Chapter 4 - Lily's Secret
Mark searched the mansion like a man possessed.
"Lily!"
No answer.
Police spread through every room.
The housekeeper checked closets.
Security searched the grounds.
Victoria stood near the staircase looking shocked.
Mark grabbed her arm.
"Where is she?"
"I don't know."
"You were the last person near her."
"I was downstairs."
"Don't lie to me."
An officer separated them.
"Mr. Carter."
Mark pulled away.
For seven minutes they found nothing.
Then a small voice came through Mark's phone.
"Daddy?"
He froze.
"Lily?"
The voice came again.
"Daddy, it's dark."
Security traced the call.
It originated from a small emergency phone built into the old elevator near the servants' corridor.
Mark ran there.
The elevator doors opened.
Empty.
"Lily?"
He heard crying.
Not inside the elevator.
Behind it.
A maintenance panel had been removed.
Beyond it was a narrow passage.
Mark squeezed through.
He found Lily crouched beside a pipe, holding the emergency receiver.
He lifted her immediately.
"Who brought you here?"
Lily cried into his shoulder.
"Grandma."
Victoria was detained for questioning.
She denied everything.
She claimed Lily must have wandered away.
But Lily told a different story.
During the blackout, Victoria had taken her hand.
She promised they were going to find Mommy.
Then she pushed Lily through the maintenance opening and told her to stay quiet.
"Did she say why?"
The child specialist asked.
Lily nodded.
"She said Daddy was ruining everything."
That evening, Victoria was ordered to remain away from Lily while the investigation continued.
She moved into a nearby hotel.
Mark wanted her out permanently.
His attorneys began the process.
But Claire was still missing.
That mattered more than anything.
After Lily finally fell asleep, Mark sat beside her bed.
At eleven thirty, her eyes opened.
"Daddy?"
"I'm here."
"I forgot something."
He leaned closer.
"What?"
"Mommy gave me something."
"When?"
"Before she went downstairs."
Mark's heart jumped.
"What did she give you?"
Lily climbed out of bed and walked to her dollhouse.
She removed the miniature roof.
Inside was a folded piece of paper.
Mark opened it.
Claire's handwriting.
One sentence.
If anything happens to me, don't trust the wall.
Mark read it twice.
Then a third time.
Don't trust the wall.
He called the police.
They returned to the west hallway.
Mark stood before the exposed brick behind the red door.
He knocked.
Solid.
Then he remembered the steel panel behind the kitchen storage shelves.
They opened it.
Beyond it was another narrow corridor.
It curved beneath the house and ended at the back of the brick wall.
Except from this side, the wall was not brick.
It was a steel door disguised with a brick facade.
Mark stared.
Someone had designed the entrance to look sealed from one direction.
A hidden door.
The police opened it.
Stairs descended.
Mark's pulse accelerated.
At the bottom was a room.
But Claire was not there.
The room contained an old desk.
A chair.
A disconnected telephone.
Extension 14.
And dozens of cardboard boxes.
Inside the boxes were documents.
Bank statements.
Property records.
Insurance policies.
Photographs.
Mark opened one folder.
Robert Carter.
His father.
Another folder.
Mark Carter.
Another.
Claire Carter.
Another.
Lily Carter.
Victoria had been keeping files on all of them.
For years.
An officer opened a cabinet.
Inside were prescription bottles bearing different names.
Another drawer held spare phones.
Another held copies of signatures.
Mark's stomach turned.
This was not a utility room.
It was an archive.
A place where someone had been collecting information.
Planning.
Manipulating.
Controlling.
Then an officer called from the far corner.
"Mr. Carter."
Mark turned.
The officer pointed toward the floor.
A gold bracelet lay beneath the desk.
Mark recognized it instantly.
May you like
He had given it to Claire on their fifth anniversary.
Claire had been there.
