Chapter 8 - ROOM 17
Lucas left Vale House at two in the morning without telling Adrian.
He took an old Land Rover from the service garage and drove through the rain toward Blackwater Bridge. The brass key lay in the passenger seat beside Grace’s letter and the moon charm Lily had given him.
Margaret had wanted Lily moved to a secure location.
Lucas agreed, but only after insisting that she stay with a police protection team from outside Reed’s district. Adrian remained at the estate, questioning Vanessa’s claims and demanding to accompany Lucas.
Lucas refused.
The road to the Bellweather Hotel wound through dense forest.
Lightning revealed the abandoned building above the river. Its windows were dark, its western wing blackened by the old fire.
Lucas entered through a broken side door.
The lobby smelled of wet stone and rotting wood. A chandelier hung crooked above a floor covered in leaves. Old furniture remained beneath dust sheets, shaped like silent figures waiting in the darkness.
Room 17 was on the second floor.
The brass key fit.
Inside, the room appeared empty.
The bed had been removed. The wallpaper peeled in long strips. Rain tapped against the cracked windows.
Lucas searched the walls and floor.
Nothing.
Then he remembered Grace’s message.
The wall remembers everything.
He pressed along the wooden panels beside the fireplace. One shifted beneath his hand.
Behind it was a narrow cavity containing a portable audio recorder.
The device still had power.
Lucas pressed play.
Margaret’s voice came first.
“Grace, we need to take you to a hospital.”
Then Grace answered.
“No hospital. Reed controls the emergency dispatch system.”
The recording was weak, filled with static and the sound of Grace struggling to breathe.
Margaret said, “Lucas believes you are dead.”
“He must continue believing it.”
“Why?”
“Because the person who caused this will search for me through him.”
“Tell me who betrayed you.”
A long silence followed.
Then Grace said:
“Adrian brought the car.”
Lucas gripped the recorder.
Margaret’s voice sharpened.
“What?”
“He replaced my vehicle that afternoon. He said the brakes had been repaired. Reed’s men were able to control the steering remotely because Adrian gave them access.”
“He wouldn’t.”
“He did.”
“No.”
“He owes Charles Crowe more than two million dollars.”
Lucas closed his eyes.
Adrian had claimed his debts were resolved before Grace’s death. He had told the family he sold several investments.
Grace continued:
“But Adrian did not know they planned to take me. He thought they only wanted the drive.”
“Where is he now?”
“Outside.”
Footsteps sounded on the recording.
A door opened.
Adrian’s younger voice said, “We have to move. They followed us.”
Margaret asked, “Who?”
Then a gunshot exploded through the speaker.
The recording ended.
Lucas stared at the device.
Grace had not simply disappeared from Room 17.
There had been an attack.
He turned it over and found another file.
He pressed play.
This recording began several hours later.
Grace was alone.
“If Lucas finds this, I need him to understand that Adrian made a terrible mistake, but he came back for me. He was shot while helping me escape.”
Lucas let out the breath he had been holding.
“Do not trust Margaret’s memory of tonight. She was given something at the hotel. She will remember leaving before the gunfire, but she was here when it happened.”
A floorboard creaked in the corridor outside Room 17.
Lucas switched off the recorder.
Someone stood beyond the door.
He picked up a rusted metal rod from the fireplace.
The handle turned.
The door opened slowly.
Adrian entered with his hands raised.
“I told you not to follow me,” Lucas said.
“I knew you would come here.”
“How?”
“I saw the key Vanessa gave you.”
Lucas tightened his grip on the rod.
“Were you outside this room the night Grace disappeared?”
Adrian looked toward the hidden panel.
“You found the recording.”
“Answer me.”
“Yes.”
“You gave Reed access to her car.”
“Yes.”
Lucas crossed the room and hit him.
Adrian fell against the wall.
Lucas grabbed his coat and pulled him up.
“My wife went over a bridge because of you.”
“I didn’t know.”
“You took their money.”
“I was desperate.”
“You let me bury an empty coffin.”
“I thought she was dead.”
“The recording says you came back for her.”
Adrian’s face was wet with rain and blood from his split lip.
“I did. Reed’s men arrived. They shot me in the shoulder. Grace dragged me through a service passage while Mother collapsed.”
“Where did you take Grace?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Stop lying.”
“I was losing blood. I woke up two days later in a private clinic. Mother told me Grace was gone.”
“Did Grace contact you again?”
Adrian looked away.
“When?”
“Six months ago.”
Lucas released him.
“What did she want?”
“She told me Vanessa would marry you.”
“Before I proposed?”
“Yes.”
“She arranged it.”
“She arranged the possibility. Vanessa was supposed to gain access to Charles Crowe’s files, not become your wife.”
“Then why didn’t you warn me?”
“Grace made me swear.”
“Grace has no right to control my life from the shadows.”
“No. But she said Lily would die if the network realized she was alive.”
Lucas stepped back.
A light appeared beneath the door.
Someone was moving down the hallway.
Adrian whispered, “Did you tell anyone where you were going?”
“No.”
“Neither did I.”
The light stopped outside Room 17.
A woman’s shadow crossed the frosted glass.
Lucas’s heart pounded.
The door opened.
A woman stood in the corridor wearing a dark coat.
A scar ran from her left temple to her jaw.
Lucas dropped the metal rod.
“Grace.”
She looked at him with tears in her eyes.
May you like
Then she raised a pistol and aimed it at Adrian.
“Move away from your brother,” she said. “He is not the man you think he is.”
