Chapter 3 - Room Seventeen
Nobody moved.
The knock came again.
Three slow taps.
Charles drew his weapon.
Marcus did the same.
Sofia whispered, "There's someone in your office?"
"There shouldn't be."
Eleanor reached for Charles.
"Don't open it."
He looked at her.
"Why?"
"Because that's how it started before."
Charles felt irritation cut through the tension.
"Before what?"
But Eleanor had already turned toward Sofia.
"Give me the key."
Sofia stared at the brass tag.
"Why?"
"Because Room 17 wasn't a hotel room."
Charles lowered his gun slightly.
"What was it?"
Eleanor looked toward his office door.
"A storage room beneath Bellweather."
Another knock.
This time stronger.
Charles motioned to Marcus.
Marcus moved left.
Charles moved right.
"Stay behind us," Charles told the women.
Sofia didn't argue.
That concerned him.
Charles reached the office.
The door was locked.
He used the biometric scanner.
Red.
Denied.
He tried again.
Denied.
Marcus muttered, "System's overridden."
Charles stepped back.
"Manual."
Marcus removed a key.
Before he inserted it, the handle turned from the other side.
Eleanor gasped.
Charles aimed.
The door opened.
Empty.
Marcus entered first.
Charles followed.
Nobody.
Windows locked.
No second exit.
Computer monitors dark.
Then the printer came alive.
Paper slid out.
One page.
Charles walked toward it.
A photograph had been printed.
Black and white.
Bellweather.
A large stone house.
Seventeen people stood outside.
Anthony Vance was among them.
So was a much younger Eleanor.
And beside Eleanor stood a woman Charles immediately recognized from Sofia's face.
Maria Reyes.
Sofia entered behind him.
She covered her mouth.
"That's my mother."
Charles picked up the photograph.
One person had been circled in red ink.
Samuel Crane.
Underneath, one sentence had been typed.
HE WAS NEVER ANTHONY'S FRIEND.
Marcus checked the computer.
"Remote access."
"Trace it."
"Already trying."
Eleanor sat heavily in a chair.
Charles turned.
"Start talking."
She looked exhausted.
"Bellweather was supposed to be temporary."
"What was it?"
"A safe house."
"For whom?"
"Families."
Charles waited.
"Families of men who worked for your grandfather."
His expression hardened.
The Vance organization had existed long before Charles inherited it.
His grandfather had built money through unions, docks, gambling, and protection rackets.
By the time Anthony took control, the empire was already moving toward legitimate businesses.
At least, that was what Charles had been told.
Eleanor continued.
"Your father hated what his father had built. He wanted out."
Charles almost laughed.
"Anthony Vance wanted out?"
"Yes."
That contradicted everything Charles believed.
"He created Bellweather for families who wanted to disappear."
Sofia lowered her hand.
"My mother?"
"Her husband worked for your grandfather."
Sofia went still.
"My father?"
Eleanor nodded.
"He found out something he wasn't supposed to know."
"What?"
"I never knew."
Sofia's voice cracked.
"My mother told me he died before I was born."
Eleanor looked devastated.
"That's what Anthony told her to say."
Sofia sat down.
Charles watched her absorb the idea that her childhood story might have been manufactured.
He knew that feeling now.
Too well.
"What happened to Bellweather?" he asked.
Eleanor looked at the photograph.
"Someone betrayed us."
"Samuel?"
"We thought so."
Charles pointed at the message.
"Apparently not."
"Then I don't know."
"What happened?"
"A fire."
Sofia's head snapped up.
"My mother had burns on her back."
Eleanor closed her eyes.
Charles suddenly remembered Sofia changing linens two weeks earlier, sleeves rolled up.
A scar ran across her wrist.
He had not asked.
Eleanor said, "Maria got out."
"Who didn't?"
"Three people."
"Names."
Eleanor hesitated.
"Thomas Bell. Rachel Bell. And a boy named Daniel Crane."
Charles looked at Samuel's circled face.
"His son."
"Yes."
Now Samuel's hatred made sense.
Perhaps.
But the message claimed something else.
Charles had learned never to accept the first explanation.
"Why did my father pay Maria?"
"Because she lost everything."
"Twenty-seven years of payments?"
"Anthony felt responsible."
Sofia looked at Eleanor.
"You knew my mother all that time?"
"No. She disappeared after the fire. Anthony found her years later."
"Why didn't she tell me?"
"I don't know."
Sofia stood abruptly.
"I need air."
Charles blocked her path.
She looked up.
"Move."
"No."
Her eyes sharpened.
"I just found out my dead father might not have been who I thought he was. I need five minutes without a Vance telling me what to do."
That landed.
Charles moved aside.
Sofia walked out.
His mother looked at him.
"You deserved that."
"Thank you."
"I'm serious."
"So am I."
Eleanor almost smiled.
Then her expression fell.
"Charles, don't punish her for what Anthony did."
"I'm not."
"You fired her."
"She withheld information."
"So did I."
He looked at his mother.
"You're harder to fire."
"Because I know where you hid the Christmas photographs from 1998."
His mouth twitched.
She saw it.
For a brief second, the tension eased.
Then Marcus turned from the computer.
"Found the remote connection."
Charles faced him.
"Where?"
Marcus's expression was strange.
"Inside the property."
Silence.
"That's impossible."
"I know."
"Which device?"
Marcus typed.
"House tablet."
"Whose?"
Marcus looked toward the hallway.
"Your mother's."
Eleanor stared.
"I haven't touched it today."
Charles looked at her.
"Where is it?"
"Bedroom."
Marcus headed upstairs.
Charles followed.
Eleanor came too.
They entered her bedroom.
The tablet lay on the nightstand.
Screen glowing.
Marcus lifted it.
A live map showed the mansion.
A blinking point moved across the garden.
Charles frowned.
"What is that?"
"Tracker."
"On who?"
Marcus zoomed.
The point was heading toward the greenhouse.
Charles looked around.
"Sofia."
Eleanor whispered her name.
Charles ran.
He took the stairs two at a time.
Front door.
Garden.
Greenhouse.
He saw Sofia through the glass.
She was standing still.
Someone else stood across from her.
An older man.
Samuel Crane.
Charles drew his weapon.
He entered.
"Step away from her."
Samuel turned calmly.
Sofia looked furious.
"Put the gun down."
Charles stared at her.
"Excuse me?"
"He didn't threaten me."
Samuel lifted his hands.
"I came to warn her."
"You broke into my property."
"I was invited."
Charles looked at Sofia.
She shook her head.
"Not by me."
Samuel looked toward the mansion.
"By Eleanor."
Charles's face hardened.
"My mother told you to leave."
"Today, yes."
Samuel reached into his coat.
Charles raised the weapon.
"Slowly."
Samuel removed an envelope.
He passed it to Sofia.
"Your mother's."
Sofia stared.
"Where did you get this?"
"Maria gave it to me before she died."
"Why wait sixteen years?"
"Because she told me to wait until Anthony was gone."
Sofia's eyes filled.
Charles lowered the gun.
A little.
"Open it," Samuel said.
Sofia did.
Inside was one handwritten page.
She read silently.
Her face changed with every line.
Finally she looked at Samuel.
"This says you saved us."
Samuel nodded.
"From Bellweather."
"You saved my mother."
"Yes."
"Then why did Mrs. Vance think you betrayed them?"
"Because Anthony needed her to think that."
Charles stepped closer.
"Careful."
Samuel looked at him.
"Your father caused the fire."
Eleanor's voice came from the greenhouse doorway.
"No."
Everyone turned.
She stood there alone.
Pale.
Samuel's eyes softened.
"Eleanor."
"You are lying."
"I wish I were."
"He tried to save those people."
Samuel shook his head.
"He tried to save his empire."
Eleanor's face crumpled.
Charles moved toward her.
Samuel continued.
"Anthony discovered someone inside Bellweather was giving evidence to federal investigators."
Sofia looked at the letter.
"My father?"
Samuel nodded.
"Gabriel Reyes."
Sofia stopped breathing.
Charles looked at her.
Samuel said, "Your father wasn't a criminal, Sofia. He was an accountant. He was helping build a case against the old Vance organization."
Charles felt the accusation physically.
"And Anthony killed him?"
Samuel looked at Charles.
"No."
A beat.
"Your grandfather did."
Eleanor covered her mouth.
Samuel continued.
"Anthony tried to protect Gabriel's family. He hid Maria at Bellweather. But when his father found the house, Anthony made a choice."
"What choice?" Charles asked.
"He burned the evidence room."
"Room 17."
"Yes."
Samuel looked at Sofia.
"He thought it was empty."
Her voice was barely audible.
"But it wasn't."
"Daniel was inside."
Charles understood.
Samuel's son.
Samuel nodded.
"Anthony saved Maria. He saved six families. But my son never came out."
Silence filled the greenhouse.
Eleanor began to cry.
"I didn't know."
"I know."
Samuel looked tired rather than angry.
"Anthony spent the rest of his life trying to make it right."
Charles said, "Then why come back now?"
Samuel reached into his coat again.
This time he removed a small flash drive.
"Because Room 17 wasn't completely destroyed."
He held it toward Charles.
"Your father recovered part of Gabriel Reyes's evidence."
Sofia stared.
"What evidence?"
Samuel looked at Charles.
"Evidence proving someone still inside your organization helped your grandfather find Bellweather."
Charles's face changed.
"Someone still inside?"
Samuel nodded.
"Someone close enough to know your security system."
Marcus stepped forward.
"Who?"
Samuel looked directly at him.
Then at Charles.
"The name is on this drive."
He put it in Charles's palm.
A gunshot cracked through the greenhouse.
Glass exploded.
Sofia screamed.
Samuel dropped.
Charles turned toward the shattered window.
A second bullet struck the frame.
Marcus dragged Eleanor down.
Charles covered Sofia with his body.
Outside, footsteps disappeared through the hedges.
Charles looked at the flash drive in his hand.
Samuel was bleeding beside him.
May you like
But before Charles could move, Samuel grabbed his sleeve and whispered one final warning.
"Don't give that drive to Marcus."
