Victor shut the door behind him.
The click of the lock sounded unnaturally loud.
“Where's the notebook?” he asked.
I didn't answer.
Arthur remained beside the staircase.
Victor looked at him again.
“You weren't supposed to come back.”
Arthur laughed softly. “Neither were you.”
I moved toward the center of the room.
“What is going on?”
Victor ignored me.
“Arthur, if Caleb knows you're here—”
“He already knows.”
Victor's jaw tightened.
I looked from one man to the other.
“You worked together.”
Arthur shook his head.
“Not exactly.”
Victor said, “Arthur was hired by your grandfather.”
“And you?”
“I was hired by Eleanor.”
Arthur gave him a hard look.
“You were hired by Eleanor after you had already been working for Samuel.”
Victor didn't respond.
That was enough.
I felt something cold settle in my chest.
“You worked for Samuel?”
“For a short time,” Victor said.
“And Caleb?”
Victor's silence answered that too.
Arthur stepped toward me.
“Victor was supposed to help Eleanor recover the original records. Instead, he told Caleb where she had hidden them.”
Victor's voice sharpened.
“You don't know what you're talking about.”
“I know exactly what I'm talking about.”
The front window flashed with headlights.
Arthur turned.
“He's outside.”
Victor looked at me.
“Give me the key.”
“No.”
“You don't understand.”
“I understand enough.”
Victor moved closer.
“Daniel, your grandmother built a trap that was supposed to close decades ago. It didn't. Caleb has been dismantling it piece by piece. The house is the last location he hasn't been able to enter legally.”
“Why?”
“Because you're the legal owner.”
I stared at him.
“You need me.”
“Yes.”
The honesty startled me.
“For what?”
Victor lowered his voice.
“To open the final chamber.”
Arthur closed his eyes.
“He found the key.”
Victor looked at him.
“No. Daniel found the key.”
I suddenly remembered the note on the brass tag.
For Daniel. Not Edward.*
Grandma had known.
She hadn't merely been protecting the house.
She had been protecting the person who would eventually hold the key.
A car door slammed outside.
Then another.
Victor looked toward the window.
“Caleb brought people.”
“How many?”
“Enough.”
I heard a voice outside.
“Daniel!”
Caleb.
I stepped toward the front door.
Arthur caught my shoulder.
“Don't.”
Caleb called again.
“You've spent all night reading things that were never meant for you.”
Victor whispered, “He knows you're inside.”
I looked at him.
“How?”
Victor's expression was grim.
“Because I told him.”
The betrayal landed harder than I expected.
“You called him.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“After I left the factory.”
I took a step backward.
“Why?”
“Because I wanted him to come here.”
Arthur stared at Victor.
“You're insane.”
“No. I'm finished running.”
Victor looked at me.
“I spent twenty years thinking I could control this. I couldn't.”
Caleb's voice came again.
“Daniel, bring the key.”
I reached into my pocket.
The brass key felt warm from my hand.
Victor noticed.
“Don't give it to him.”
“You just told me to.”
“I changed my mind.”
“Why?”
“Because I finally understand what Eleanor was doing.”
He pointed toward the fireplace.
“She didn't hide the records from Caleb.”
“She hid them from everyone.”
“No.”
Victor shook his head.
“She hid them from the person who would eventually betray the family.”
I remembered the old photograph.
Grandma.
Samuel.
Gerald.
Young Victor.
And someone else.
A man whose face had been partly obscured by the edge of the photograph.
Arthur noticed where I was looking.
“Your grandfather.”
“No,” I said.
I looked closer.
“That isn't him.”
Victor went silent.
Arthur nodded.
“You've seen the photograph before.”
“Yes.”
“Who is that man?”
Arthur's answer came quietly.
“Caleb.”
I felt the room tilt.
The photograph had been taken before Caleb supposedly disappeared.
He hadn't merely been involved later.
He had been there at the beginning.
I looked toward Victor.
“And Grandma knew.”
“She knew.”
“Then why didn't she expose him?”
“Because Caleb threatened Ruth.”
Ruth.
The name suddenly made everything connect.
Caleb had helped separate Ruth from Eleanor.
He had used Samuel.
He had used Gerald.
He had used Edward.
And he had used my mother.
Every person had been pushed into silence through a different threat.
My mother had been threatened with me.
Edward had been threatened with prison.
Samuel had been threatened with exposure.
Gerald had been threatened with the loss of his financial network.
Ruth had been used as leverage.
And Eleanor had been forced to play a longer game.
The front door shook under a heavy knock.
Caleb spoke calmly from outside.
“Daniel, you have one minute.”
Arthur looked at me.
“The final chamber is beneath the fireplace.”
I stared at the mantel.
“But we already opened the compartment.”
“That was the first lock.”
I stepped toward it.
Arthur continued.
“The second is behind the stone.”
I touched the fireplace.
One of the stones moved.
A narrow panel opened.
Behind it was a keyhole.
The brass key fit perfectly.
I turned it.
Something deep inside the wall clicked.
The fireplace shifted forward by less than an inch.
Victor whispered, “Eleanor's last hiding place.”
Then the lights went out.
A crash came from the front room.
Glass shattered.
Someone had entered through the window.
Arthur shoved me toward the fireplace.
“Open it!”
I pulled.
A narrow door swung inward.
Behind it was a staircase descending into darkness.
I heard Caleb's footsteps approaching.
And from somewhere below us came another sound.
A man's voice.
“Daniel?”
I stopped.
I knew that voice.
My father.
Click here to continue reading: PART 19: The Voice Beneath the Fireplace Was My Father’s, but What He Had Been Guarding Down There Forced Me to Question His Greatest Lie
The Day My Parents Arrived With a Lawyer, a Moving Truck, and a Demand I Never Expected to Hear
Part 18 of 25
