Chapter 4 - The Ghost in the Library
Victor stepped forward, checking his encrypted radio headset. "Ma'am, the local precinct captain is on line two. He says a caller reported hearing a gunshot inside the estate walls. He's sending a patrol unit to check the gate."
Celeste didn't flinch. "Tell Captain Miller it was a champagne bottle popping at the gala. Offer him a twenty-thousand-dollar donation to the police benevolent fund to clear the ticket."
"Understood," Victor said, stepping away to make the call.
Celeste turned back to Nora, gesturing toward the mansion's grand double oak doors. "Walk. You're going to sit in Arthur's old library while my IT team sweeps your devices. If you give us the master decryption password, I might let Eli live long enough to reach an orphanage."
Nora was escorted through the opulent hallways of the mansion she had grown up in. The velvet drapes, antique oil paintings, and crystal chandeliers felt less like luxury now and more like the gilded bars of a dungeon. The guards flanked her tightly, keeping their distance just enough to avoid an unexpected physical attack.
They reached the East Wing, stopping in front of a pair of heavy mahogany doors carved with the Vale family crest. This was Arthur Vale’s private library—a room that had been sealed since the night he died.
Victor unlocked the door with an iron key and shoved Nora inside. The room was dark, smelling heavily of old paper, leather, and dusty oak. Before the heavy doors slammed shut behind her and the lock turned from the outside, Nora caught a glimpse of Victor's eyes. There was hesitation in them—a tiny flicker of doubt.
"You have two hours until midnight, Miss Vale," Victor's voice echoed through the thick wood. "Think about your little brother."
The sound of heavy footsteps faded down the corridor, leaving Nora in complete darkness.
Nora didn't waste a second crying. She immediately reached into the hidden seam of her deep-red evening dress and pulled out a razor-thin, custom electronic device—a military-grade signal jammer and micro-decoder she had purchased on the black market six weeks ago.
She turned on the device. A tiny blue LED screen illuminated her face in the dark library.
She knew Celeste’s IT team would be scanning the mansion’s Wi-Fi network, but Nora wasn't using Wi-Fi. She was using her father’s private, hardwired emergency circuit.
Arthur Vale had been a paranoid man in the final months of his life. He had built a secret compartment behind the library’s central fireplace—a safe room equipped with an independent satellite transmitter.
Nora moved quietly across the Persian rug, feeling her way through the dark until her fingers touched the carved wooden rose on the fireplace mantel. She pressed down on the third petal and turned it ninety degrees to the left.
With a soft, mechanical hiss, the heavy brick wall beside the hearth slid open three inches, revealing a faint green light from within.
May you like
Nora slipped inside the narrow opening, the brick wall sliding shut behind her. But as she turned around in the tight, illuminated space, her heart stopped.
Sitting in a leather armchair inside the hidden safe room, holding a flickering lantern and staring directly at her, was a man she had believed was dead for six months.
