Chapter 3 - The Blue Door Was Already Open
The basement linen shelves had been pulled away from the wall.
Behind them stood a narrow steel door painted faded blue.
It was open.
Julian had lived in the mansion most of his life and had never seen it.
Inside were filing cabinets, obsolete surveillance equipment, and a desk
coated with dust.
One drawer had been left open.
A folder lay on the floor.
MAYA COLLINS.
Inside were Maya’s employment application, college records, photographs
of her mother’s cancer appointments, and pictures of Maya taken months
before she ever applied for the job.
Someone had been watching her.
Maya removed a brass key from her apron.
“My mother died six weeks ago. I found this sewn into her winter coat.”
The key bore the old Mercer crest.
“She told me to take a job here, find a blue door, and never tell anyone
why.”
Julian remembered Maya’s mother.
Eleanor Collins had worked for his mother, Margaret, decades earlier.
Then Eleanor disappeared after being accused of stealing jewelry.
“That’s what your father said happened,” Maya told Julian. “My mother
said he lied.”
A monitor on the old surveillance desk suddenly powered on.
Black-and-white footage appeared.
The date was fourteen years earlier.
Margaret Mercer stood in the hidden room beside Eleanor Collins.
Between them sat a little girl.
Maya gripped the desk.
The child looked like her.
Margaret stared directly into the old camera.
“Tomorrow, we tell Julian she’s his sister.”
Nobody spoke.
The footage had been recorded two days before Margaret’s fatal car
crash.
Julian’s entire childhood shifted under his feet.
Then Evan opened another cabinet.
Inside was an envelope addressed in Margaret’s handwriting.
JULIAN — ONLY IF ELEANOR’S DAUGHTER RETURNS.
The letter contained one warning.
The person who needs Maya exhausted is waiting for her to make a
mistake.
A second line was underlined twice.
DO NOT TRUST THE PAYROLL SYSTEM.
Maya looked at Julian.
“They wanted me near this room.”
Julian understood the shape of the trap.
If an exhausted maid wandered into a secret archive and documents
disappeared, she would look exactly like Eleanor had looked decades
earlier.
A thief.
History was being staged again.
Then Evan found the overtime instructions.
Most were signed with two initials.
R.V.
Maya whispered, “Mrs. Vale.”
May you like
Julian stared at the letters.
His uncle’s name was Raymond Victor Mercer.
