Chapter 7 - the room behind the library
Blackwood House had once been an orphanage funded by the Ashcroft Foundation.
Claire remembered the name from old grant reports.
The institution had closed six years earlier after an inspection found financial irregularities and missing adoption documents.
Vivienne had publicly blamed the director.
Privately, the foundation had paid nearly four million dollars to prevent a lawsuit.
“Where were the children sent after Blackwood closed?” Claire asked.
Anna Reyes removed the server’s jacket.
“Some went to legitimate families. Some disappeared into private placements.”
“My son?”
“His file was removed before the closure.”
“By whom?”
“Lila Crane.”
Daniel looked toward the ceiling, as though he could see Vivienne’s assistant moving through the ballroom above them.
“Lila worked at Saint Arden?”
“She was an adoption coordinator,” Anna said. “Vivienne hired her as an assistant after the hospital records were sealed.”
Sophie stared at the bracelet in Claire’s hand.
“Was that my brother’s?”
Claire knelt beside her.
“Yes.”
“Does he have a name?”
“I don’t know.”
“Can we find him?”
Claire wanted to promise.
Instead, she said, “We are going to try.”
Sophie looked at Daniel.
“Will you try too?”
He crouched so they were at the same height.
“I will not stop.”
Anna studied him.
“Your father said the same thing.”
Daniel rose.
“You knew Edmund?”
“He found me four years ago. By then, most of the original records were gone. I gave him copies of the transfer ledger and told him about Blackwood.”
“Why did he wait until eight months ago to create the trust?”
“He did not trust the board. He believed Vivienne was watching every account and phone call.”
Helen held up the damaged pages.
“He was right.”
Anna reached into a canvas bag and removed a compact recorder.
“I recorded my meetings with Edmund.”
“Where are the recordings?” Claire asked.
“Hidden in the mansion.”
Vivienne’s voice came through a speaker in the storage room.
“Claire Bennett, please return to the ballroom.”
Everyone looked up.
“She knows we are here,” Marcus said.
Vivienne continued.
“If Claire does not return within five minutes, the Ashcroft board will vote to remove Edmund’s disputed trust from consideration.”
Helen shook her head.
“She cannot hold the vote without me.”
“She has five loyal members,” Claire said. “That is enough for a majority if they claim you abandoned the meeting.”
Anna handed Claire the recorder.
“This contains only the last conversation. Edmund hid the others in the room behind the library.”
“We found an office.”
“Not that room.”
Daniel frowned.
“There is another one?”
“Your mother designed it before she died.”
Daniel looked toward the locket around Sophie’s neck.
“My mother’s locket opens it.”
Sophie covered the necklace with her hand.
“Vivienne wanted it because it is a key,” Claire said.
Anna nodded.
“The crest fits a lock inside Edmund’s office.”
Claire stood.
“We go back.”
Marcus objected immediately.
“The men at the south entrance are searching the service halls.”
“Then we do not use the service halls.”
Mrs. Alvarez pointed toward another tunnel.
“That staircase reaches the music gallery above the ballroom.”
Claire considered the options.
The board vote would begin in less than five minutes. They needed the recordings to prove Edmund had been competent, and they needed the deed to establish Sophie’s ownership.
“We split up,” Claire said. “Helen returns to the ballroom with Marcus and the trust documents. Delay the vote.”
“What about you?” Helen asked.
“Daniel, Anna and I will find the recordings.”
Sophie took Claire’s hand.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“Bluebird.”
“This is different.”
“You said we stay together.”
Claire looked at the child’s determined face.
Sophie had inherited that expression from Daniel.
She sighed.
“You stay between me and Daniel. You do not let go of either of us.”
They climbed the narrow staircase.
At the top, Marcus pushed open a panel hidden behind velvet curtains.
The orchestra was playing directly below them.
Helen and Marcus descended the gallery stairs toward the ballroom.
Claire led the others along an upper corridor toward the library.
When they reached Edmund’s hidden office, Daniel closed the door behind them.
Anna went directly to the steel panel.
“There.”
At the center of the panel was a small indentation shaped like the Ashcroft crest.
Sophie removed her locket.
Claire helped her press it into the opening.
A mechanism clicked.
The bookcase shifted several inches.
Cold air moved through the gap.
Daniel pushed the shelf aside.
Behind it was a narrow room illuminated by a single green lamp.
The walls were covered with photographs, legal documents and maps.
At the center stood an old projector.
Sophie pointed toward the nearest wall.
“That’s me.”
Dozens of photographs showed Sophie at different ages.
Leaving school.
Playing in a park.
Sitting beside Claire at a café.
Claire felt a surge of anger.
“Edmund had us followed.”
Anna shook her head.
“He had you protected.”
Daniel examined the photographs.
In several, the same gray car appeared in the background.
A man watched from behind its windshield.
“That was not one of my father’s guards,” Daniel said.
Anna moved to the projector.
“Edmund believed Vivienne’s people were watching Sophie. He hired someone to watch them.”
Claire looked closer.
In the most recent photograph, taken outside Sophie’s school, the man in the gray car had lowered his window.
His face was visible.
Dr. Cole made a broken sound behind them.
Claire had forgotten he was still there.
“You know him,” she said.
The doctor backed toward the door.
“No.”
Daniel blocked him.
“Who is he?”
Dr. Cole stared at the photograph.
“He was the director of Blackwood House.”
“What is his name?”
“Adrian Voss.”
Anna placed a reel into the projector.
May you like
Before she could switch it on, the hidden room door slammed shut.
Gas began hissing through the vents.
