Chapter 5 - the room beneath bellweather lake)
The police allowed Daniel to enter the red house the following morning.
Only after the crime scene unit finished its initial processing.
Only after Daniel agreed not to touch anything.
Only after Detective Alvarez warned him that whatever he saw might stay with him forever.
Daniel went anyway.
Bellweather Lake was beautiful.
That offended him.
Sunlight glittered across the water.
Tall pine trees swayed behind expensive vacation homes.
Someone was kayaking near the opposite shore.
The red house stood at the end of a private gravel road surrounded by wild grass.
The black iron horse above the door looked almost cheerful.
Inside, the air smelled stale.
Most rooms were empty.
No family photographs.
No ordinary clutter.
Only functional furniture.
A couch.
A table.
Two beds upstairs.
The basement was different.
A concealed door behind shelving opened onto narrow concrete stairs.
Daniel descended behind Alvarez.
At the bottom stood a steel door.
Scratches surrounded the lock.
The room beyond measured approximately ten feet by twelve.
Green curtains covered a narrow window near the ceiling.
Lily had remembered correctly.
Daniel stopped.
Against one wall sat a mattress.
A small table.
A plastic cup.
An old paperback novel.
On the opposite wall, handwritten words covered the paint.
Dates.
Names.
Questions.
Daniel stepped closer.
CLAIRE HARPER.
MARTIN BELL.
VICTORIA LANE.
DR. EDWARD KLINE.
Below them:
DANIEL DID NOT SIGN IT.
DANIEL DID NOT KNOW.
THEY LIED ABOUT LILY.
Daniel's vision blurred.
He raised one hand but stopped before touching the wall.
“How long was she here?”
Alvarez answered quietly.
“We don't know.”
Daniel followed the dates.
The earliest was six months after Claire's supposed death.
The latest was fourteen months ago.
“She was alive fourteen months ago.”
“Yes.”
Daniel turned.
“Then where did she go?”
“We're working on that.”
“Fourteen months.”
“I know.”
Daniel saw another sentence near the floor.
It had been written smaller.
IF LILY EVER COMES HERE, TELL HER I HEARD HER.
Daniel stared.
“What does that mean?”
Alvarez looked toward the green curtains.
“We found a microphone wire inside the wall.”
Daniel felt cold.
“Someone was monitoring this room?”
“Possibly recording it.”
“Victoria brought Lily here.”
Alvarez nodded.
Daniel understood.
Claire had heard her daughter.
Perhaps Lily had been somewhere upstairs.
Perhaps Claire had heard footsteps, a laugh, a voice.
Perhaps Victoria had deliberately brought Lily close enough to torment her.
Daniel had to turn away.
He walked toward the small table.
An indentation showed where something rectangular once sat.
“A phone?”
“Maybe.”
Alvarez pointed toward an evidence marker near the baseboard.
“We recovered fragments of a cheap mobile device.”
“That's how she called Lily?”
“Could be.”
Daniel looked around.
“How does a woman disappear from here without anybody seeing?”
“There was another exit.”
Alvarez led him through a narrow utility corridor.
A door opened behind the house toward the trees.
Tire tracks would have disappeared long ago.
Daniel stepped outside.
The lake wind hit his face.
For the first time since entering, he could breathe.
Then Alvarez's phone rang.
She answered.
Listened.
Her expression changed.
“What?”
Daniel watched.
Alvarez looked at him.
“We found Martin Bell.”
“Where?”
“Jacksonville.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
Relief and rage collided inside Daniel.
“He'll tell us where Claire is.”
Alvarez did not respond.
Daniel recognized the hesitation.
“What happened?”
“He didn't surrender voluntarily.”
Daniel's jaw tightened.
“But he's alive.”
“He is.”
Within six hours, Martin Bell sat in an interview room.
Daniel was not permitted inside.
He waited behind observation glass with Michael while Alvarez questioned him.
Martin was sixty-two now.
Silver hair.
Expensive suit.
The same composed face Daniel remembered from family dinners.
He looked mildly inconvenienced by arrest.
Alvarez placed photographs from the red house on the table.
Martin barely glanced at them.
“You owned the property.”
“A company owned it.”
“A company you controlled.”
Martin smiled.
“Then I suppose my attorney and I have paperwork to discuss.”
“Claire Harper was held there.”
Martin's expression did not change.
“Was she?”
“Her DNA is inside the basement room.”
“I've never been in the basement.”
“Victoria Harper has disappeared.”
That got the smallest reaction.
A blink.
Alvarez leaned forward.
“Where is Claire?”
Martin folded his hands.
“Claire Harper died three years ago.”
Behind the glass, Daniel moved closer.
Alvarez said, “We have documents signed by her afterward.”
“Forgery is common.”
“We have video.”
Martin's smile faded slightly.
“Interesting.”
“We have evidence she lived in your property.”
Martin said nothing.
Alvarez placed one final photograph down.
It showed the wall.
DANIEL DID NOT KNOW.
Martin looked at it longer.
Then he sighed.
“You're asking the wrong question.”
Alvarez waited.
“You should not be asking where Claire is.”
“What should I be asking?”
Martin looked directly toward the observation glass.
Daniel froze.
It was impossible for Martin to know exactly where he stood.
Yet his eyes seemed to find him.
Martin smiled.
“You should ask why Claire ran away when we finally opened the door.”
Daniel's hands clenched.
Alvarez said, “Opened what door?”
“The basement.”
“You released her?”
Martin leaned back.
“We stopped keeping her there.”
“When?”
“Fourteen months ago.”
Daniel's pulse thundered.
“What happened then?” Alvarez asked.
Martin smiled again.
“She had one destination.”
“Where?”
Martin's eyes remained on the glass.
“Her daughter.”
Daniel pushed away from the wall.
Michael caught his arm.
“Daniel.”
Daniel shook him off.
Inside the interview room Alvarez asked, “Did Claire go to the Harper house?”
Martin's smile disappeared.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because by then she believed the house was being watched.”
“By whom?”
Martin leaned closer.
“Someone I was afraid of too.”
Alvarez stared.
Martin whispered a name.
Daniel could not hear it through the soundproof glass until Alvarez repeated it.
“Victoria?”
Martin laughed.
“No.”
Then he said another name.
A name Daniel had not expected.
“Michael Bennett.”
May you like
Daniel slowly turned toward Claire's brother.
Michael's face had gone white.
