Chapter 5 - Beneath Bennett Hall
The hidden staircase ended beneath the mansion.
The tunnel walls were lined with brick. Rusted pipes crossed overhead. Old wine racks stretched into darkness.
Mrs. Bell switched on a flashlight.
“The western tunnel leads to the greenhouse,” she said. “The southern passage reaches the river road.”
Thomas checked the tracker from Emily’s jacket.
“It is still transmitting.”
He placed it inside an empty wine bottle and slid the bottle into a wooden delivery crate.
“Let Victor chase the wrong signal.”
Rachel opened her phone.
No service.
“What caused the explosion?”
“Someone overloaded the mansion’s backup generator,” Thomas said. “The smoke may be real, but I doubt the goal was to destroy the house.”
“The goal was the computer?”
“The goal was to erase evidence and create confusion.”
Mrs. Bell shook her head.
“Victor would burn the entire estate before allowing his secrets onto that screen.”
They moved deeper into the tunnel.
Emily had stopped crying, but her hand remained locked around Rachel’s.
“Mommy, did Mr. Victor kill Daddy?”
Rachel could not find an answer suitable for a seven-year-old.
Thomas did.
“We do not know yet.”
Emily looked at him.
“You think he did.”
Thomas’s silence confirmed it.
They reached an underground storage chamber. Wooden crates bore shipping dates from the 1940s. A narrow metal table stood beside an obsolete telephone switchboard.
Thomas removed a laptop from a waterproof bag hidden behind the crates.
“You planned to come here,” Rachel said.
“I planned several escape routes.”
“You expected Victor to frame Emily?”
“No. I expected him to accuse me.”
“Why her?”
Thomas looked at the child.
“That is what frightens me.”
He connected the flash drive.
A password screen appeared.
Rachel took the old photograph from her pocket.
“The Four Witnesses. Who were they?”
Thomas saw the picture and went still.
“Where did you get that?”
“Emily found it in Victor’s study.”
Thomas took it carefully.
“Daniel, me, Adrian, and Jonah Vale.”
“The man who was torn out?”
“Yes.”
“Who was he?”
“A forensic accountant. He worked for Bennett Industries.”
“Where is he now?”
“No one knows.”
Mrs. Bell lowered her flashlight.
“Jonah Vale died in a warehouse fire.”
Thomas looked at her.
“That is what Victor wanted everyone to believe.”
He placed the photograph beside the laptop.
“Six years ago, Victor’s father, Leonard Bennett, believed money was disappearing from the company’s charitable foundation. He hired four people without Victor’s knowledge. Daniel had experience in corporate security. I handled digital forensics. Jonah traced financial records. Adrian provided access to internal documents.”
“Adrian helped investigate his own uncle?”
“He hated Victor.”
“What did you find?”
“A network of shell companies moving millions from Bennett accounts into private holdings. But the stolen money was only the beginning.”
Thomas opened a folder.
Old newspaper clippings appeared.
A hospital closed after a Bennett redevelopment deal.
A residential building collapsed during construction.
A whistleblower vanished.
A city councilman died from an apparent overdose.
“The same shell companies paid witnesses, police officers, inspectors, and judges,” Thomas said. “Victor was buying silence.”
Rachel felt sick.
“Daniel discovered the payments.”
“Daniel discovered something else. A connection to the Bennett Rose.”
“The brooch?”
“It is not merely jewelry.”
Thomas enlarged a high-resolution image of the ruby.
Along the engraved metal stem were tiny symbols.
“They are coordinates,” he said.
“To what?”
“We never learned.”
Mrs. Bell stepped closer to the screen.
“The inscription says forever hidden, never forgotten.”
“Daniel believed the brooch contained a physical key,” Thomas continued. “The ruby setting can be removed. Inside is a micro-engraved cylinder, possibly a map or account ledger.”
“Why would Victor display it publicly?”
“Because the brooch in the exhibition case was a replica.”
Rachel thought of the ruby pulled from Emily’s jacket.
“Then the one planted on Emily was the real brooch?”
Thomas nodded.
Mrs. Bell sat slowly on a crate.
“Victor was not merely framing the child. He was moving the heirloom.”
“Using Emily as a courier,” Rachel said.
“And once she left the property under arrest,” Thomas added, “someone could retrieve it from police evidence.”
Emily’s eyes widened.
“But why me?”
Thomas studied the brooch photograph.
“Because they needed a suspect no one would defend.”
Rachel’s expression hardened.
“I defended her.”
“Yes. And that may be why Victor looked terrified when he saw you.”
A loud metallic clang echoed through the tunnel.
Someone had entered the hidden staircase.
Thomas closed the laptop.
“Move.”
They took the southern passage.
Behind them, men’s voices spread through the tunnels.
Marcus’s voice rose above the others.
“Check every chamber.”
Rachel stopped.
“Marcus was arrested upstairs.”
“Not anymore,” Thomas said.
They ran.
The southern tunnel narrowed, forcing them into a single line. Emily stumbled, and Rachel lifted her.
The voices came closer.
At the next junction, Mrs. Bell pointed left.
“The river road.”
Thomas looked right.
“What is that way?”
Mrs. Bell hesitated.
“The old family crypt.”
“Is there another exit?”
“No.”
Thomas handed Rachel the laptop bag.
“Take Emily to the road.”
“What are you doing?”
“Giving them a reason to follow me.”
“You disappeared once already.”
“I am not Daniel.”
“That isn’t what I meant.”
Thomas’s face softened for half a second.
Then he took the decoy flash drive and ran toward the crypt.
Marcus shouted behind them.
“There he is!”
The pursuers followed Thomas.
Rachel, Emily, and Mrs. Bell hurried toward the river road.
After fifty yards, they reached an iron ladder. Mrs. Bell climbed first and pushed open a drainage cover.
Cold rain fell through the opening.
Rachel lifted Emily.
A vehicle waited on the road.
Its headlights switched on.
The rear door opened.
Adrian Bennett stood beside it.
“Get in,” he said.
Rachel stepped back.
“Why should I trust you?”
“Because Victor’s men are about to come through that tunnel.”
“Where is Thomas?”
Adrian looked toward the estate.
“Thomas was never supposed to return.”
A scream echoed from beneath the road.
Then a single gunshot.
Emily buried her face against Rachel.
May you like
Adrian held out his hand.
“If you want to learn what happened to Daniel,” he said, “you need to come with me now.”
