Chapter 4 - ELLISON’S REAL NAME
Daniel Shaw had served under Grandma.
Officially missing at sea twelve years earlier.
Evelyn believed him dead.
He returned using Ellison’s identity after learning the Hart archive was about to be sold.
He freed Harold because Harold knew the physical route beneath the house.
Daniel intended to reach the archive before Claire or Evelyn.
No one trusted anyone enough to coordinate.
The result was an armed fugitive and a missing key.
The hospital placed me under federal and Navy protection.
My mother arrived at last.
Margaret stood inside the doorway with swollen eyes.
She apologized for freezing.
I asked what she knew.
She admitted Harold had been paid by Grandma for decades.
She believed it was property maintenance.
She knew Claire visited the house while I deployed.
She knew Claire sometimes wore my uniforms for “charity photographs.”
She chose not to ask why.
Passivity had protected her comfort.
Then Margaret revealed Grandma had another sealed room beneath the braided rug.
Harold always moved the rug before private meetings.
The bat assault happened on top of the hatch.
My father may have struck me not only over the sale.
He was keeping me away from whatever lay beneath us.
Then the real-time home camera activated.
Harold and Daniel Shaw entered the living room.
Claire followed.
All three stood on Grandma’s rug.
Harold lifted the bat again.
Not as a weapon.
As a lever.
May you like
He inserted the handle into a hidden floor slot.
The rug began rotating.
