Chapter 3 - THE MAN WITH THE CEDAR COLOGNE
Richard did not wait for permission.
He jumped into the cellar.
“Richard!”
Detective Brooks shouted behind him.
He ignored her.
The emergency light from his phone bounced across the concrete walls.
The cot was empty.
The hidden panel Brooks had discovered now stood open.
Beyond it stretched a narrow brick tunnel.
“Elena!”
No answer.
Richard ran.
The ceiling was low enough that his shoulder scraped old pipes.
After twenty feet, the tunnel divided.
One passage angled toward the guesthouse.
The other disappeared beneath the rear garden.
Richard listened.
A faint dragging sound came from the left.
He followed it.
“Elena!”
Someone moved ahead.
Richard accelerated.
A door slammed.
He reached an iron staircase and climbed.
At the top, he drove his shoulder into a wooden panel.
It opened into the guesthouse pantry.
Elena lay on the floor.
A man in dark clothing stood over her.
Richard did not think.
He tackled him.
They crashed into a shelf.
Glass shattered.
The man drove an elbow into Richard’s jaw.
Richard grabbed his jacket.
The hood fell back.
Dr. Adrian Mercer looked at him.
Richard froze for half a second.
Adrian used that half second.
He struck Richard across the face with a metal flashlight.
Richard fell.
Mercer ran.
Brooks entered through the pantry with two officers.
“Stop!”
Mercer reached the back door.
An officer lunged.
Mercer swung the flashlight and hit him.
Then he disappeared into the darkness outside.
Brooks sent the officers after him.
Richard crawled toward Elena.
She was conscious.
Barely.
“What did he do?”
“He tried to inject me.”
Richard found a syringe beside her.
Brooks returned.
“Don’t touch it.”
Elena gripped Richard’s sleeve.
“It was him.”
“Mercer?”
“He came downstairs.”
“Was he the one who kept you there?”
“Sometimes.”
“Who else?”
Elena shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
“You must know something.”
“I heard names.”
“What names?”
Before Elena could answer, an officer called from outside.
“Detective!”
Brooks ran out.
Richard stayed beside Elena.
She stared toward the pantry.
“Where’s Lily?”
“With an officer.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Richard.”
“I’m sure.”
Elena’s eyes filled.
“She grew up.”
His throat tightened.
“I know.”
“I missed two birthdays.”
“I know.”
“Her first lost tooth.”
Richard lowered his head.
“I kept everything.”
Elena looked at him.
“What?”
“Her drawings.”
He swallowed.
“Her school pictures.”
“The notes she wrote you.”
“I kept all of them.”
Elena began crying silently.
Richard took her hand.
“I thought you left.”
“I know.”
“They had proof.”
“What proof?”
“Your car was found at the airport.”
Elena frowned.
“My car?”
“Your passport was used in Montreal.”
Her eyes widened.
“My passport was locked in our bedroom safe.”
Richard stared at her.
“I found a letter.”
“What letter?”
“A letter saying you couldn’t live with me anymore.”
“I never wrote a letter.”
Richard felt sick.
Elena squeezed his hand.
“That’s what they wanted you to believe.”
“Who is they?”
She looked toward the door.
“Victoria.”
“And Mercer?”
“Yes.”
“Who else?”
Elena hesitated.
“Someone Victoria was afraid of.”
“Who?”
“I heard her arguing with him.”
“Name.”
“I never heard his full name.”
“Anything.”
Elena closed her eyes.
“She called him D.”
Richard stopped breathing.
There was only one person in his life Victoria had ever called D.
His younger brother.
Daniel.
Richard stood slowly.
“No.”
Elena looked at him.
“Richard.”
“Daniel was in London when you disappeared.”
“Was he?”
“I spoke to him.”
“On video?”
Richard said nothing.
Elena understood.
“You never saw where he was.”
Richard turned away.
His brother Daniel had been the person who stayed with him during the first month after Elena vanished.
Daniel had managed the company while Richard searched airports, hospitals, shelters, and hotels.
Daniel had sat beside Lily’s bed when she cried for her mother.
Daniel had hired the private investigator.
Daniel had eventually told Richard he needed to accept that Elena had chosen to leave.
“No.”
Richard repeated it.
Elena whispered, “I heard Victoria say his name once.”
Richard looked back.
“What did she say?”
“She said, ‘Daniel, you promised she would only be here for three days.’”
Richard felt the room tilt.
Brooks returned.
Her face was grim.
“We lost Mercer.”
Richard barely heard her.
Brooks continued.
“We found his vehicle two blocks away.”
“Empty?”
“Yes.”
She looked at Elena.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“We searched the guesthouse.”
Brooks held up an evidence bag.
Inside it was a small digital monitor.
“What is that?”
“A live camera receiver.”
Richard frowned.
Brooks turned it on.
The screen displayed the cellar.
The cot.
The bucket.
The chain.
Richard stared.
“Someone was watching her?”
“Apparently.”
Brooks pressed another button.
The image changed.
It showed Lily’s bedroom.
Richard’s face hardened.
Another camera.
Another room.
His office.
Another.
The master bedroom.
Brooks looked at him.
“Your house has been under surveillance.”
Richard stared at the screen.
“For how long?”
“We’ll need forensic analysis.”
Elena suddenly grabbed Brooks’s wrist.
“Go back.”
“To what?”
“The office camera.”
Brooks changed the channel.
Richard’s empty office appeared.
Elena pointed toward the bookshelf.
“What?”
“That shelf.”
Richard looked.
A framed photograph sat beside several books.
It showed Richard and Daniel as teenagers beside their father.
Elena whispered, “That picture wasn’t there before.”
Richard frowned.
“It’s been there for years.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“That picture was in the cellar.”
Richard felt cold.
“What?”
“Victoria brought it down.”
“Why?”
Elena’s eyes stayed on Daniel’s face.
“She used to put it in front of me when they asked me to sign papers.”
Richard stared at his brother.
“What papers?”
Elena answered with four words.
“Your company transfer documents.”
May you like
And suddenly Richard understood that Elena had not been kept alive beneath the floor simply because someone hated her.
She had been kept alive because someone still needed her signature.
