Chapter 5 - The Hidden Room
The police separated everyone.
Conrad hated it.
Every instinct told him to keep Elliot within arm’s reach, but two officers needed to speak with the boy privately while a child-services investigator drove to the estate.
Conrad remained visible through the library’s open glass doors.
Elliot sat with a female officer and Nathan.
He looked small.
Too small.
Julian was questioned in the drawing room.
Agatha refused to answer anything without her attorney.
Conrad gave his statement twice.
When the officers asked whether he had struck Julian and Agatha, he told the truth.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“They had chained my son to a stone pillar.”
The officer looked at the broken chain in an evidence bag.
“We understand.”
Conrad did not know what would happen legally.
At that moment he barely cared.
He cared about the coat.
An officer had photographed it before allowing Conrad to examine the pockets.
Empty.
No wallet.
No phone.
No note.
Nothing.
Only Caroline’s perfume.
Faint after three years.
But unmistakable.
Conrad had to turn away.
The second brass key was smaller than the first.
Elliot insisted he had not seen it earlier.
“It was under the coat.”
“How did you find the drawer?”
“The lady told me.”
Conrad froze.
“What lady?”
“The lady upstairs.”
Elaine joined them.
“I never spoke to Elliot.”
Elliot shook his head.
“Not her.”
“What did she look like?”
Elliot frowned, trying to remember.
“Old.”
“How old?”
“Like Grandma.”
Agatha, standing across the room with an officer, looked over.
Elliot continued.
“She was wearing a blue jacket.”
Conrad looked toward Nathan.
“Did you see anyone?”
“No.”
The upstairs figure.
The curtain.
The broken glass.
Someone had been inside before Elaine revealed herself.
“Where did the lady go?”
“She said she had to leave before Uncle Julian saw her.”
Conrad’s pulse accelerated.
“What exactly did she say?”
Elliot thought.
“She said, ‘Tell your father Caroline kept her promise.’”
Agatha closed her eyes.
Conrad saw it.
“Mother.”
She opened them.
“Who was she?”
“I have no idea.”
“You reacted.”
“I reacted because this circus is exhausting.”
Conrad stepped closer.
“Who was she?”
An officer moved between them.
“Sir.”
Conrad backed away.
The second key remained in his hand.
He looked toward the greenhouse.
An hour later, the police allowed Conrad, Nathan, and two officers to inspect it.
Julian demanded to come.
The police refused.
Agatha remained silent.
The greenhouse smelled of damp soil and cedar.
Most benches were empty.
The shelf Elliot described stood against the north wall.
Conrad pulled it aside.
Behind it was a narrow wooden door.
The brass key fit.
Conrad opened it.
A small room appeared.
No windows.
One bare bulb.
One metal cabinet.
A wooden stool.
Nothing else.
The red coat had apparently been moved from there to the library after Elliot discovered it.
Someone had tried to clean out the room.
But not perfectly.
One officer found torn paper in a waste bin.
Another found a broken photograph frame.
Conrad examined the wall.
Rectangular dust marks suggested boxes had recently been removed.
Nathan pointed toward the floor.
“Look.”
Four holes formed a square in the old tile.
Something had been bolted there.
A safe?
A cabinet?
Conrad crouched.
Near the wall was a deep scratch leading toward the door.
Whatever had been removed was heavy.
The second brass key did not fit the metal cabinet.
The officers forced it open.
Empty.
Conrad cursed under his breath.
Then Nathan noticed a seam behind the cabinet.
They pulled it away.
A small steel panel had been built into the wall.
The second key fit perfectly.
Conrad opened it.
Inside was a cassette recorder.
Three tapes.
And an envelope addressed to him.
He stared at his own name for several seconds.
Then opened it.
Conrad,
If you are reading this, someone stopped me from telling you in person.
Do not trust the story they give you about my state of mind.
I am not confused.
I am not imagining things.
Julian has been moving money through shell companies for years, but he is not working alone.
Your mother knows.
I believe she helped him hide it.
I also found evidence that your father discovered the fraud shortly before his heart attack.
There is more.
Something worse.
I cannot put it in this letter because I no longer know who opens the mail.
The tapes explain where to look.
Please forgive me for keeping you outside this.
I thought protecting you meant carrying it alone.
I was wrong.
Take Elliot and go.
I love you.
Caroline.
Conrad sat on the wooden stool.
For three years he had believed his wife died after becoming increasingly anxious, frightened, and emotionally exhausted.
Agatha had repeatedly told him Caroline was unstable.
Julian had said Caroline’s accusations against the family were delusions.
Even Conrad had wondered whether stress was distorting her judgment.
Now shame burned through him.
She had been telling the truth.
One officer placed the cassette recorder into an evidence bag.
Nathan looked sick.
“Conrad.”
“What?”
“Your father’s heart attack.”
“What about it?”
“He died here.”
“I know.”
“Agatha told everyone it happened in his study.”
Conrad looked at him.
Nathan’s voice dropped.
“It didn’t.”
“Where?”
May you like
Nathan looked toward the greenhouse door.
“Right here.”
