Chapter 2
The door was locked from my side.
A heavy bolt lay across it. I slid it back and pulled.
The woman inside raised an arm against the light. She was sitting on the floor beside a narrow shelf, wrapped in a gray blanket. Her dark hair had fallen across her face.
“Nora?”
She looked up.
I had known Nora Reed for nearly two years. Lily trusted her enough to cry in her arms when she missed Amelia. I had spoken to her in our kitchen three days earlier.
Now her lips were dry, and she was shaking.
“Get Lily away from the stairs,” she said.
I turned toward the hallway above us.
“Why?”
“Celeste knows I’m here.”
My chest tightened.
“How long have you been down here?”
“Since Wednesday night.”
It was Saturday.
I stepped into the room and crouched beside her. There was a bottle with a little water left and an empty plate. Someone had been down to see her.
“Are you hurt?”
“My ankle. I fell when she pushed me inside.”
The operator was still on my phone. I explained that I had found Nora and told her what Nora had said. An ambulance was already on its way.
Footsteps sounded overhead.
“Daniel?” Marcus called.
“Down here. Keep Lily upstairs.”
I helped Nora rise, but she could barely put weight on one leg. Marcus appeared at the bend in the stairs and came down to help me. He took one look at Nora and removed his jacket to wrap around her.
“What happened?” he asked.
Nora shook her head.
“Upstairs first.”
Together, we carried her carefully up the steps. Lily ran toward us before Marcus could stop her.
“Nora!”
Nora reached out a trembling hand.
“Hello, little bird.”
Lily’s face crumpled.
“Celeste said you went away.”
“I’m here now.”
Marcus took Lily into the living room while I settled Nora on the hall bench. I wanted to ask a hundred questions, but she kept watching the front door.
“Where is Celeste?” she asked.
“At a charity lunch.”
“She’ll know someone opened the hatch.”
“How?”
“Her phone gets an alert from a sensor on the panel.”
My stomach dropped.
I had let Celeste manage the renovations in the old part of the house. She had said she wanted to make the place warmer for Lily before we married.
I had not known she was installing a sensor beneath the rug.
The ambulance arrived before Celeste did. Two medics checked Nora and prepared to take her to the hospital. A police officer came with them and asked me to leave the hatch open.
“Who has access to the house?” she asked.
“Me, my daughter, my brother, the staff, and my fiancée.”
“Do you know who secured the door downstairs?”
I looked at Nora.
“Celeste,” she said.
The officer wrote it down.
Lily stood in the living room doorway, Marcus’s arm around her shoulders.
“Is Nora going to come back?” she asked.
Nora gave her a small smile.
“I’m going to let the doctors help me first.”
She looked at me before the medics wheeled her away.
“Don’t leave Lily alone with Celeste.”
I promised I wouldn’t.
Twenty minutes later, Celeste’s car swept into the driveway.
She came through the front door still wearing her cream coat from the lunch. Her eyes went to the open hatch. Then she saw the officer.
“What happened?” she asked.
I watched her face.
“Lily heard Nora calling from under the floor.”
Celeste put a hand against the wall.
“Nora?”
“She’s at the hospital.”
“I had no idea she was there.”
The officer approached her.
“Ma’am, we need to ask you some questions about the space below the hall.”
Celeste looked at me.
“Daniel, what is this?”
“Nora says you locked her in.”
She gave a startled laugh.
“Nora has been acting strangely for weeks. She left after an argument. I came home because the alarm company notified me the panel was open.”
“So you knew the panel existed.”
“Of course. The contractors found it during the renovation. I thought I told you.”
“You didn’t.”
“Then I forgot. I’ve had a hundred things to manage.”
The officer asked Celeste to speak with her in the dining room. I went to Lily.
“Did you know about the door?” I asked.
She shook her head.
“Did Celeste tell you anything about Nora leaving?”
“She said Nora didn’t want to take care of me anymore.”
Lily’s voice grew small on the last words.
I knelt in front of her.
“Nora didn’t leave you.”
“I know that now.”
I held her. Over her shoulder, I saw Celeste through the dining room doorway. She was speaking calmly to the officer, one hand moving as she explained.
I had loved the calmness I thought she brought to our lives.
For the first time, I wondered what else she had explained away while I was listening.
Marcus came to my side.
“I’ll take Lily to my place,” he said quietly.
“She should stay with me.”
“Then come with us. They may need to examine the house.”
He was right.
I packed Lily’s overnight bag while the officers worked below the hall. When I passed the study, I noticed a drawer in my desk stood open.
It held the papers concerning Amelia’s estate and the fund she had left for Lily.
May you like
I checked inside.
The blue folder was gone.
