Chapter 5 - the room beneath the nursery
Rachel ran through the narrow passage.
Dust rose beneath her feet. Old electrical wires lined the walls beside newer cables installed recently. Someone had been using the hidden corridors.
She reached a ladder leading upward and pushed against the panel above her.
It opened beneath a rug in the nursery closet.
Mrs. Carter stood beside the door holding a fireplace poker.
Lily was gone.
Rachel emerged from the closet.
“Where is she?”
The nanny’s face was white.
“She said she heard you calling from the hallway. I told her not to open the door, but the voice sounded exactly like yours.”
Rachel crossed the room.
The nursery door remained locked from the inside.
“How did she leave?”
Mrs. Carter pointed toward the dollhouse against the far wall.
A section of paneling behind it stood open.
The mansion had more hidden passages than Rachel remembered.
She touched the emergency pendant but did not activate it.
Not yet.
If Ethan was using Lily to force a signature, Rachel needed to know where he had taken her before the response team entered.
She examined the wooden ships.
The one containing Margaret’s memory chip was missing.
Lily had taken it with her.
The antique compass remained on the carpet. Its needle pointed toward the west wing.
Rachel picked it up.
A faint blue light flashed beneath the lid.
The device was receiving a signal from the memory chip.
“Call the police,” Rachel told Mrs. Carter.
“I tried. The house phones are dead, and my mobile has no service.”
The mansion network had been jammed.
Rachel moved into the hidden passage behind the dollhouse.
“Lock yourself in the nursery. Do not come out.”
“Mrs. Ward, you shouldn’t go alone.”
“My daughter is alone.”
Rachel followed the compass.
The passage descended beneath the nursery and opened into a small concrete room filled with old surveillance equipment.
Black-and-white monitors covered one wall. Most were dark, but three displayed live images from the mansion.
Ethan stood in the ballroom.
Douglas Vane spoke with reporters.
Elaine walked alone through the west corridor, one hand pressed against the bloodstain on her sleeve.
The fourth monitor showed Lily.
She sat inside a storage room clutching the wooden ship. A man in a catering uniform stood outside the door speaking into a radio.
“We have the child.”
A distorted voice answered.
“Hold her until Ward obtains the signature.”
Rachel recognized neither speaker.
She searched the console and found a microphone switch.
“Lily?”
Her daughter looked up immediately.
“Mommy?”
The guard outside the room turned toward the door.
Rachel muted the microphone.
Lily had revealed that someone was watching.
The guard entered the room.
“Who were you talking to?”
Lily pressed herself against the wall.
“No one.”
He reached for the wooden ship.
Lily threw it beneath a shelf.
The guard bent down.
Rachel noticed a red switch beside the monitor labeled SERVICE LOCKS.
She pressed it.
On-screen, the storage room door slammed shut behind the guard.
A metal divider dropped from the ceiling, separating him from Lily.
He struck the divider and shouted.
Lily stared at it in surprise.
Rachel activated the microphone.
“Sweetheart, listen carefully.”
“Mommy, where are you?”
“I’m nearby. Do you see a small door behind the boxes?”
Lily looked around.
“Yes.”
“Open it and crawl through.”
The guard heard Rachel’s voice through the speaker.
“Mrs. Ward, unlock this door.”
Rachel ignored him.
Lily moved the boxes aside and opened a narrow maintenance hatch.
“Take the wooden ship,” Rachel said.
Lily reached beneath the shelf, grabbed it, and crawled through.
The camera feed switched automatically to another corridor.
Rachel guided her daughter through three turns until Lily reached a circular blue door.
The compass in Rachel’s hand vibrated.
“Mommy, the ship is glowing.”
The wooden ship contained more than a memory chip.
It was an access device.
A scanner beside the blue door activated.
Lily held the ship near it.
The door opened.
Inside was a room painted the same shade of blue Rachel remembered from childhood.
Books covered the walls. A white sofa stood beneath a window that should not have existed underground.
In the center of the room was a woman’s coat resting across a chair.
Rachel recognized it.
Margaret had worn that coat on the final morning Rachel saw her alive.
Lily stepped inside.
The blue door closed behind her.
Every monitor in the surveillance room went dark.
Then a message appeared.
SUCCESSOR VERIFIED.
PROTECTIVE SEQUENCE ACTIVE.
Rachel leaned toward the screen.
“What does that mean?”
A new camera feed opened.
Lily was not alone in the blue room.
A shadow moved behind her.
Rachel grabbed the microphone.
“Lily, turn around.”
Her daughter slowly turned.
A tall figure stood beside the shelves wearing Margaret’s coat.
May you like
The person raised one hand toward Lily.
Then the signal vanished.
