Chapter 4 - The File Marked Adrian Vale
The figure descended slowly.
Elena held her phone in front of her, ready to call Marcus.
Then the light revealed an elderly woman in a gray housekeeping dress.
Her name was Ruth Calder. She had worked at the Vale estate for more than forty years.
“You should not be here,” Ruth said.
Elena tightened her grip on the phone.
“Did you leave the note?”
“No.”
“Then who did?”
Ruth looked toward the folder in Elena’s hand.
“Someone who wants that file found.”
“Why?”
“Because secrets become weapons when the wrong person controls them.”
Elena opened the folder.
The first page contained Adrian’s birth records. His mother was listed as Evelyn Vale. His father was listed as Richard Vale.
Nothing seemed unusual until Elena reached the medical section.
Blood tests had been performed repeatedly during Adrian’s childhood. Genetic markers had been highlighted. Several pages carried the name of a private research program called Project Winter.
“What was Project Winter?” Elena asked.
Ruth did not answer.
Elena turned another page.
A photograph showed nine-year-old Adrian sitting in a hospital bed beside another boy of the same age.
The boys looked remarkably similar.
On the back, someone had written:
A-1 stable. A-2 unresponsive to separation.
Elena felt cold despite the warm underground room.
“Who is the other child?”
Ruth’s eyes filled with something close to grief.
“You need to leave.”
“Not until you tell me.”
“I cannot protect you if you know too much.”
“I am already being followed. Someone photographed Adrian inside our apartment. They know about me.”
Ruth’s face changed.
“They know you are his wife?”
“I don’t know.”
“Does Adrian know you found this room?”
“No.”
“Keep it that way until you understand who watches him.”
Elena closed the folder.
“I will not lie to my husband.”
“You may have to if telling him gets him killed.”
The words hung between them.
Ruth moved to a cabinet and removed an old cassette tape.
“This was recorded the night before the fire.”
She placed it in Elena’s hand.
“Listen somewhere no one can reach you.”
“Who started the fire?”
Ruth looked toward the staircase.
“The same people who still control the Vale board.”
A sound came from above.
A door opening.
Ruth grabbed Elena’s wrist and pulled her toward a second passage hidden behind the cabinets.
“Go.”
“What about you?”
“I belong to this house. They expect to see me.”
“Ruth, come with me.”
“No.”
The elderly woman pushed the cassette into Elena’s apron pocket.
“Trust Marcus Reed. Trust no one whose loyalty came from your husband’s father.”
Elena entered the narrow passage.
Before Ruth closed it, Elena asked one final question.
“Was Richard Vale involved?”
Ruth’s silence gave the answer she feared.
The passage led to the wine cellar. Elena climbed out behind a storage rack and returned to the main hall.
The estate manager stood near the entrance with two unfamiliar men.
“Elena,” he said pleasantly. “We were looking for you.”
She forced herself to smile.
“I was checking the lower storage rooms.”
“There are no approved storage rooms below the east wing.”
“I must have taken the wrong staircase.”
One of the men studied her damp shoes.
“Did you find anything interesting?”
“Dust.”
She walked past them without hurrying.
Only when she reached her car did she allow herself to breathe.
On the passenger seat sat an envelope that had not been there before.
Inside was a photograph taken minutes earlier.
It showed Elena opening Adrian’s file.
May you like
Beneath it were six words.
BRING THE FILE TO THE WINTER BALL.
