Chapter 9 - The Blue Room)
Emergency lights failed to activate.
The mansion disappeared into darkness.
Claire screamed.
Ethan reached toward the sound.
"Claire."
She recoiled.
"Don't touch me."
"It's Ethan."
Lightning flashed through the windows.
For one instant he saw her against the wall.
Grant was gone.
So was Vivian.
Mrs. Doyle remained on the floor.
Ethan turned on his phone flashlight.
"Claire, stay here."
"No."
"The police are outside."
"Don't leave me."
The words stopped him.
He looked at Mrs. Doyle.
"Can you walk?"
"I think so."
"Take Claire toward the front entrance."
Mrs. Doyle nodded.
Claire did not.
"I won't go with her."
Mrs. Doyle flinched.
Ethan understood.
"Then stay beside me."
They moved through the dark hallway together.
The front doors would not open.
The electronic locks had engaged.
Ethan tried the manual release.
Nothing.
"Grant changed it," Mrs. Doyle said.
"Another exit?"
"Kitchen."
They headed downstairs.
Halfway there, Claire stopped.
"What?"
She looked toward the east staircase.
"Someone's crying."
Ethan listened.
Nothing.
Then he heard it.
A faint female voice.
Mrs. Doyle went pale.
"No."
Claire whispered, "The blue room."
Ethan turned to her.
"Who is in there?"
"I don't know."
Claire was already moving.
"Claire."
"Vivian put people there when she didn't want them talking."
"What people?"
"Sometimes women came."
"What women?"
"I don't know."
They followed the sound.
The blue room was at the end of a narrow service corridor.
The door was locked.
Claire stared at it.
Her breathing quickened.
Ethan noticed.
"You don't have to go inside."
Claire looked at the door.
"Yes, I do."
He used the fireplace tool to break the lock.
Inside they found a woman tied to a chair.
It was not a stranger.
Ethan recognized her.
She had served dinner.
A young housemaid named Anna.
Tape covered her mouth.
Ethan freed her.
"Where is Vivian?"
Anna pulled the tape away.
"She caught me calling the police."
"You're the reason they're here?"
Anna nodded.
"I heard Mr. Grant threatening Mrs. Doyle."
Claire stared at the room.
The walls were painted faded blue.
No windows.
A drain in the center of the floor.
Her face emptied.
Ethan understood.
"This is where she put you."
Claire did not answer.
Mrs. Doyle moved toward her.
Claire stepped away.
"Don't."
Mrs. Doyle stopped.
Anna stood.
"There's another way out through the laundry tunnels."
"Show us."
They descended into the service level.
Outside, police pounded on the front doors.
Then gunfire cracked somewhere above.
Claire dropped to the floor.
Ethan pulled her behind the stone wall.
Another shot.
Mrs. Doyle whispered, "Grant."
Ethan looked toward the stairs.
"We move now."
Anna led them through the old laundry corridor.
The exit was near the greenhouse.
They were twenty feet from it when Grant appeared.
He held an old revolver.
The same object he had reached for inside his jacket during the climax in the east hallway.
"Stop."
Ethan stepped in front of Claire.
Grant's hand shook violently.
"Move."
"No."
"I'll shoot you."
"Maybe."
Grant swallowed.
Ethan watched his finger.
Not properly positioned.
Grant was terrified.
Good.
Vivian emerged behind him.
"Grant."
He looked over his shoulder.
She approached slowly.
"Give me the gun."
Grant's voice cracked.
"You said this would work."
"It did for twenty years."
"Not anymore."
"Give me the gun."
"No."
Vivian's expression hardened.
"You've been weak since you were a child."
Grant stared at her.
She continued.
"You couldn't even frighten David Bennett without losing control."
Claire flinched.
Grant's eyes filled with rage.
"That was your plan."
"Your mistake."
"You told me to hit his car."
"I told you to scare him."
"You said if he died we'd be free."
Vivian froze.
So did everyone else.
A small red light blinked near the laundry shelf.
Anna's phone.
Recording.
Vivian saw it.
She lunged.
Claire moved first.
She grabbed the phone.
Vivian caught Claire by the sweater.
Ethan seized Vivian's wrist.
Grant raised the gun.
"Stop."
Everyone froze.
Grant was crying now.
"Nobody moves."
Claire stared at him.
"You killed my father."
Grant's hand shook.
"I didn't mean to."
"You kept me in a wall."
"I brought you books."
Claire's expression changed to disbelief.
"As if that makes you kind?"
"No."
Grant's voice broke.
"No, it doesn't."
Vivian snapped, "Grant, shoot him."
Grant looked at Ethan.
Then at Claire.
Then at his mother.
Vivian repeated, "Shoot him."
Grant slowly lowered the weapon.
"No."
Vivian stared.
"What?"
"I said no."
"You coward."
"Maybe."
Grant placed the revolver on the floor.
Vivian slapped him.
"You pathetic little boy."
Police voices thundered from the stairwell.
"Police. Don't move."
Vivian turned.
Officers filled the corridor.
For the first time in twenty years, someone stood between Claire and Vivian who had the legal authority to stop her.
Claire stared at the uniforms.
She shook.
Ethan remained beside her.
An officer approached slowly.
"Ma'am, are you Claire Bennett?"
Claire could barely speak.
Vivian shouted from behind them.
"She's mentally incompetent."
Claire closed her eyes.
The old fear returned.
Then she opened them.
"My name is Claire Eleanor Bennett."
Vivian went silent.
May you like
Claire looked at the officer.
"And I've been missing for twenty years."
