Chapter 7 - The Door Beneath the Stairs
Marcus reached Harrison before he made it outside.
There was no dramatic fight.
Just a retired detective realizing three security officers were standing between him and freedom.
“You cannot hold me.”
Harrison snapped.
Logan approached.
“I’m not.”
He opened the front door.
“You can walk straight outside.”
Harrison stared at him suspiciously.
“Then move your men.”
Logan did.
Harrison walked out.
A county police cruiser was waiting at the gate.
Nathan had called investigators thirty minutes earlier.
Harrison stopped.
Logan watched his expression.
“You’re right.”
Logan said.
“I can’t detain you.”
“The police can decide what they want to do.”
Harrison was taken in for questioning.
Vanessa exploded.
“You called the police on my uncle?”
“I called them about evidence tampering.”
“You have lost your mind.”
Logan ignored her.
He walked toward Noah.
“Buddy.”
Noah looked at him cautiously.
“Where did the bad man lock Mommy?”
Noah pointed toward the west hallway.
Logan frowned.
That wing contained old storage rooms.
Noah climbed down from the nanny’s arms.
Then he walked.
Everyone followed.
At the end of the hallway stood a narrow staircase leading toward the basement.
Noah stopped beside a paneled wall.
He touched it.
“Mommy here.”
Marcus inspected the wood.
“There’s no door.”
Logan remembered otherwise.
The estate had been renovated before Noah was born.
An old servants’ passage had once existed there.
The contractor had supposedly sealed it.
Marcus pressed along the molding.
A concealed latch clicked.
The panel opened.
Vanessa whispered.
“Oh, no.”
Logan heard her.
The hidden passage smelled of dust.
At the bottom was a small room.
A mattress lay against one wall.
An empty water bottle rested on the floor.
A child’s blanket sat in the corner.
Marina picked it up.
Her knees buckled.
“Noah.”
His initials were stitched into the edge.
Logan stared at Vanessa.
“What is this?”
“I don’t know.”
“You live here.”
“So do forty employees.”
Marcus found an old security camera mounted above the room.
Its wire disappeared through the wall.
“Someone used this space recently.”
Logan felt sick.
Noah touched Marina’s hand.
“Mommy cry.”
Marina suddenly remembered darkness.
Her wrists aching.
A locked door.
Vanessa standing outside.
Harrison beside her.
And baby Noah crying upstairs.
Marina screamed.
The memory vanished as quickly as it came.
Logan caught her.
“What did you see?”
She looked at him.
“I was here.”
“When?”
“Before the bridge.”
Vanessa began walking backward.
Logan saw it.
“Marcus.”
Marcus blocked the hallway.
Vanessa’s eyes filled with rage.
“You think I did this?”
Logan looked at the mattress.
Then at his son.
Then at Marina.
“I think somebody did.”
Marcus returned holding something wrapped in a handkerchief.
He opened it.
A gold wedding band lay in his palm.
May you like
The engraving inside read two words.
LOGAN & ELENA.
