Chapter 4 - What Richard Confessed
Elaine switched off the tape recorder as Brandon descended the stairs.
He paused halfway down.
“Who were you talking to?”
“No one.”
“I heard a voice.”
“The radio.”
“There is no radio down here.”
Elaine stood between him and the hidden room.
Brandon examined the displaced boxes.
“You found it.”
The last trace of uncertainty disappeared from his face.
He crossed the basement in three long steps.
Elaine tried to stop him, but he pushed the wooden panel open.
When he saw the tape recorder, he cursed under his breath.
“What did you hear?”
“Enough.”
He removed the cassette.
Elaine grabbed his wrist.
“That belongs to me.”
“It belongs to my father.”
“He was my husband.”
“And you had no idea who he truly was.”
Brandon pulled free and placed the cassette inside his coat.
Elaine looked at him.
“What did you do to Sophie?”
“I was a child.”
“That is not an answer.”
“She was not supposed to be here.”
“Why?”
“Because Father brought her into our family without asking anyone.”
“She was injured. She needed help.”
“You read the reports?”
Elaine nodded.
Brandon turned away.
The anger in his shoulders changed into something heavier.
“She destroyed everything.”
“She was seven.”
“You don’t understand.”
“Then explain it.”
For a moment, Elaine believed he might.
Instead, Brandon opened the file cabinet and began removing folders.
“Your procedure is Friday,” he said. “I’ll pay the clinic. After that, you will sell this house and move somewhere smaller.”
Elaine stared at him.
“You refused to help me yesterday.”
“Circumstances changed.”
“Because I found this room.”
“Because I realized you need supervision.”
“You mean control.”
He carried the folders toward the stairs.
Elaine followed.
“Where is Sophie?”
Brandon stopped without turning.
“I don’t know.”
“Do you know whether she is safe?”
“I said I don’t know.”
Elaine heard the truth beneath his words.
He did not know where Sophie was, and that frightened him.
Brandon left with the files and the cassette, but he did not find the photograph or the papers Elaine had hidden beneath her sweater.
As soon as his car disappeared, Elaine called the police.
She explained that her adult friend might be missing.
The dispatcher asked whether Sophie had been threatened.
Elaine could not prove it.
Had Sophie missed work?
Yes, but she had requested leave.
Had she sent a distress message?
No.
Had anyone seen her taken against her will?
No.
The officer promised to record the concern but explained there was not yet enough evidence for an emergency search.
Elaine then called Thomas Reed’s office.
This time, the assistant answered immediately.
“Mr. Reed is returning tonight.”
“Tell him I found Richard’s hidden room.”
The assistant became quiet.
“Did you find the tapes?”
“Brandon took one.”
“One?”
“There may be others.”
“Mrs. Mercer, leave the house.”
Elaine tightened her grip on the phone.
“Why?”
“Do not wait for Mr. Reed. Take your identification and medication. Go somewhere public.”
“I am not leaving my home.”
“Then lock the doors and call the police.”
“I already did.”
“Tell them someone may come for the remaining recordings.”
Elaine looked toward the basement.
“What is on those recordings?”
“I do not know everything.”
“But you know something.”
“Yes.”
“Who is Sophie?”
The assistant whispered, “She is the reason Richard changed his will.”
A noise came from the front porch.
Elaine turned.
A package had been pushed through the mail slot.
“Someone is here.”
“Do not open the door.”
The porch remained empty when Elaine looked through the window.
She picked up the package.
It had no address or postage.
Inside was a small digital recorder and a note written in unfamiliar handwriting.
Richard lied on the tapes. Listen to Margaret before you believe him.
Elaine pressed the recorder’s only button.
A woman began speaking.
“My name is Margaret Hale. If Elaine Mercer hears this, Sophie has decided the truth is more dangerous than silence.”
Elaine sat down.
Margaret’s voice sounded older than Elaine remembered, exhausted and afraid.
“Richard was Sophie’s legal guardian, but not her father. Sophie’s father was a man Richard feared. A man whose money built the Bennett company.”
Margaret paused to breathe.
“I was instructed to keep Sophie away from Brandon after the fire. Brandon told the police he had not entered her room. Richard knew that was false.”
Elaine closed her eyes.
A memory returned.
A night in winter.
Brandon coughing in the hallway.
Richard carrying a burned blanket out the back door.
Elaine had been told an electrical heater malfunctioned in the guesthouse.
But they had not had a guesthouse heater.
Margaret continued.
“The fire was not the worst thing Brandon did. It was simply the first thing Richard could no longer hide.”
Glass shattered in the kitchen.
Elaine rose so quickly that the recorder fell.
A man in dark clothing reached through the broken side window and unlocked the door.
Elaine ran toward the hallway.
The man entered.
He wore gloves and a black cap pulled low over his forehead.
“Where are the tapes?” he demanded.
Elaine backed toward the staircase.
“I don’t know.”
He grabbed her medical papers from the table, glanced at them, and threw them aside.
“Brandon said you found the room.”
Elaine’s fear became rage.
“My son sent you?”
The intruder stepped closer.
“He said you would make this difficult.”
Elaine reached behind her and pulled the heavy brass lamp from the side table.
The man smiled.
“You won’t hit me.”
Elaine swung.
The lamp struck his shoulder.
He stumbled into the wall.
Elaine ran to the front door, but her failing vision narrowed. The hallway became a dark tunnel. She collided with a chair and fell to one knee.
The man recovered and seized the back of her sweater.
Then a second figure rushed through the broken kitchen door.
The intruder released Elaine with a cry.
A struggle followed.
Elaine heard a fist strike flesh, furniture overturn, and a woman shout, “Get away from her.”
When Elaine’s vision cleared, Sophie stood over the intruder holding a fireplace poker.
Blood ran from a cut above her eyebrow.
The man fled through the kitchen.
Elaine stared at Sophie.
“Where have you been?”
Sophie dropped the poker and locked the door.
“We have to leave.”
“Brandon sent that man.”
“I know.”
“You know?”
Sophie picked up the recorder from the floor.
Her face went pale when she heard Margaret’s voice.
“Who gave you this?”
“I don’t know.”
Sophie switched it off.
“Elaine, Margaret Hale did not die in a car accident.”
“Where is she?”
May you like
Sophie looked toward the broken window.
“I think she is the one who paid for Brandon’s vacation house.”
