Chapter 9 - The Voice in the Burned House
The original Vale estate had burned to its foundations forty-six years earlier. The land was sold, divided, and developed into a residential neighborhood. Yet Eleanor insisted one structure survived: an underground wine cellar built beneath the greenhouse.
“Victoria and I used it as a hiding place,” she told Daniel. “After Vivian returned, Victoria began recording conversations because no one believed how dangerous she was. She hid the recordings in the cellar.”
Eleanor’s memories were fragmented by decades of sedation, but she remembered an address Jonathan used in private correspondence. Daniel searched property records and found that one small parcel in the neighborhood had never been sold. It belonged to a company called Third Sister Holdings.
The name was not subtle.
Bennett obtained a warrant. Daniel went with her despite federal agents warning that Vivian remained at large.
The surviving cellar lay beneath a modern garden shed. Its entrance was sealed by a stone slab engraved with three interlocking circles. Sophia’s brass key opened a mechanism inside the center circle.
Daniel wondered how Adrian had obtained it and why he trusted a six-year-old to deliver it. Perhaps Sophia was the only person Vivian would underestimate.
The cellar smelled of earth and smoke. Shelves of empty wine bottles lined the walls. At the back, they found a metal cabinet containing dozens of audio reels, journals, and a film canister labeled VICTORIA - FINAL STATEMENT.
Bennett photographed everything before allowing technicians to move it.
One journal belonged to the real Victoria Vale.
Her entries described Vivian’s return from the institution. At first, Victoria felt guilty and tried to include her. Vivian responded by copying her clothes, cutting her hair the same way, and appearing at social events under Victoria’s name. She seduced Victoria’s fiancé, stole legal documents, and told relatives that Victoria was mentally unstable.
The final journal entry was written the night of the fire.
Vivian says only one of us deserves the life we were promised. Eleanor has taken the boys to Jonathan’s hotel. I am going to the cellar to record everything. If I do not return, the truth must.
The film showed Victoria sitting before a camera, smoke already visible behind her.
“My name is Victoria Anne Vale,” she said. “My sister Vivian has planned to take my identity. She has bribed Dr. Crowe’s father to alter records. She believes Eleanor will be blamed for the fire. Jonathan Mercer knows part of the truth, but not enough.”
Victoria held up a document.
“I have placed controlling shares of Vale Holdings into a trust. The trust recognizes Eleanor’s children as heirs because Vivian must never control them. If I survive, I will testify. If I do not, this recording is my testimony.”
A crash sounded off camera.
Victoria looked toward the cellar stairs.
Then the film ended.
There was no proof she escaped.
Daniel listened to audio reels recorded after the fire. Most contained silence or damaged sound. On the seventh reel, a weak female voice spoke from what sounded like a hospital room.
“Jonathan, Vivian has Eleanor. Do not come alone.”
The recording was dated six months after the fire.
The real Victoria had survived.
But where had she gone?
A hidden compartment in the cabinet contained patient transfer documents from St. Dymphna Private Hospital, closed in 1998 after allegations of abuse. One patient, listed as Anne V., was transferred repeatedly under court seal. The last known destination was a long-term care facility called Rosehaven.
Rosehaven still operated two hours north of the city.
When Daniel called, the administrator denied ever treating anyone named Anne Vale, Victoria Vale, or Victoria Mercer. Bennett sent agents to secure the records.
They arrived too late.
Rosehaven’s archive building was on fire.
A nurse escaped carrying one surviving file. Inside was a recent photograph of a woman in her eighties with burn scars along her neck and hands.
She was labeled Patient 331.
The nurse said two men had removed Patient 331 shortly before the fire. One was Dr. Crowe’s son. The other wore a Mercer Foundation pin.
Crowe was in custody. He refused to speak until Bennett showed him the photograph.
Then he asked for immunity.
“Vivian never knew Victoria survived,” he said. “My father hid her because he feared Vivian. After my father died, I continued the arrangement.”
“You imprisoned two sisters?” Daniel asked.
“I kept them alive.”
“You drugged them.”
“I followed instructions.”
“Whose?”
Crowe looked toward the interrogation room mirror.
“Jonathan Mercer’s.”
Daniel recoiled. “My father died thirty years ago.”
May you like
Crowe leaned closer.
“Are you certain?”
