire enlarged the scan.
Only part of the name was visible.
ARDEN NORTH RESEARCH RESIDENCE.
Daniel searched the foundation database.
No institution with that name appeared.
Helen checked the old company records.
Nothing.
Claire entered the phrase into Edmund’s private archive.
One file appeared.
Access restricted.
Locket authorization required.
Sophie placed her half of the crest into the reader beside the computer.
A red light flashed.
Incomplete key.
Daniel opened the steel case recovered by police after Vivienne’s arrest.
Edmund’s watch was inside.
He removed the chain.
The second half of the crest was not there.
A soft knock came from the hidden office.
Three knocks.
A pause.
Two knocks.
The same security code Marcus had used.
Daniel opened the outer library door.
No one was there.
A small parcel rested on the floor.
It had no postage and no address.
Claire carried it into the hidden room.
Inside was the missing half of the locket.
Sophie placed both pieces into the computer reader.
The light changed from red to green.
A video file opened.
Edmund appeared on the screen.
This recording was newer than the others.
His breathing was weak, and a medical monitor sounded somewhere behind him.
“If you are seeing this,” he said, “then Vivienne has fallen, Sophie has been recognized and Eleanor has accessed the account.”
Daniel gripped the back of the chair.
Edmund looked directly into the camera.
“Do not go to Briar Glen. The woman at the bank is not Eleanor.”
The room became silent.
“She is a messenger,” Edmund continued. “Eleanor remains inside Arden North with the children Blackwood could not place.”
Claire felt Sophie’s hand find hers.
“Samuel is there,” Edmund said. “But he is not being held as a prisoner.”
The video flickered.
“He has been trained to believe Claire Bennett is responsible for everything that happened to him.”
Sophie shook her head.
“That’s not true.”
“No,” Claire whispered. “It isn’t.”
Edmund looked over his shoulder as if someone had entered the room.
“There is one final matter you must understand before you search for him. Sophie and Samuel were not the only children born during Claire’s admission.”
Claire stopped breathing.
Daniel stared at the screen.
Edmund lifted a hospital photograph toward the camera.
Three bassinets stood behind a glass nursery wall.
The first label read Baby Girl Bennett.
The second read Baby Boy Bennett.
The third label was hidden beneath a nurse’s hand.
Edmund lowered the photograph.
“The third child was never entered into the hospital system. Vivienne did not know about the baby, and neither did Dr. Cole.”
“Then who took the child?” Daniel whispered.
Edmund’s face tightened with fear.
“Eleanor did.”
The lights in the hidden room went out.
The computer screen remained illuminated.
A new live video replaced Edmund’s recording.
A boy stood in a white corridor beneath a sign marked Arden North.
He looked directly into the camera.
He had Sophie’s eyes.
“Claire Bennett,” he said, “you have forty-eight hours to bring me the locket.”
Sophie stepped closer to the screen.
“Samuel?”
The boy’s expression did not change.
“Come alone,” he continued. “Or you will never learn what happened to the third baby.”
Someone moved behind him.
A woman’s hand settled on his shoulder.
May you like
On one finger, she wore Eleanor Ashcroft’s wedding ring.
Then the screen went black.
