Chapter 5 - The Room Behind the Wall
The passage beneath Mercer House was larger than police expected.
Old servant corridors.
Storage rooms.
A coal room converted into a wine archive.
And one hidden office behind a stone wall.
Evelyn found it during her sixth week underground.
Victor had left her alone for longer than usual.
She loosened a rusted vent panel and crawled into an adjacent room.
Behind stacked crates was a narrow door.
Inside:
Boxes of foundation records.
And an old voice recorder.
“What was on it?” I asked.
Evelyn looked toward Detective Brooks, who had joined us.
“My mother.”
Evelyn’s mother, Laura Carter, died ten years before our wedding.
Officially from a stroke.
But the recordings proved she had discovered Victor’s financial scheme before she died.
She had confronted him.
He promised to return the money.
Laura began copying records.
Then her health failed.
She hid copies with my mother, Eleanor Mercer.
That explained the jewelry box.
My mother knew enough to be afraid.
But she died before Evelyn and I married.
Evelyn found one recording made by Victor himself.
My father’s voice:
“If Daniel marries her, the Carter block becomes active. Delay the marriage or neutralize the vote.”
Another man answered:
“And the girl?”
Victor said:
“She signs, or she becomes a problem no one can find.”
“Who was the other man?”
“Graham Pike.”
Our family security chief.
The man who led the search for Evelyn after she disappeared.
The man who stood beside me at the train station where her purse was “found.”
Detective Brooks wrote the name down.
Once Victor realized she had found the hidden office, letting her go became impossible.
He moved her deeper into the service level.
Then Claire became her only regular visitor.
I looked toward the hallway where my sister was being questioned.
“Why didn’t Claire call police?”
Evelyn’s answer was quiet.
“Because she was afraid of your father.”
I waited.
May you like
Evelyn added:
“And because she had already helped him fake my disappearance.”
