Chapter 5 - The Blue Rook)
The tunnel was barely wide enough for one person.
Danielle went first.
Marissa followed Caleb.
For several minutes they moved through complete darkness using the flashlights on their phones.
The air smelled of soil and old concrete.
Caleb's breathing grew heavier.
Danielle stopped.
"Can you continue?"
"Yes."
"You can barely stand."
"I've had seventy-eight days to imagine getting out."
He placed one hand against the wall.
"I'm not stopping now."
The tunnel ended behind a wooden wine rack.
Danielle pushed.
Nothing.
Marissa stepped forward.
"Let me."
She found a hidden latch near the floor.
The rack swung outward.
They emerged into the mansion's old cellar.
No alarms sounded.
Danielle looked at Marissa.
"How many cameras?"
"None in this section."
"Convenient."
"Victor insisted the cellar remain private."
Danielle checked the hallway.
Empty.
Caleb sat on a bench.
"We need the rook before we confront him."
Danielle crouched.
"Where would Michelle hide it?"
"If I knew, I would've told Victor months ago."
"You said you were supposed to leave together."
"Michelle stopped telling me everything once she realized the house was being monitored."
Danielle glanced at Marissa.
Marissa accepted the accusation silently.
"Did she mention Liam?"
Caleb frowned.
"Why?"
"Michelle loved puzzles. If she thought adults were being watched, she might have hidden something where adults wouldn't look."
Danielle remembered the photograph.
Michelle had been holding the rook beside the boathouse.
Behind her stood Victor.
Maybe the photograph was not telling Danielle where Michelle had been.
Maybe it was telling her when she still had the rook.
Danielle stood.
"Liam's playroom."
Marissa shook her head.
"Victor has him in the library."
"I know."
"If we go upstairs, cameras pick us up."
"Can you shut them down?"
"Not without Victor receiving an alert."
Caleb looked at Marissa.
"You have twelve years of access and can't disable a camera?"
"I designed the system to prevent exactly that."
Danielle almost laughed.
"Congratulations."
They moved through the servants corridor.
Marissa led them along blind spots between cameras.
Danielle had never realized her mansion contained so many routes invisible to the main security network.
The knowledge disturbed her.
At the second floor they heard Victor's voice from the library.
Danielle stopped.
The door was twenty feet away.
Victor was speaking to Liam.
"Your mother is upset."
"Because you locked her downstairs."
"I didn't lock her downstairs."
"The door did."
"Sometimes doors close for safety."
Danielle's jaw tightened.
Liam answered.
"Mom says people who use fancy words when simple words work are hiding something."
Caleb almost smiled.
Victor was silent.
Then he said.
"Your mother has always been stubborn."
"So am I."
"Yes."
Victor sounded strangely affectionate.
"That is what worries me."
Danielle signaled Marissa.
They continued toward the playroom.
Inside, toys were scattered across the floor.
Danielle went directly to Liam's shelves.
Wooden cars.
Books.
Puzzles.
A castle set.
A box of chess pieces.
She opened it.
Plastic pieces in red and yellow.
No blue rook.
Caleb leaned against the doorway.
"Michelle gave Liam a chess set last Christmas."
"This is it."
"No. A wooden one."
Danielle looked around.
"Liam didn't like chess."
"He liked the knights."
Danielle remembered.
Her son had carried a wooden knight around for weeks because he thought it was a horse.
She searched his toy chest.
Nothing.
Marissa moved to the bookshelf.
"Danielle."
She held up a wooden castle.
A small drawer had been built into the base.
Inside were three pieces.
A knight.
A queen.
A blue glass rook.
Danielle exhaled.
She picked it up.
The piece was heavier than it looked.
Caleb closed his eyes.
"Michelle."
Danielle inspected the base.
A tiny metal shaft extended from the bottom.
A key.
Marissa stared at it.
"Victor has been tearing apart properties for that."
"How do you know?"
"He ordered searches."
"You helped?"
"Yes."
Danielle slipped the rook into her pocket.
Caleb looked at Marissa.
"Did you ever ask why?"
"I told you what I believed."
"You believed whatever made obedience easier."
Marissa's jaw tightened.
"You're right."
The admission silenced him.
Danielle looked toward the corridor.
"Where is the trust archive?"
Caleb answered.
"Michelle thought it was beneath your mother's old music room."
Danielle stared at him.
"The piano room?"
"There's a safe room below it."
Marissa shook her head.
"I don't know about that."
Caleb looked at her.
"Victor didn't trust you as much as you thought."
Danielle almost felt sorry for Marissa.
Almost.
They moved toward the west wing.
The music room had remained closed since Eleanor's death.
Victor said it was because he could not bear to hear anyone else play her piano.
Danielle had once considered that romantic.
Now every memory seemed contaminated.
The room smelled faintly of wood polish.
A white grand piano sat near the windows.
Portraits of Eleanor covered one wall.
Danielle stopped before a photograph of her mother holding Michelle as a baby.
For years she had believed Victor preserved this room out of grief.
Now she wondered what he had actually been protecting.
Caleb searched the walls.
Marissa checked beneath the carpet.
Danielle approached the piano.
A blue glass queen sat on top.
She froze.
"Caleb."
He came beside her.
The queen had the same translucent blue color as the rook.
Danielle lifted it.
The base contained another key shaft.
"Two keys."
Caleb nodded.
"Victor has one."
Danielle examined the queen.
"No."
"What?"
"Mom had one."
She looked toward her mother's portrait.
"Victor assumed he had it."
Danielle searched beneath the piano.
Nothing.
Then she remembered a childhood game.
Her mother used to hide birthday gifts inside the piano bench.
Danielle opened it.
Sheet music.
Old photographs.
A velvet pouch.
Inside was a second blue queen.
Not the decorative piece on the piano.
The real key.
Caleb stared.
"She left both."
Danielle's throat tightened.
"She knew."
A small click sounded behind them.
The door locked.
Victor's voice came through the room speaker.
"You always were quicker than Michelle."
Danielle turned toward the camera above the doorway.
"Let Liam go."
"Bring the keys to my office."
"First Liam."
"You are in no position to bargain."
Danielle held the blue rook where the camera could see it.
Then she raised it over the marble fireplace hearth.
Victor's voice sharpened.
"Don't."
She almost smiled.
There it was.
Fear.
For the first time in her life, Danielle heard fear in her father's voice.
"Open the door."
Silence.
Danielle lowered the rook toward the stone.
The lock clicked.
The door opened.
Victor said.
"Office. Five minutes."
Danielle put the rook away.
Caleb looked at her.
"You aren't giving him those keys."
"No."
"Then what happens in five minutes?"
May you like
Danielle looked at her mother's photograph.
"We find out what she was trying to protect."
