Chapter 4 - The Man Who Returned
The fire alarms began screaming.
Emergency shutters descended over the ballroom windows. Sprinklers burst to life, pouring water onto silk gowns, expensive suits, and overturned tables.
“Everyone outside!” the guards shouted.
Smoke spread through the eastern corridor.
Rachel held Emily and fought against the crowd moving toward the front entrance.
Thomas stayed beside them.
“You need to use the service stairs,” he said.
“I’m not going anywhere until you explain.”
“The building is on fire.”
“You vanished for six years.”
“Rachel.”
“You knew Daniel. You knew why he died. You had a recording of him.”
Thomas’s expression tightened.
“I will tell you everything, but not while Victor’s men are deciding whether to let us leave alive.”
Mrs. Bell appeared through the smoke.
“The main entrance is blocked.”
“By fire?” Rachel asked.
“By security.”
Thomas looked toward the ballroom.
Victor stood beneath the staircase, speaking into Marcus’s abandoned radio. His suit was soaked, but his composure had returned.
The police had not arrived.
No sirens sounded outside.
Victor was controlling the evacuation.
“He wants the drive,” Thomas said.
“I thought you plugged it into the computer.”
“I did.”
“Then he has it.”
Thomas opened his palm.
The black object he had inserted was still there.
“A decoy. The actual files are encrypted on a remote server.”
Rachel stared at him.
“Then what is this?”
“The key.”
A crash echoed from the eastern wing.
Guests screamed again.
Thomas led Rachel, Emily, and Mrs. Bell through a concealed door behind a tapestry. It opened into a narrow passage between the ballroom wall and the library.
“How do you know this house so well?” Rachel asked.
“I lived here for two years.”
Mrs. Bell closed the door behind them.
“Argue later. Move now.”
The passage smelled of dust and damp stone. Emily clung to Rachel’s neck.
“Mommy, is the house going to burn down?”
“No.”
Rachel did not know whether it was true.
At the end of the passage, Thomas opened another panel. They entered the old library, which appeared empty.
Rain struck the windows.
Thomas locked the door.
“Victor will search the east wing first,” he said. “We have three minutes.”
“To do what?”
“To make sure Emily was not injured.”
Rachel examined her daughter.
Emily had a red mark on her wrist from the guard who searched her. Otherwise, she appeared unharmed.
Thomas knelt in front of her.
“Did anyone give you the blue jacket?”
“Mrs. Bell did.”
Mrs. Bell shook her head.
“I found it hanging outside the staff room. I assumed it belonged to one of the kitchen girls.”
Thomas searched the lining.
His fingers stopped near the collar.
He tore open a seam and removed a thin electronic transmitter.
“A tracker,” he said.
Rachel looked at Mrs. Bell.
“Someone knew she would wear it.”
Mrs. Bell’s face darkened.
“Or someone replaced the jacket after I chose it.”
Emily touched Thomas’s sleeve.
“Did you know my daddy?”
Thomas closed his eyes briefly.
“Yes.”
“Was he your friend?”
“He was my best friend.”
Rachel’s anger returned.
“Then why didn’t you come to his funeral?”
“Because Victor’s people were watching it.”
“Why didn’t you contact me afterward?”
“Because Daniel made me promise.”
“Promise what?”
“To stay away from you until I could prove who killed him.”
The words settled heavily.
Rachel had imagined Daniel’s death in a thousand different ways. Driver error. Brake failure. Rain on the highway. A moment of carelessness.
Not murder.
“You have proof?” she asked.
“I have pieces.”
“You just told a ballroom full of people that the drive contained everything.”
“I needed Victor to believe it.”
“Then the video of Marcus was real?”
“Yes.”
“And Daniel’s final statement?”
Thomas hesitated.
“Also real.”
Rachel stepped toward him.
“Play it.”
“I cannot.”
“Why?”
“Because the file is incomplete.”
“Play what you have.”
Footsteps sounded outside the library.
Thomas motioned for silence.
Victor’s voice came from the corridor.
“Search every room. The woman and child do not leave the property.”
Emily covered her mouth.
Rachel’s heart pounded.
Victor continued.
“Thomas Hale is armed and dangerous. If he resists, you know what to do.”
The footsteps moved closer.
Mrs. Bell crossed to a bookshelf and pulled a green volume halfway out.
A section of shelves swung inward, revealing a descending staircase.
“Old wine tunnels,” she whispered. “Built during Prohibition.”
Thomas stared at her.
“You knew?”
“I know everything in this house except why I have remained employed here for thirty-eight years.”
They descended.
Before Rachel entered, she looked back at the library.
A framed portrait hung above the fireplace.
It showed Victor as a young man, standing beside his father and sister.
Behind them was another figure.
A boy of about twelve.
His face had been cut from the canvas.
Rachel thought of the torn photograph in her pocket.
“Who was Victor’s brother?” she asked.
Mrs. Bell stopped on the stairs.
“Victor never had a brother.”
“Then who is the boy?”
Mrs. Bell looked at the portrait.
May you like
For the first time that night, genuine fear entered her eyes.
“That,” she said, “is a question Daniel also asked.”
