Chapter 5 - Room 614
The northern wing smelled of fresh plaster and old wood.
Plastic sheets covered the hallway furniture. Half-renovated walls exposed narrow beams and electrical cables.
Eleanor entered through a service stairwell using an override card Mr. Bennett had left beneath her door.
Room 614 stood at the end of the corridor.
The lock had been scratched.
Inside, drawers had been pulled open and cushions removed from the chairs. Caleb had searched quickly but not carefully.
Eleanor switched on the desk lamp.
The photograph June had given her showed Harold standing beside the western wall. Behind him was an antique map of Lake Ardent.
The map was still there.
Eleanor lifted it from its hook.
Nothing.
She examined the writing desk.
One drawer contained dust, a broken pencil, and a faint rectangular outline where an envelope had rested.
The old telephone sat near the window.
June had specifically mentioned it.
Eleanor lifted the receiver.
No dial tone.
She turned the telephone over.
A small metal plate covered the base. In the center was a shallow black-stone indentation shaped like the face of Harold’s signet ring.
“The ring opens something more important than a door,” Eleanor whispered.
Caleb had found the lock.
The scratch on the ring suggested he had tried to use it.
But the compartment remained closed.
Perhaps the ring alone was not enough.
Eleanor examined the telephone buttons.
The numbers were worn except for four of them.
Six.
One.
Four.
And nine.
Room 614.
Harold’s birthday ended in nine.
She pressed 6149.
A mechanism clicked inside the desk.
A narrow panel opened beneath the telephone.
The compartment was empty.
Caleb had succeeded after all.
Eleanor ran her fingers along the interior.
Something had been taped to the upper surface and torn away. A tiny piece of red leather remained stuck to the adhesive.
The red ledger.
Footsteps sounded in the hallway.
Eleanor switched off the lamp and moved behind the half-open bathroom door.
The room door opened.
Maya entered with Nathan Sloane.
“You said she wouldn’t come here,” Maya whispered.
“She was in her room ten minutes ago.”
“Caleb lost the ledger.”
“He said he gave it to your mother.”
“Well, she doesn’t have it.”
Nathan closed the door.
“If Eleanor discovers the original accounts, the will won’t protect any of you.”
“What about the agreement?”
“She has to sign it before the transaction becomes public.”
“What transaction?”
Nathan hesitated.
“The sale.”
Maya stepped closer.
“What sale?”
“I heard Vivian speaking to someone. Eleanor owns part of a technology company.”
“Part of one?”
“I don’t know how much.”
Maya laughed quietly.
“Then why is Mother still calling her unemployed?”
“Because Eleanor does not know that we know.”
Behind the bathroom door, Eleanor remained motionless.
Maya continued.
“Mother said the video will fix everything.”
“What video?”
“We provoke Eleanor tomorrow. Caleb records her losing control. We post it. The buyer sees she’s unstable and delays the sale.”
Nathan lowered his voice.
“You are playing with something you do not understand.”
“It worked with her first investor.”
“That was more than a decade ago.”
“And Eleanor is still the same person.”
“No,” Nathan said. “She isn’t.”
Maya walked toward the desk.
“Where would Caleb have dropped the ledger?”
Nathan began searching beneath the furniture.
Eleanor looked at the open window behind them.
A renovation scaffold ran outside the building.
She slipped through the bathroom window, stepped onto the narrow platform, and moved toward the neighboring room.
As she reached the next window, a red object caught her eye.
It was wedged between the scaffold and the exterior wall.
Eleanor reached down and pulled it free.
A leather book, no larger than her hand.
The red ledger.
She tucked it inside her jacket and climbed into room 612.
May you like
Behind her, Maya opened the bathroom door.
The empty scaffold moved gently in the night wind.
