Chapter 5 - THE SAFE INSIDE ROOM 17)
Adrian tore his sweater from his body and pressed the fabric against the ventilation grille.
“Cover your mouths.”
Elena pulled Leo down.
Arthur stumbled toward the desk.
“What is it?”
Adrian sniffed carefully.
“Probably a sedative.”
“Probably?”
“I’m trying to keep everyone calm.”
“That isn’t working.”
Adrian searched the shelves.
Elena studied the steel room.
If Michael used this place, he would have planned an exit.
She forced herself to think like him.
Michael hated feeling trapped.
In restaurants he always chose the chair facing the door.
In hotels he checked stairwells.
When Leo was born, Michael installed two backup locks and a generator in their ordinary suburban home.
Everyone had teased him.
Elena had teased him.
Now she looked at the framed photograph.
Michael would never store his most dangerous evidence inside a room with only one exit.
She pulled the frame from the desk.
Nothing.
She checked beneath it.
A brass lever.
“Elena?” Adrian said.
She pulled.
A section of shelving shifted three inches.
Behind it was a narrow tunnel.
Adrian smiled for the first time.
“That sounds like Michael.”
They entered.
Arthur struggled.
Elena supported him while Adrian carried Leo over a collapsed section.
Behind them, the gas thickened.
The tunnel rose.
After thirty yards they reached an iron hatch.
Locked.
Adrian examined it.
“Mechanical.”
Arthur pointed toward three engraved circles.
“Sterling crest.”
Elena looked closer.
Three rotating disks.
Each contained numbers.
A combination.
Leo touched one.
“Dad liked number puzzles.”
Elena remembered the note.
Seventeen remembers what the family forgets.
“Seventeen.”
She set the first dial to 17.
Nothing.
Three disks.
Three numbers.
“What would Michael choose?” Arthur asked.
Leo spoke immediately.
“My birthday.”
Elena turned.
“What?”
“Dad used my birthday for his old bicycle lock.”
Michael had told Leo never to use birthdays for passwords.
Apparently he had ignored his own advice.
Elena set the other dials.
4.
5.
Leo’s birthday.
The hatch clicked.
Fresh air hit them.
They emerged into a garden shed eighty yards from the mansion.
Adrian closed the hatch.
Arthur leaned against the wall.
“We need police.”
Adrian shook his head.
“Victor has Sheriff Caldwell on the foundation board.”
“Then state police.”
“No phones. Victor is jamming signals near the house.”
Elena looked toward the distant gates.
“We leave on foot.”
Adrian stopped her.
“He’ll have the perimeter covered.”
“Then what do you suggest?”
“We get proof before morning.”
“I care more about Leo than your proof.”
“So did Michael.”
Elena’s anger flared.
“Stop using my dead husband to control me.”
Adrian went silent.
Arthur stepped between them.
“Elena is right.”
Adrian nodded.
“Yes.”
His voice softened.
“I’m sorry.”
Leo pulled Elena’s sleeve.
“Mom.”
“What?”
“I think Dad gave me the proof.”
Everyone turned.
Leo looked frightened by the attention.
“The airplane.”
Elena’s memory returned.
Michael kneeling in their living room three days before his death.
A small wooden airplane.
For when you’re older.
At the time Elena thought it was simply a gift.
Leo continued.
“One wing comes off.”
Elena stared.
“What?”
“It broke last year.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I fixed it.”
Arthur almost laughed.
Adrian’s eyes sharpened.
“What was inside?”
“Nothing.”
Leo paused.
“Maybe.”
“What do you mean maybe?” Elena asked.
“There was a tiny metal thing.”
Adrian said:
“A memory card?”
Leo shrugged.
“It looked like the little card in my camera.”
Elena felt dizzy without pretending.
“Where is it now?”
“In my desk.”
At home.
Ninety miles away.
Victor did not know.
Unless Leo had told someone.
Elena crouched.
“Have you ever told Uncle Victor about the airplane?”
“No.”
“Anyone in this house?”
“No.”
Arthur exhaled.
“Then we still have an advantage.”
Adrian looked toward the mansion.
“Not for long.”
A flashlight beam moved between the trees.
Then another.
Victor’s men were searching.
Adrian opened the shed’s rear door.
“There’s an old groundskeeper’s road.”
Arthur shook his head.
“I can’t run.”
Elena looked at him.
“We don’t leave you.”
“You leave me and protect Leo.”
“No.”
“Elena.”
“No.”
Arthur saw Michael’s stubbornness in her and stopped arguing.
They moved into the trees.
Flashlights swept across the lawn behind them.
They reached the old road.
A car waited.
Black sedan.
The same kind Elena had seen near the bus station.
Adrian approached cautiously.
A woman stepped from behind the wheel.
Margaret.
Michael’s aunt.
Elena stopped.
“You were part of this.”
Margaret nodded.
“Yes.”
Arthur stared at his sister.
“How much?”
“Enough to hate myself.”
She opened the rear door.
“Get in.”
Elena did not move.
“Why should I trust you?”
Margaret looked toward the approaching lights.
“Because Victor asked me to put something in Leo’s dinner.”
Elena’s body went rigid.
Arthur whispered:
“What?”
Margaret’s eyes filled with tears.
“I didn’t.”
“What was it?”
“I don’t know. He said it would make the boy sleep.”
Leo moved behind Elena.
Margaret continued.
“That’s when I realized this wasn’t about business.”
A shout came from the woods.
“They’re here!”
Adrian shoved open the car door.
“Decision time.”
Elena put Leo inside.
Arthur followed.
Adrian climbed into the front.
Margaret accelerated down the service road as lights appeared behind them.
A black SUV emerged from the trees.
It followed.
Margaret drove faster.
The old road curved toward the river.
Elena looked through the rear window.
The SUV gained.
“Can we reach the highway?”
“No,” Margaret said. “Victor will have the gate closed.”
Adrian pointed ahead.
“Take the quarry road.”
“That road’s abandoned.”
“Exactly.”
Margaret turned violently.
The sedan bounced over broken gravel.
Leo held Elena.
The SUV remained behind them.
Arthur suddenly gripped his chest.
Elena caught him.
“Arthur?”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not.”
“It’s the medication.”
The road narrowed.
Ahead, a steel barrier blocked the quarry entrance.
Margaret braked.
Everyone jerked forward.
“Dead end.”
Headlights appeared behind them.
Victor’s SUV stopped twenty yards away.
Doors opened.
Three men emerged.
Victor stepped between them.
He straightened his jacket.
Even in darkness, he looked composed.
“Elena.”
She opened her door.
Adrian grabbed her arm.
“Don’t.”
Elena pulled free.
She stepped outside.
Victor smiled.
“Finally.”
“Let Leo and Arthur leave.”
“Of course.”
“You’re lying.”
“Probably.”
He moved closer.
“Where is Michael’s drive?”
Elena said nothing.
Victor studied her face.
Then he smiled wider.
“You know.”
Elena understood immediately.
He had been uncertain.
Now her silence had confirmed it.
Victor looked past her toward Leo.
May you like
And said:
“Search the boy.”
