Chapter 5: The Letters Beneath the Floorboards
Victoria reached Lake Mercer forty minutes after Emily's car disappeared through the estate gates.
The property looked less like a family home than a fortress designed to disguise itself as luxury. Stone walls surrounded acres of wooded land. Security cameras watched the entrance, and two uniformed guards stood beneath a canopy while rainwater streamed from the roof.
Victoria parked on the public road and called Emily.
No answer.
She called again.
This time, the phone rang once before disconnecting.
Samuel, seated beside her, studied the estate through the windshield.
“We can't simply walk in,” he said.
“I know.””
“Your military credentials won't give you authority here.””
“I retired, Samuel. I'm aware.””
“I'm serious.””
“So am I.””
Victoria took a photograph of the entrance, noting the guard positions and camera locations. Then she called the attorney who had handled her sister Laura's estate.
His name was Peter Lawson, and he had served as the family solicitor for nearly twenty years.
When he answered, Victoria went straight to the point.
“Peter, I need to know whether Laura kept correspondence from a woman named Claire Donovan.””
There was a pause.
“Why are you asking about Claire?””
Victoria gripped the phone.
“You recognize the name.””
“I remember it from Laura's papers. She asked me to preserve a sealed envelope in case something happened to her.””
“What was inside?””
“I wasn't authorized to open it.””
“Where is it?””
“Your sister instructed me to deliver it to Emily when she turned thirty.””
Victoria looked at the date on her phone.
Emily had turned thirty-one the previous year.
“Did you deliver it?””
“No. I tried contacting Emily, but someone called from the Prescott household and told me she no longer wished to receive anything connected to her mother.””
“Who called?””
“Margaret Prescott's assistant.””
Victoria's jaw tightened.
“Peter, where is the envelope?””
“In a locked cabinet at my office. I can meet you in twenty minutes.””
“Bring it. And don't tell anyone where you're going.””
After ending the call, Victoria looked again at the estate.
“What did you find?”” Samuel asked.
“Laura left instructions for Emily. Someone intercepted them.””
“Do you think Laura was involved in Claire's disappearance?””
“I think someone wanted us to believe she was.””
Victoria's phone vibrated again.
This time, Emily had sent a message.
*I'm inside. Margaret says she has my mother's letters. She won't let me leave until I listen to something.*
Victoria called immediately.
“Emily, where are you?””
“The main house. A room upstairs.””
“Can you see the windows?””
“Yes.””
“Stay away from the windows and don't agree to anything.””
A man's voice sounded in the background.
Emily whispered, “Ethan is here.””
Victoria heard footsteps.
Then Ethan spoke loudly enough for the phone to capture his words.
“Who are you talking to?””
Emily said nothing.
“Emily, give me the phone.””
The call ended.
Victoria started the engine.
Samuel caught her wrist.
“Wait.””
“She could be in danger.””
“If you enter that property without a lawful basis, they can have you removed and use it to discredit everything you've found.””
Victoria stared at him.
“Then what do you suggest?””
“We get the letters, establish what's happening, and contact the authorities if there's evidence of immediate danger.””
Victoria hated the answer because it was sensible.
She drove to Peter Lawson's office.
The solicitor was waiting behind his desk with a sealed manila envelope. His hands shook slightly as he passed it to her.
“Laura was frightened when she gave me this,” he said.
“She made me promise that Emily would receive it personally.””
“Did she explain why?””
“She said the Prescott family had taken something from Claire, and that she had helped them hide it without understanding what she was doing.””
Victoria stared at him.
“Did Laura know Claire was missing?””
“She believed Claire had left the country. It was only after Laura received a letter that she realized something was wrong.””
“Who sent the letter?””
“Claire herself.””
Victoria opened the envelope.
Inside were six handwritten pages, a photograph, and a small brass key attached to a paper tag.
The tag bore the number 214.
Victoria exchanged a glance with Samuel.
“The locker.””
She unfolded the first letter.
Laura,
If this reaches you, it means I couldn't come back for the things I left behind. Margaret says she has protected you, but she is protecting herself. The documents you copied were never meant to be used against Daniel. They were meant to prove that Ethan was moving money through the foundation.
I trusted him because he told me he wanted to expose his father's business. I was wrong.
You once told me that people can make terrible choices while believing they're doing the right thing. I need you to remember that when you decide what to tell Emily.
If anything happens to me, the second key is in the place where your father taught you to hide from thunderstorms.
Claire.
Victoria read the letter again.
Her father had taught both his daughters to hide in a crawlspace beneath the staircase of their childhood home whenever storms rattled the windows. Laura had told Victoria about it countless times.
The brass key was labeled 214.
But the letter suggested there had been another key.
“Where are Laura's old belongings stored?”” Samuel asked.
“Her house was sold after she died. Emily kept some boxes.””
Victoria looked at the remaining pages.
One was a photocopy of a bank transfer. Another showed a handwritten list of dates and account numbers. The final page contained a sentence written in Laura's hand.
*I gave Margaret the key because she promised Claire would be safe.*
Victoria felt a wave of anger.
Laura had died three years after Claire disappeared. Her death had been attributed to complications following surgery.
Victoria had never questioned it.
Now she wondered whether her sister had carried a secret that had frightened her until the end.
Peter watched her face.
“Colonel, there is something else.””
“Go on.””
“Laura visited me two days before she died. She asked me to change her will so that Emily would inherit a particular box of personal papers.””
“Did you?””
“Yes. But when I went to her home after the funeral, the box was missing.””
Victoria looked up sharply.
“Did you report it?””
“To whom? The police? I had no reason to believe anything criminal had happened.””
“Who had access to the house?””
“Family members. Her housekeeper. And Margaret Prescott, who attended the funeral.””
Victoria folded the letters.
“Thank you, Peter.””
As they left the office, Samuel spoke quietly.
“Laura may have been trying to protect Emily.””
“Or she may have been trying to repair something she helped destroy.””
“Those aren't mutually exclusive.””
Victoria looked at the brass key.
“No. They aren't.””
They drove to a self-storage facility where Emily kept her mother's remaining possessions.
The manager checked their identification and led them to a narrow unit on the second floor.
Inside stood cardboard boxes, a small writing desk, and a battered wooden trunk.
Victoria knelt beside the trunk.
A brass lock secured the lid.
She tried the key from Claire's letter.
It didn't fit.
Then she noticed a shallow indentation beneath the trunk's wooden handle. A second lock, nearly concealed by the metal trim, sat beside it.
Samuel crouched beside her.
“Try the other key.””
“There is no other key.””
Victoria studied the trunk.
Then she remembered the line about her father and thunderstorms.
Laura's old desk contained a photograph of their childhood home. In it, the staircase was visible behind two laughing girls.
Victoria turned the photograph over.
A handwritten note in Laura's handwriting read:
*The place where the thunder cannot find us.*
Victoria stared at the words.
“Under the stairs.””
She opened the trunk's lining and felt along the wooden base. Her fingers found a narrow compartment containing a second brass key.
The key turned.
Inside the trunk lay a bundle of letters, a cassette tape, and a small notebook.
The notebook's first page contained Laura's handwriting.
October 19, 2020.
Margaret says Claire is alive. She says the police know where she is, and that the whole matter will be resolved quietly. I have no reason to doubt her.
The next entry was dated three weeks later.
Margaret lied.
Victoria turned the page.
I saw the transfer records. Ethan was paid to arrange the second shipment, and Daniel was blamed because he signed the authorization. Claire had the original documents. I gave Margaret the key because she promised to return Claire's passport and arrange her release.
The final entry was written in darker ink.
If Emily ever asks about Claire, tell her the truth. I helped Margaret hide the evidence. I thought I was saving a woman. Instead, I helped bury her.
Victoria closed the notebook.
Samuel looked at her.
“Does it say where Claire went?””
Victoria opened to the final page.
A single line had been written beneath the date of Laura's death.
*Margaret said the woman in the basement was not Claire.*
Victoria felt the room tilt around her.
“What basement?”” Samuel asked.
Before she could answer, her phone rang.
Emily.
Victoria answered immediately.
“Emily, are you safe?””
Her niece was crying.
“I'm trying to leave, but Ethan took my keys.””
“Where are you?””
“The upstairs sitting room. Margaret showed me a photograph of my mother. She said Laura came here the night Claire disappeared.””
“Did she tell you why?””
Emily's voice broke.
“She said my mother brought Claire to the estate. Then she said my mother helped them decide what to do with her.””
Victoria gripped the phone.
“Emily, listen to me. Do not believe anything Margaret tells you until we can verify it.””
A door slammed on Emily's end.
Then Margaret's voice rang out.
“Give me that phone, Emily.””
Emily whispered, “Aunt Victoria, I found something in the room. It's a photograph of a woman behind bars.””
“Where?””
“In the basement hallway.””
Victoria stood abruptly.
“Emily, get out of that house now.””
The phone went silent.
A moment later, a message appeared.
It was a photograph of the image Emily had found.
A woman stood behind a metal door, her face turned toward the camera.
May you like
Beneath the photograph, Emily had typed four words.
*Aunt Victoria, it's my mother.*
