Chapter 13 - The Man Behind the Old Story
Laura turned toward the hallway.
Nothing moved.
Daniel locked the front door.
Margaret stepped inside behind them.
“Where?”
Daniel pointed toward the kitchen.
Laura walked slowly.
The kitchen was empty.
Then she noticed the cabinet door.
Open.
The metal box was gone.
Laura spun toward Daniel.
“Where is it?”
“I don't know.”
“You were here.”
“I just arrived.”
Margaret looked around.
“There must be another entrance.”
Laura remembered the hidden floor compartment.
She knelt.
The board had been replaced.
She lifted it.
Beneath it was a narrow passage.
Laura stared.
“What is that?”
Daniel's face changed.
“I didn't know that existed.”
Margaret whispered, “Your father built it.”
Laura looked at her.
“Why?”
“To move documents without anyone knowing.”
The passage led beneath the kitchen toward the basement.
They followed it.
At the end was a small room.
The walls were covered with photographs.
Laura saw her father.
Margaret.
Daniel.
Elliot.
And Richard.
Hundreds of photographs.
Some dated decades earlier.
Some taken only days ago.
Laura stared at one photograph.
It showed Daniel entering her house the night before.
Another showed Margaret meeting the stranger at the mall.
Another showed Laura and Emily leaving the house.
Someone had been documenting them for years.
Then Laura noticed something else.
A photograph of herself as a child.
She was standing beside her father.
Richard stood in the background.
Laura touched the image.
“I've seen him.”
Margaret nodded.
“He came to your birthday.”
Laura looked at her.
“You told me he was a family friend.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
Laura shook her head.
“I don't know what that phrase means anymore.”
Daniel walked toward a desk.
He found a cassette recorder.
He pressed play.
Richard's voice filled the room.
“I always wondered when Laura would finally come looking.”
Laura froze.
The recording continued.
“She has her father's stubbornness.”
A pause.
“And his memory.”
Laura looked at Daniel.
“What does he mean by memory?”
Daniel shook his head.
“I don't know.”
Richard's voice returned.
“Laura, if you're hearing this, you have probably found the room.”
Another pause.
“Good.”
Laura stepped closer.
“Your father believed the documents were the secret.”
The recording crackled.
“They weren't.”
Laura held her breath.
“The secret was what he saw.”
The recording ended.
Laura stared at the recorder.
“What did my father see?”
No one answered.
Then Emily called from upstairs.
“Mom?”
May you like
Laura's blood ran cold.
Emily screamed.
