Chapter 2 - The House That Had No Basement
By the time Daniel and I reached the courthouse conference room, two investigators were waiting.
One introduced herself as Detective Mara Sullivan of the Massachusetts State Police.
The other was Assistant District Attorney Julia Reyes.
Neither looked particularly impressed by the Bennett name.
That was encouraging.
What wasn't encouraging was the photograph Sullivan placed on the table.
It showed the rear of the Bennett mansion.
Specifically, the east wing.
A construction vehicle stood beside a newly excavated section of the foundation.
The image had been taken less than an hour earlier.
Katherine stared at it.
"No."
Her voice was barely audible.
Sullivan sat across from her.
"Ms. Bennett, we need you to tell us exactly what you believe is inside that wall."
Katherine shook her head.
"You don't understand. If they opened it before you got there—"
"We're working on securing the property."
"That's not enough."
She pointed toward the photograph.
"There's a second entrance."
Everyone looked at her.
"Where?" Sullivan asked.
Katherine swallowed.
"Under the greenhouse."
I had lived at the Bennett mansion for eleven years.
I knew every guest bedroom, every hallway, every carefully maintained garden.
Or I thought I did.
"There isn't a greenhouse," I said.
Katherine looked at me.
"There used to be."
I remembered something.
A stone terrace behind the east wing.
Richard had once told me it covered the remains of an old greenhouse demolished before we married.
He had refused to let me renovate it.
Said the foundation was unstable.
Katherine leaned forward.
"That terrace is the roof."
I felt my stomach tighten.
"The roof of what?"
She looked toward Sullivan.
"The room beneath the house."
Reyes opened her notebook.
"Let's establish something clearly. Are you saying you were imprisoned there?"
"Yes."
"For how long?"
Katherine stared at the table.
"Forty-three days."
Nobody spoke.
Then she continued.
"At least, that's how many I counted. There were days when they kept the lights off. I might have lost track."
I remembered the photograph.
The fountain.
The date.
October 19, 2009.
"Richard told me you died in an accident."
Katherine laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
"He told everyone that."
"What happened?"
She looked at me for a long moment.
"Your husband tried to kill me."
The words should have surprised me.
They didn't.
What surprised me was what she said next.
"But Richard wasn't the one who decided I had to disappear."
She turned toward the investigators.
"That was Eleanor."
Sullivan's phone rang.
She stepped outside.
Katherine watched the door.
Her hands were trembling so badly that she folded them beneath the table.
I wanted to ask her a hundred questions.
Instead, I asked the one that mattered most.
"Why didn't you come back?"
She looked at my scars.
"Because the last time I tried, someone died."
The door opened.
Sullivan returned.
Her face had changed.
"Ms. Bennett, our officers have reached the estate."
Katherine sat forward.
"And?"
"The construction crew is gone. The property manager claims they were repairing drainage."
"He's lying."
"We're obtaining additional authority to search."
Katherine gripped the edge of the table.
"You need to hurry."
Sullivan hesitated.
"There's something else."
She placed another photograph beside the first.
It showed a narrow stone staircase.
At the bottom was a steel door.
Someone had painted over it.
Repeatedly.
But beneath the peeling paint, a word remained visible.
MERCY.
Katherine covered her mouth.
I leaned closer.
"What's Mercy?"
She shook her head.
"It's not what."
May you like
Her eyes filled with tears.
"It's who."
