Chapter 5 - The Room Beneath the House
Charlotte called the police, but Naomi warned her that a missing key and a disputed construction agreement would not guarantee an immediate search. They needed proof of imminent damage.
Skylar supplied it.
“There’s another camera,” she said.
Months earlier, she had built a small motion camera for a science project and hidden it on a bookshelf to catch whoever kept stealing candy from her room. The device used a separate connection and still transmitted.
On Skylar’s tablet, the bedroom appeared dim and tilted. Two contractors entered carrying pry bars. Brandon followed with Adrian Dane.
“The access should be behind this wall,” Adrian said.
“My wife thinks it’s under the conservatory,” Brandon replied.
“Your wife knows only what Thomas wanted her to know.”
Adrian tapped the wall beside Skylar’s bed. “My father has waited twenty-two years. We are not leaving without the Mercer archive.”
Naomi recorded the stream and called a detective she trusted. This time the words buried archive, forged lien and active forced entry changed the response.
Charlotte drove behind the patrol cars. When officers entered, the contractors had vanished. Brandon stood in the foyer insisting no one had touched anything. Adrian was gone.
Skylar’s bedroom wall had been opened behind the bookshelf. Inside was a narrow steel door.
The brass key lay broken in its lock.
Elias photographed everything. A locksmith opened the door. Stone steps descended beneath the house into a dry chamber lined with metal cabinets.
Most were empty.
At the center stood an old table and a modern scanner. Someone had been there recently. Dust outlined several missing boxes.
Detective Mara Chen turned to Brandon. “Who installed the scanner?”
“I’ve never seen this room.”
Charlotte saw fresh gray dust on the knees of his pants.
At the back of the chamber, Skylar noticed a loose brick. Behind it was a small audio recorder wrapped in oilcloth. Thomas’s voice emerged when Charlotte pressed play.
“Charlotte, if you are hearing this, Dane has found the archive. The visible cabinets are a decoy. Do not search for the real records alone. Find Samuel Cross. Trust no signature, including mine.”
The recording ended.
Brandon stared at the device. His fear was genuine now.
“Who is Samuel Cross?” Charlotte asked.
No one answered.
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Then Detective Chen’s radio crackled. Officers had stopped a contractor’s van at the lower gate. Inside were tools, the missing scanner files and a locked metal box.
The box carried Charlotte’s name.
