Chapter 4
The knob turned once, then again. It didn't open. The flashlight beam stayed pinned under the door, a hard white line on the concrete floor.
I held my breath and it pulled at the cut on my side. The woman's hand was still on my forearm, her fingers tight. She'd shoved me behind the linen shelf, her back against the stacked sheets, my shoulder against hers. The utility room smelled like bleach and damp cardboard. A single bare bulb hummed above us, switched off. The only light was that line under the door.
The man outside tried his weight against it. Wood creaked. Then a voice, low, muffled through the door.
"Storeroom's locked. Check the east hall."
A second voice, farther away. "Victor's not in the office. Marino's car wasn't at the gate."
Footsteps moved off. The beam under the door slid away. I didn't exhale until the heavy hallway door shut again with a thud.
She let go of my arm slowly. Her palm left a damp print on my coat sleeve.
"They locked us out or locked themselves in?" I whispered.
"They locked the whole east wing," she said. "Ten minutes ago. I heard the click when I was bringing up towels. That's why I came looking for you."
I looked at her in the dark. Her brown hair had come loose from the knot at her neck. The white collar of her uniform was crooked. The ring on her finger caught what little light leaked from the hallway.
"You said your husband worked for my father," I said. "Maintenance."
She nodded. Her eyes didn't leave the door. "Daniel. Daniel Reyes. He did inventory for the house. Boilers, panels, the safe room. Last March he logged a red book in the old safe behind the portrait. He showed me the entry on his phone. Two days later he didn't come home."
My father had died in February. The mansion had sat empty for a month before I moved back. I'd never opened the safe behind the portrait. I'd assumed it was empty.
"Did you call the police?" I asked.
"I did," she said. Her voice stayed flat. "County sheriff took a statement. Said Daniel probably left. He didn't. He wouldn't leave his ring."
She turned her hand over. The band was thin, scratched. Inside I could see a faint engraving catch the dark.
"Why are you still here?" I asked. "In this house."
"Because you pay me," she said, and almost smiled. "And because if that ledger is still here, it's the only thing that proves where he went. Your father kept notes on everyone who came through that office. Payoffs, names. If Daniel logged it, he saw it."
I leaned back against the cold wall. The pain in my side throbbed in time with my pulse. "You think my father made him disappear."
"I think your father wrote down why someone would want him to," she said. "And now those men want the same book."
A pipe ticked somewhere above us. The mansion settled. She stepped away from the shelf and moved to the worktable, feeling in the dark until her hand found a small flashlight. She didn't turn it on.
"We can't stay here," she said. "That lock won't hold if they decide to search closets. There's a passage behind the curtain alcove. The one we hid in. The velvet curtain — it's not just a curtain. There's a panel."
I stared at her. "You've used it."
"To clean," she said. "And once to hide Daniel's toolbox when your father told him to leave it out. He said some doors in this house were built for people who didn't want to be seen."
She looked at me, and for the first time since she'd pressed her finger to my lips, I saw real hesitation. "I can get you to the office without going through the hall. But if we open that portrait, we have to be ready to run. If the ledger's there, they will hear us."
I thought about the three men around the desk, the papers spread out, the way they'd said Victor like they owned me. My name.
"What's your name?" I asked.
"Elena," she said. "Elena Reyes."
The hallway outside went quiet again. No footsteps. No light. Just the hum of the old heater.
May you like
"Show me," I said.
She nodded once, put the flashlight in her apron pocket, and eased toward the utility room's back wall, where a narrow service door was cut into the paneling. She put her hand on it and waited for me to follow.
